[Xenalyte]

I don't doubt that I COULD be a good mother. I'm smart, successful, caring, and entirely conservative. My felines and the Dread Boston Salty are my children - admittedly, I spoil them rotten.

However, I also lack patience, and I rely entirely on logic and reason (instead of emotion) in my dealings with people.

Having children requires tons of patience. Using logic on toddlers doesn't work. (Nor does it on dogs. The cats are open to reasoning, however.)

Couple that with a quick temper, and you have a recipe for family unhappiness.

Seriously, would you rather I had one, and just hope to wake up one morning as a good parent? Or would you rather I left it up to my happily married sister and her very excellent husband, both of whom are completely cut out for parenting?

[ppaul]

You're missin' out, girl.
God's gift of a child mysteriously transforms you, and increases your ability to love.
Don't ask me how, I haven't figured it all out yet.
It's like the wind - you cannot see it, but you know it's there.

[Antoninus]

I don't doubt that I COULD be a good mother. I'm smart, successful, caring, and entirely conservative. My felines and the Dread Boston Salty are my children - admittedly, I spoil them rotten.

Surrogate children, I call them. Plenty of my friends and acquaintances have them. Why? They're substitutes to fill the vaccuum of their lives that a spouse and children would otherwise be filling.

However, I also lack patience, and I rely entirely on logic and reason (instead of emotion) in my dealings with people. Having children requires tons of patience. Using logic on toddlers doesn't work. (Nor does it on dogs. The cats are open to reasoning, however.)

That may be the weakest excuse I've ever heard. You should use your reason to figure out that in 10-20 years, depending on how old you are, you will no longer have the option to have children. At some point after that date, I can almost guarantee that you will regret it bitterly.

Couple that with a quick temper, and you have a recipe for family unhappiness.

Come on, you've got a million excuses. You will have to learn patience, but I have no doubt that if you are as "intelligent and logical" as you claim to be, you'll soon see that it does no good to blow up at a crying 6 month old.

Seriously, would you rather I had one, and just hope to wake up one morning as a good parent? Or would you rather I left it up to my happily married sister and her very excellent husband, both of whom are completely cut out for parenting?

Marriage, pregnancy, and children change one's life in a profound and intangible way. Women especially, thanks to the wonderful world of hormones. You will have no idea what kind of mother you will be until you are one.

I don't know you, but you seem like a very genuine person. Indeed, you're almost the poster-girl for a someone who should be having kids but is either already in a relationship with someone who doesn't want them, or actively shuns the kind of men who do.