Sickies

"I'd rather have a dog than a baby".
That's what I told my co-worker yesterday. She disagreed, but then again, she's a mom.
"Think about it", I said. "I'm a single, 25 year-old-woman, who doesn't even own her soon-to-be-gone car. I can barely pay my own bills, let alone an entirely other human being. PLUS, dogs don't go to college and don't talk back to you. And I like petting them, and walking them. You can't put a kid on a leash! Well....actually you can."
Don't get me wrong- kids are great. They are cute (most of the time), and hilarious, and I like their little clothes and shoes. Babies especially. I find myself actually smiling during the children's sermon at church, picking out the best-dressed kids, and the ones who have the most effed up hair cuts. As I get older, the POSSIBILITY of being a mom one day becomes greater. But then I take a look at my co-workers. It's always something. "Bob has football practice, Sally has dance." "I didn't get to eat dinner last night because I was in the car for 3 hours." "This is the 4th time in 2 months that my kid has had the stomach flu, and the 3rd time for me." Call me selfish (I'm totally selfish), but that just doesn't seem like a good time to me. My co-workers are ALWAYS sick. It's always something- sore throat, headache, stomach ache, cold, cough- you name it! I was sick a lot as a kid- I had chronic sinusitis. I also had bronchitis, and pneumonia as a 4th grader, and missed a lot of school. Missed a month of school with mono when I was a senior, and went through the whole tonsil debacle a few years back. But I never saw my mom stop or complain. Not even when all 3 of us Ryon chillens had the chicken pox at the same time, did my mom falter.
Maybe today's kids are sicker than we were because of the hypochondriac society we now live in, with self-diagnosis on the internet and drugs being advertised as every other commercial. Either that, or parents are just looking for a way out.