Oh baby, baby

Yes, I am a woman but I do not automatically love all babies. I will not offer to hold every baby I see, I will not gush over every newborn baby picture, I don't really want to hear every detail of pregnancy, birth, and especially baby room decor. I'm not filled with burning desire to have one of my own whenever I am around a baby. You will not see me jumping at an offer to baby sit. For some reason, this leads many people to assume that I don't like babies or kids and that I don't know how to handle one and that I must be completely uncomfortable around them. I actually like very much to hold those little guys and girls, just not every single one I see. I've known how to hold and play with babies since I was the every preteen girl in America who went through the "I LOVE babies and baby-sitting" stage. Kids and babies are just like any other people in my life. I feel very comfortable with people (and kids and babies) in general, enjoy interacting with most of them (spoiled brats, old and young, are never enjoyable), and suprise, suprise, kids actually like me!

So why is it that if a woman doesn't have an obvious, eager sense of maternal nurturing, then they must be completely clueless about people younger than 18? I actually had someone say to me, "oh, you must be like my sister. She dropped my son when he was a baby."

Would she have said this to me if I were a man? I'm going to guess the answer to that is no.