Turning 33 recently, you would have thought that perhaps my biological clock would be tick tick ticking and loudly at that, but due to my severe lack of maternal instinct, it’s just not happening.

I’ve always known that I didn’t want to have children of my own and through our nieces and nephews we’ve had our fill of baby time without the responsibility of having to look after a little person, we’re both just far too scatty to be put in charge of small children!  We can barely dog sit for a week without going crazy, I’m not good with enforced attention requirements and babies along with pets need a lot of attention.

I have nothing but respect for parents who juggle family, work and their own relationships and still manage to get up in the morning and do it all over again and I can see the pride that their children bring them with their accomplishments, be it their first steps, first word, first day at school or graduation, however I know it’s just not my cup of tea.

What I also love about those with a strong parental instinct, is the lengths they will go to, to give a child a home and a family, I’ve only recently found out about many stars and celebrities who have opened up their hearts and homes through adoption. Generally when you think of famous people who have adopted kids, the usual people spring to mind, Madonna, Angelina and Brad, Elton John… high profile stars, what I loved to see when I looked in more depth were more of these couples who, for whatever reason, opted to adopt a child or indeed children who were in desperate need of a family.

Stars like Charlize Theron and her son Jackson, Katherine Heigl and her daughter Naleigh, Hugh Jackman and his son Oscar and daughter Ava, Sandra Bullock and her son Louis, Jillian Michaels and her daughter Lukensia, all these stars have taken the plunge into parenthood and some may think that it’s the parents giving a wonderful gift to the children, but it’s the other way around.  The overwhelming awe experienced when you’re told that you are matched with a child and then bringing them home to settle into a new life together must be one of the greatest experiences adoptive parents will have.

We have friends who had been trying to have a baby for a very long time, they had gone through the pain of miscarriage, IVF, further miscarriages to no avail.  The torment they had in not being able to start their family was clear to see, so when they accepted that they weren’t going to be parents in the biological sense, they realised that it didn’t matter, what they wanted was a little person to which they could lavish all their love on and watch grow from infant to adult.  It took another couple of years before they were matched with not one child but two, a brother and sister who they did not want to split up, so eagerly they said yes and jumped straight in with both feet in becoming a proper family and they have never looked back since and such a beautiful family they are.

So what if we’re not all made out for parenthood, it would be an even more crowded world if all of us had the urge to reproduce, so we’ll stick with aunty and uncle and keep handing the kids back at the end of the day.  A win win for us all!