Dear Grandma Maggie,
My husband and I have been together for six years (married for three). I am only 25 years old, but we both want to be young parents. We have been talking about starting a family for a while, but the response from family and friends has been very negative: “You have plenty of time for kids,” “You’re too young to have children now,” “just enjoy each other while you can,” etc. Although we’ve made our own decision to try to conceive now, we are keeping it a secret from those people closest to us because I fear their reaction. I know I shouldn’t care what other people think, but I want to share this news with our family and friends. How should I respond if they say something negative about our age?
Thanks for the advice!
Katie
Dear Katie,
I would ask them who decided when they could have babies. Either that or not say a word until it was very obvious that you are pregnant. Then when they asked you why you didn’t tell them reply, “You made it very clear that you would not be happy if we got pregnant and we really wanted to tell only those whowould love and support us.” That should take care of it!
Grandma Maggie
Peggy Moss (she/her), AKA "Grandma Maggie," was was a partner in BabyNames.com after she retired as an early childhood educator. Her Q&A column "Ask Grandma Maggie" is now republished with the best of Grandma Maggie’s parenting and childcare advice. She has written many eBooks about parenting issues, available at Amazon.com.
Peggy, who passed in 2014, was mother to Sue, Kate, Jennifer, and Mallory Moss, and grandmother to Ike, Peter, Miranda, and Veronica.