HW 35 - Other Peoples' Perspectives 1

I interviewed three people, C, L, and E, who are all sixteen year old girls. (I probably should have asked a more varied group of people. I'll try to do that next time). Something I tried to do while conducting my interviews was find out why people have the perspectives they do, and if their opinions about birth have anything to do with the way they were born. This seemed to be the case with C and L. I asked them what they thought the ideal time to have a child would be (after having a job, after getting married, etc), and they both had very similar answers: They thought the ideal time for them to have a child would be when they were in their thirties, after having finished college and finding a steady job.

When I asked why that was the ideal time, C said that by then she would hope to be financially ready to have a child, and have a home to raise them in. She also said her own mother gave birth to her when she was in her late thirties, and she thought that this was the right decision, because by then her parents were able and ready to raise her. L said that she would hope to be at least thirty when having a child, because by then, she would have done everything she wanted to (finishing college, traveling, finding a job) - in her words "I will have gotten all the crazy out of me by then." I asked L how old her mother was when she had her, and she said late thirties. She also said that she thought she would have a child earlier, because her mom had a lot of trouble during pregnancy, and this may have been because she was having a child so late.

They also had similar answers to my other questions: They both thought that only the father should be there for the birth ("and maybe not even him," joked C), and that their parents should be the first people to know when the child was born. "And no cameras, I don't understand why people do that!" said L. They both had the same answer when I asked what their first reaction was when they thought of birth: "Pain." However, my friend E had a different opinion on the subject: She didn't think that she wanted to have a child, ever. She said she didn't feel she could do a good job. We also discussed how people get married because they got pregnant, and E said she didn't like that - she thought that kids weren't a reason to get married, and a lot of marriages don't work out because that's the thing they are built on. However, she did say that she really liked kids, and that they are really interesting, she just wouldn't want to have a child of her own.

All in all, what I have gleaned from talking with people is that the time and nature of their birth affects their perspective on giving birth. I have also learned that the way people are raised affects how they want to raise their children. I also decided that the interviews confirm something that I have always thought, which is that people born in my generation have many other goals besides having children - however, it is something that some people still want to do, and still think is a natural part of life.