Parents say they feel pressure to have more kids from everyone from family members to perfect strangers. Stereotypes about only children being spoilt or lonely persist, despite consistent debunking. Even though, in many countries, only children are becoming the norm, pressure to have more than one remains. It's not surprising that Dalton started to question her decision. "It really made us think like, 'Yeah, we could do it again'," she says. And social-media algorithms kept pushing content showcasing big, beautiful families. She felt if she had PPD or PPA again, she'd have more tools to manage it. Close friends had a new-born, who reminded them of their daughter.
She and her husband moved into their "forever home". "I'm an only child, and I'm very happy," says Dalton. It was also that they knew there wasn't anything "wrong" with not "giving" their child a sibling. It wasn't only that Ontario, Canada-based Dalton and her husband didn't want to risk her – and their family's – wellbeing by going through it all again. But even when life became easier, the decision felt right. Part of it was their struggle with sleep deprivation and mental health Dalton dealt with a traumatic birth, postnatal depression (PND) and postpartum anxiety (PPA). That’s because, just two months after her daughter's birth, she and her husband decided they were 'one and done'. "I look at it once in a while and I giggle at how naïve I was," says Dalton, 31. Taking into account maternity leave, family-spacing health recommendations and even potential family holidays, she planned out when to have each of the four kids she thought she wanted. When Jen Dalton got pregnant in 2018, she made a spreadsheet.
0 kommentar(er)
