Truth - I am terrified of having a daughter. Specifically, I'm terrified she'll end up like me.
Not like me in personality. I'll take a few difficult teenage years in the name of producing a daughter who's strong and has her own personality. That's fine.
And not like me in looks. May she be so lucky (okay, the fair skin is a lot of work, but come on...)
No, I'm worried she'll inherit all the medical crap I deal with. She has a 50% chance, theoretically*. But the pain that I deal with - how is passing that along love? What gets me through this idea is this:
1. Medical science is awesome and while I have no faith in them making enough strides to help me out, she might benefit.
2. My sister is 100% healthy despite us coming from the same gene pool.
3. I have a lot of awesome girly knowledge and goddaughters, nieces*, and gay sons just won't do it all.
So hope (or embryonic gender selection, which is better than hope) for a daughter someday is a go. A very scared go.
* The medical community theorizes that endometriosis is genetic, and my mother having it indicates that might be the case. We also think her mother had it, but grandma didn't discuss such things. No one has a clue about the fibro since they can't even agree on what it is or if it exists.
* If my sister ever gets around to giving me a niece...with our luck (and history) it'll be all boys.
You're always welcome to play auntie to my daughters if you find yourself with a shortage of neices.
ReplyDeleteBut I can sympathize. The only consolation I can offer is that genetics is strange how it works.