Gap baby year.
Best friend J., of whom I can never say enough good things, is an oncology and palliative care physician. While she often wishes she had more time in her life for her other passions (books and art), she loves her job, and I dare say she is very good at it.
Her husband was recently awarded a year-long fellowship in Toronto, Canada. Always putting family first, J. will likely follow him to Canada even if it disrupts her career momentum, as she’ll have to give up a consultant position she’s lined up for 2013. Now there’s the question of what she will do in Toronto for one year. Taking a whole year off may jeopardize her work prospects when she returns to Australia, so she’s discussed her options with a few of her colleagues and bosses. According to them, J. has two choices:
1. Apply for a fellowship
2. Have a baby
A BABY, I tell you. She lives in a Western democracy in the twenty-first century, and she’s still being told that she could simply pass time in a foreign country by having a baby. Bored? Have a womb? Just fill it up. Motherhood is a time suck and you won’t even realize a whole year in a strange, exciting city has passed you by. When you return home, you may as well give up your career and be a mother forever since there will be nothing new on your resume anyway.
