Often, when couples get married, they have barely cut the cake at the wedding before prying guests start asking about when they are planning on starting a family.
And while this might seem like an innocent and well-intended question to those asking, it might be a different story to those who might be desperately trying to have children, but it just isn’t happening for them.
When Australian mum Adele Barbaro and her husband, Paul, struggled to struggled to get pregnant on their child, Harvey, 2, they eventually turned to IVF in order to get pregnant. However, the now mum-of-two recently took to Facebook to explain just how upsetting it was when well-meaning strangers, friends, or family members would question her about when she planned to become a mother.
In the post, Barbaro, who today is a mum to Harvey, 2, and Chloe, 4 months, explains:
“They would tell me that I’m not going to be young forever or that my maternal clock was ticking,” wrote Barbaro. “And believe me, I knew it. I just didn’t need to hear it from everyone else.”
And while Barbaro eventually had the family she dreamed of, she knows many are not so lucky.
“But many couples will be trying for years. And some may never succeed and my heart goes out to them,” Barbaro wrote. “And what about the couple that doesn’t want kids? Or the couple that had a child but can’t afford to have another? Or those that have lost little ones?”
“So, next time you go to say that ‘throw away’ comment to the newlyweds or the couple that have been together for 10 years, be sensitive,” Barbaro continued. “Don’t ask them when they are having kids. You never know what’s going on.”
