I never had any doubt about wanting children.
As a little girl I would cradle my freakishly life-like porcelain doll, rock her to sleep and imagine one day being a Mum.
I’ve always been a massive ‘girly girl’. My Barbie collection was epic. Not only did I have the entire Barbie and the Rockers get-up (all band members plus stage, tour bus and instruments), I had Hawaiian Barbie, Ken and Skipper along with a custom Barbie beach buggie and a random Barbie horse on wheels.
Despite being pigeon-toed, I donned a pink leotard for ballet classes and stored my enviable hair accessories collection in a tin covered in Rainbow Brite and Strawberry Shortcake stickers.
So it’s no surprise that in all of my imaginings, I would one day have a daughter who loved My Little Ponys and shared my ethos of ‘more is more’ when it comes to tulle, bows and sequins.
When I met my husband my desire for kids grew even stronger.
It was only when I saw him rough-housing his nephew that I started to think how great it would be for us to have a son. You see my husband is half-bogan – he loves footy, car-racing, Melbourne Bitter longnecks and is disturbingly attached to his Bali Bintang singlet and knee high custom made ugg boots.
Yes, I know I am gender-stereotyping. Some girls dedication to the V8s sees them camping out on the hill at Bathurst and happily delivering their AGB in toilet blocks that smell like fermented faeces, but if a girl had half my DNA, her penchant for UDLs, arm tatts and polyester would be severely compromised.
So post-marriage my new baby dream was to have the perfect pigeon pair – a boy that could help my husband wax his 1964 EH Holden, and a girl that would happily elbow any rivals in pursuit of a pair of Sass and Bide jeans at the Boxing Day sales.
We were half way there when I delivered our gorgeous Maxwell in January 2013. When he arrived in all of his magnificent, howling glory, we were overjoyed. As the months rolled on I discovered that I loved being a ‘boy mama’ – Max’s increasingly adventurous and fearless spirit entertained me more and more every day and I found the boys clothing selection surprisingly cute and varied. He became my little mischievous prince with the most affectionate and loving nature.