Welcome to Cool Young Aunt

I am sort of fascinated by the social phenomenon of "mommy-blogging". This is partly because there are some very interesting feminist women writing about the experience of having children, and how it has affected their life, and partly because awww, babies are pretty cute.

I am not a mother. I do not intend to become one for several years. So I am in the same position as many Gen Y women: I am starting to become interested in babies. I'm interested in the medical and biological processes of pregnancy, birth and development. I'm interested in the societal importance of children, motherhood and fatherhood. I'm interested in the modern family, where a couple might be completely equal until a child comes along, and then there is a biological inequality.

Let me tell you about myself. My name is Julia. I'm 26. I've just finished a post-graduate teaching qualification to teach high school history. I'm not looking for permanant work for a number of reasons, including wanting to spend time with my family. I'm married, and for several reasons my husband (Tom)'s job is going to be pretty full-on for most of next year.

My family is pretty great, however there aren't many of us. I don't, for example, have any first cousins, since both my parents were only children. My mum's first cousin Mary is the closest thing I have to an aunt. She has two children, a 16 year old daughter Steeni (who I adore) and this year had another little baby, a little boy named Francis who is now 6 months old and who I am completely fascinated by. I also have an older half-sister, Sarah, nearly 8 years older than me. She is pregnant, but due with her first child any day now (seriously, ANY day now).

Since there are gaps of 10 and 8 years between me and my nearest relatives, babies were not part of my experience growing up. My family lived all over NSW (my parents and I in the Central West from when I was 9, my sister and her mother in Sydney, my cousins in the Blue Mountains), and we generally got together for Christmas, sometimes Easter. This has changed in recent years: I live in Sydney, my parents are retiring and moving back next year, and in general, our family sees each other much more.

The upshot of all of this is that this year, two babies have come into my life (well, one is about to). They are the babies of my female relatives, which gives me greater opportunity to ask questions that I would of strangers. I'm not yet at the stage where my close friends are giving birth (I do have a uni friend due next year, which is exciting, but of my very closest friends, babies aren't in the cards any time soon). I'm definitely not at the stage where I want to have one of my own. So I get to be the "Cool Young Aunt" to my family babies: already it is hard for me to walk past a baby store without wanting to buy something.

I don't intend this to simply be a "Awww, babies!" blog. I want to discuss my own learning process of my experiences with these "practice babies". I want to explore the preconceptions our society has about babies, and the changes that occur in a family once there are small babies. But yes, sometimes there will be posts about my gorgeous baby relatives, because I am awfully fond of them.