(no subject)

[freyakitten]

Made chilli paste over the weekend. Note to self: next time, do not breathe in the air near the blender until blender has been washed. Chilli fumes are Not Fun when there's that much. But there is a decent sized container of chilli paste residing in the fridge, next to the coffee jar of pesto I made several weeks ago. Next to the frozen water bottle that sits in the coldest part of the fridge to remind us never to put anything else there.

Also went up to spend a little time with a pair of new parents. Be proud of me! I didn't make a single snarky, angry, or frustrated comment in response to the 'when this happens to you' and similar comments. Yeah 'when' that happens to me, I will have a rather sick child on my hands. The chances of a child of mine not being:

1. congenitally lactose intolerant: 50%
2. mitochondrially disordered, whether at 30% mutation like me, worse, or less worse: probably 20-30% chance of having no mutated mitchondria at all, but really I have no idea. And the effects of the mutation vary so much - a person with a lesser degree of mutation can have worse symptoms than someone with a greater degree of mutation, particularly when the mutated mitochondria are, for example, concentrated in the heart muscle. And then, if the chances of not inheriting the mutations are so high, why do all my maternal relatives (except my deceased grandfather) manifest minor symptoms?
3. overly mobile joints: 50%
4. Reflux at various valves: Depends. Possibly entirely due to mitochondrial disorder.
5. Chronic infections of various kinds: Entirely due to the way parts of me are constructed. 50%
6. Sugar problems: Controllable with diet if it manifests and we catch it early, but the genetic tendency towards diabetes and other sugar problems appears on both sides of my family tree. 50%
7. Asthma: 75%
8. Functionally infertile (without drugs of any kind) if female: 70-80%
9. Allergy to perfume and other artificial fragrances: 50% (there's perfume in baby wipes, and baby powder, and most clothes detergent, and some band-aid glue, and... My pediatrician had to make up a special cream for my nappy rash because I was allergic to all the commercial ones)
10. Idiosyncratic reaction to some drugs, especially painkillers and antibiotics: 50%

So, the chances of a child of mine, naturally conceived, sharing no health issues with me or my immediate family that would affect them in the first year of life (everything going well) is 50%*30%*50%*75%*50% = 2.8% (this does not include difficulties #3, 4, 6, 8, & 10 as these difficulties are either unlikely to become apparent during the first year of said childs' life or are reliant upon another difficulty).

Comments

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

It's not that anyone harangues, really. It's just the assumption that everyone (female) either wants kids or will change their mind. And will go ahead no matter what other considerations come into play.

It drives me nuts.

I decided long ago that even if I decided I wanted to bear children, if I wasn't mentally, emotionally, and financially stable enough to take good care of them, I would pass. I'm no longer in primary school, but the decision still makes sense to me.

[maelorin]

stupid social conditioning.

not all of us get with the program.

most do, coz they don't even realise they are.

[freyaw.livejournal.com]

My favourite piece of social conditioning happened at school. I went to Annesley, see, and we were unobtrusively encouraged to prefer private school boys. I've been amused to see how well it's worked on my schoolmates - and me ;) My SO was a PAC boy.