Meet The Breeders

I haven't had any moments of hormone induced psychosis. I don't have anything in my teeth (I checked). *Sniff* *Sniff* Nope, I'm not especially smelly today....and yet somehow I have already managed to lose a follower.

I can only assume that I have offended someone with my post about marriage. I didn't think it was particularly offensive, but it was cavalier I guess. Maybe it was misleading-I actually take marriage very seriously, and work really hard at having a happy and healthy one...but I am "unconventional" in that I don't think a marriage is made by the ceremony or the piece of paper (which I find to be irrelevant paperwork), but rather is created by a commitment between the people involved and God. To me marriage is more of a verb-an action based on a mutual promise-than a legal state or a church-sanctioned ceremony.

Then again, I'm always bucking the system. Even within my larger family (parents, siblings)-who our extended family (aunts, uncles, grandparents) consider to be "odd ducks" at best and "black sheep" at worst-I am definitely stand out when it comes to doing things my own way.

In a family full of people who dream about sports cars and motorcycles, I salivate over the minivan with Stow N Go Swivel-seats. In a family full of public school teachers, I am an unschooler. In a family that eats like southern farmhands (bacon with a side of sausage), I went vegetarian-and though I'm not anymore, I still eat "leafy" according to my family.

And, most notably now days, in a family where two children is considered "more than enough" (my parents are my dad and step mom, who had two children a piece and then got surgically sterilized) I'm working on my third. My childbearing abilities have given rise over the years to a delightful new collective nickname for my husband and I.

We're "The Breeders". To be fair each kid/couple in our family has their own unofficial title or nickname, none of them are very flattering, and all of us get teased equally unmercifully. For me and Hubby it is our proclivity for popping out babies is something they have all enjoyed poking fun at over the years. When Monkey was born it was our "Head Start Program" of parenting (get it, because we're so young but I was the first one in my family to have kids?). When Baby Bug was born it was "Good. You guys know how to stop having kids right?" When we announced that we were pregnant with The Bean (right around the time Baby Bug turned 6 months old) they went full tilt.

I think the best was my step sister's reaction: "Geez guys, let the oven cool down before you put another bun in." Oh yes, it was laugh and point time.

Until THEIR babies were born. My step brother had his first in February, and my sister had her first less than two weeks ago. Guess who gets the 3am phone call asking whether or not to wake the baby up to eat?

At our last family gathering (which we try to do about once a month) they flocked around me and watched me with the kids, oohing and aaahing over the littlest parenting tricks and asking me for advice. Suddenly we're no longer "The Breeders" **chuckle**chuckle**, we're THE BREEDERS, SENSAI CHILD BEARERS, MASTER PARENTS teaching at the dojo of parenthood. My brother in law has even given me a new nickname.

The Pediatrician.

Yes, sometimes it pays to keep an odd-duck around.