Isn't jealousy a bitch?

So I was scanning some Facebook pages (yes, I know, a timewaster if there ever was one), and I noticed that somebody left a comment on a friend of mine's page, bitching that she'd had a glass of wine, and that she was jealous, because she didn't get to have alcohol.

And I laughed. And then I laughed some more...that's somewhere in the vicinity of me complaining about the fact that I don't "get" to drink...which technically, I don't, and shouldn't...of course, by the same token, I have enough prescription medication available to me at any given time to sink the Titanic, if I really wanted to be loaded to the gills, I probably could be.

And what I had to laugh about the most, is that the person who was doing the whining? Is more than 8 months pregnant, and still *takes* the same kind of narcotic medications that I'm currently on...and she smokes...and has, or at least had, a coffee addiction that was kind of scary. Now, granted, I have no idea if the coffee thing still holds true, but there are photos that are still online that shows she kept smoking, and kept using those narcotics for pain in spite of sprogging.

So, seriously...jealous, because my friend who had her single glass of wine? She had her baby four and a half months ago...he's nauseatingly healthy as a horse, and while it sucked to be her, she didn't do anything at all that could have resembled "fun" while she was carrying him.

*rolls eyes*

Yeah, I don't know..maybe there really should be some kind of test you have to pass to be allowed to get pregnant/have kids. It might at least slow down the stupidity factor of "but it's the cool thing to do" when it comes to procreation...especially if people are going to keep living a lifestyle that isn't even vaguely practical where children are concerned.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not the epitome of perfection on kids. Which is why I don't have one, nor am I currently spawning. I know I don't have the financial resources for an infant. Midnight feedings, diapers, all those sorts of things don't sound like a blast to me, and that's as it should be at the moment. Because I actually thought about it. I didn't look at my bestest friends all around me who were having kids, and decided I want to join the bandwagon, because I was jealous that everybody else had one.

The trouble with babies is that they're cute. They're cuddly. But you *can't return them*. Once you're done snuggling them, then you have to feed them, change them, clothe them, and actually pay attention to them...for like the next 12 years. After that, they want to ignore you, so it's pretty even-handed, so it's not as hard, but you can't just stick one in its bedroom, and expect to only play with it when you want to. It's not like a pet, where if you're annoyed, you can stick it in the other room until you let it out again.

All the people who coo at cats or dogs or whatever, and go "oh, I'm such a good parent to my animals" doesn't mean you're going to be a fabulous parent. I'm great with my cat...because when I'm fed up with his caterwauling, I can lock him in a bathroom, until he shuts up. I can't exactly do that with a toddler. It'd be cruel, AND illegal.

The cat isn't going to want to play with your video games, your computer, take your books and tear them apart, and color on them. The cat's not going to demand equal time for your attention, because he *can't*...but a child does require that attention, and if you don't give it to him, then you're going to have a psychologically dysfunctional child. There's no one to make up the household rules except yourselves, and no one to enforce discipline, except you. And if you fail it? Then it's all on you. You're the entire responsible party, for another human being.

And it was a choice that you signed up for, for the next twenty years. Is it sounding like fun yet? *You* have to teach that child right from wrong, and how to be a good person. Are you enough of an adult yourself to be able to do that? Are you a mature adult yourself, enough so, to parent another? Do you have the important answers to questions that he'll ask you, the ones that you still ask other people, because you don't know how to handle?

Because, quick, suddenly, *YOU* are going to be "that person"...the go-to-for-everything person...and if you screw it up, then what?

All this because it was the 'in thing' to do...Yeah, I think I'll keep my cat, and play some X-box, or maybe have a movie marathon...for the next two to five years. Then maybe I'll be ready to have a kid...when I'm financially and emotionally ready. Not when it was the "cool thing" to do. Not when I was still doing a balancing act on too many medications...and not when I was looking at other people and having to be jealous because somebody had a glass of wine that I didn't...