I'm 25, not single, but not married, if that makes any sense. My boyfriend and I have been together for roughly a year-and-a-half and though we each fantasized about a future together--fantasize being the key word here--neither of us envisioned it being required by an impending child. So, I've told all the easiest people to tell, my closest friends, my Dad's second ex-wife (who I love to death) and the boy-toy's family, all of whom have been generally pleased to hear of the little blessing. The problem lies in telling my father and his side of the family. He has high expectations for me that don't include pre-marital sex, much less a bastard child from a green-card wielding, non-college-educated immigrant. Don't get me wrong, I love my boyfriend, but he is what he is.
You'd think at my age, I'd be able to tell him he's going to be a grandfather without my heart tap-dancing on my ribcage, my mouth being simultaneously dry and full of extraneous saliva, and that pizza from last night puttng undo strain on my bowels. I mean, I'm well on the road to over-education. I have a legitimate position at a marketing company, though I've seriously considered shaking a little T&A to supplement my income, and though I doubt I'd be some supermom, my boyfriend and I are committed to ensuring the new bugger won't become a statistic. Yet, after my announcement last Friday, and my Dad's reaction, which began with "Oh My God" and ended with me not hearing from him for the rest of the weekend (and I'm presuming for the next few months), I spent Saturday curled up in my bed, underneath the covers, eventually bursting into the kind of sobs I haven't engaged in since I was not allowed to go on my high school graduation trip to Barbados because as my Dad said, "For what, so you can get pregnant?"
This is interestingly prescient, since my sperm donor is from the island of Trinidad. Maybe, this was all some sub-conscious Freudian mode of revenge for not being trusted enough to spend four days and five nights in the Carribean. Considering the large Carribean population in New York, it was inevitable that I'd be drawn here to end up with a Fresh Water Yankee.
