I wrote this for BMWK.com, first posted 12/11/08. Gives you something to read over while I’m on “vacation.” See you Monday!
This ain’t the Boy Scouts: There’s no such thing as a prepared parent
 
I know one of the first things I did when I found out I was pregnant with my first child was run out and buy some pregnancy books. I got all the classics: What to Expect When You’re Expecting, The Breastfeeding Book, The Girlfriend’s Guide to Pregnancy. When I gave my husband the dog-eared books for him to …

I wrote this for BMWK.com, posted 12/18/08
I wish I knew…
1. How much I would worry about finances. Pre-baby, when my bank account balance was nearing zero I knew I could always scrape by, perhaps skip a meal or two, and I’d survive. Now? There’s no getting around a lack of cash. Something always needs to be purchased. Kids poop, so they need diapers. They need to be fed, so you buy baby food. There’s no such thing as making the kids skip a few meals to make it to payday. …

I’m a young mom, and with 1.5 kids (soon to be two any day now), I think I’m done. No, not think, I know. I know I’m done having kids.
But everyone I know thinks I’m crazy for deciding this at 22. With two kids already, don’t I have a right to step back and say, “Okay, this is all I can handle?” Sure, I might change my mind later (highly, highly, highly doubt it), but at this point in my life, some certainty about my reproductive future is in order.
I can’t …