"When I have children"

My biological clock didn't start ticking until I was 33 years old. I had met my partner of over 25 years and I knew right away it was going to be long term. He is the kind of person I would have wanted as a father. Calm, caring and incredibly protective....so my clock went into overdrive. I trust him implicitly and vice versa. Before I met him I made sure I didn't get pregnant. I didn't have any desire to parent alone or with any of the other men I had met. So we started our journey. We've had our issues as all families do but first and foremost in our family the truth is paramount. I have instilled that. We hash out our differences and we stand up for each other against the world. The bond is strong because we worked at it. I travelled and lived my life independently until I worked through all the baggage from my past. I made sure that I was able to support my daughter no matter what. I finished my degree after she was born. I watched my adoptive mother make some pretty poor choices in men so I made sure I could take care of myself and her no matter what. I live and breathe that. I may have indulged her in many ways but we are very close. I instilled in her self defense from the time she was able to talk. She takes no guff from anyone. She makes her own choices and I have drilled it into her that no matter what; if she tells me the truth I will help her. She has not breached that trust. However before I did the work on myself I would have been completely paranoid and extremely dependent on my relationships for my identity. I worked through all of that before I had a child. For years I wasn't sure if I wanted a child because I knew there are predators out there. It took time for me to believe the world was a place I wanted to bring a child into. I am sure that my parenting style is not usual but I taught her to challenge authority. I told her she is the master of her destiny....fate happens and we can't control that; but our destiny is ours. No one can take that from us. I am sure there are people who would differ but it works for us.