BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids Is it better to be CF for certain professions?

Hi, everyone. For those who still remember me, long time no see. It's really nice to see how active this forum seems to be now. The CF community is really growing. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I recently finished a novel recently: Vanish by Tess Gerritsen. Pretty good book. The thing I was thinking about while reading it was how one of the main characters is not only a woman cop, but also nine-months pregnant and delivers in the middle of the book. There are scenes in the story that show how hard it is to take care of a newborn while feeling worried about the killer she's trying to hunt down. In fact, at one point, a certain urgent plot twist comes up, and she has no choice but to take the baby with her. Sure enough, the baby is present during a life-and-death situation, even though the baby lives (as you would expect in fiction).

It makes me wonder. Are there certain jobs that would be just too difficult to do if you were to have a kid and that it would be a really good idea to be CF? Should parenting be limited to people with certain kinds of jobs and not others?

This is a debate that often comes up about military personnel, especially during wartime (and now that many times a husband and wife may both be in the military!)

During a war a soldier is definitely putting his/her life on the line. Is that fair to a child? But through history the point has been made that a man (woman) with a family makes a better soldier because he has more to fight for. (The same is often said about farmers that are fighting for their own land).

There is also another old saying "An enlisted man should not marry, a non-com may marry, and an officer must marry." And that was pretty much the way it was when I was married to my first husband who was in the Army. There were very few officers above the rank of Captain that were single.

As an author, I contribute that writing with kids in the house is a pain the rear. There are constant interruptions to the train of thought, and because I am not gifted with limitless patience or attention, this presents a problem if I am 'on a roll' or am trying to complete a thought.

Many have gotten around it, but when I am keeping an eye on someone else's children, I've found writing to be virtually impossible.

Someone told me lots of teachers are childfree,I am a special education teacher and I work with severely physically disabled and cognitively impaired kids. The hours are ideal for raising kids but I think the time teachers spends with kids fulfills alot of thier maternal instinct. I even call my students my babies sometimes, to my husband only, even though they are teenagers. I also think that if I had a kid and had towork as a teacher all day I would go nuts, even though I love kids. I would have to stay home with the kid or find another job.