I have always had a way with kids. When I was 2 years old my brother was born and I fell so in love with him that I started referring to him as "my baby." Ever since then, I've suffered from an ailment known as "baby fever."
Baby fever: an irrepressible, inexplicable urge to have a baby that is so strong it borders on obsession.
Now, you're reading this and you probably think I'm crazy. So maybe I should explain that I don't actually want to have a baby at this point of my life. I'm a 20-year-old college student. Diapers, spit up, and no sleep aren't exactly my idea of fun. But when I see a cute baby with chubby cheeks, a big smile, and an angelic laugh I lose all sense of reason.
Most of my friends think I'm crazy. My roommate is freaked out by babies because she says they look too much like aliens. But there are other people who love babies as much as I do and who understand the struggles of living with baby fever.
Here are just a few.
1. You find yourself constantly distracted at restaurants, grocery stores, and pretty much any place where there are large amounts of people because there are cute babies EVERYWHERE.
2. When you spot a baby in a public place, you have a strong desire to ask if you can hold him or her but you know that is not socially appropriate.
3. People give you weird looks when they catch you making googly eyes at another person's child.
4. Parents give you the side eye when they catch you "flirting" with their young child.
5. You say things like “I want a baby" and all your friends look at you like you're crazy.
6. You realize that you are crazy because if you had a baby, you would have no social life and your days of sleeping until noon would be gone.
7. You then have to explain that you don't actually want a baby right now at this point in your life, but you would maybe like to rent one for the day.
8. Then they look at you like you're even crazier.
9. You could spend countless hours looking at pictures and videos of adorable babies doing adorable things.
10. After looking at aforementioned pictures and videos you go through baby withdrawal and wish you had a real life baby to cuddle and love.
11. Whenever you're at a family gathering you somehow end up watching everyone's small children because they know how much you love babies. It's fun for a while but then it becomes exhausting.
12. You're a baby magnet. You could be in a room with a million people and you somehow manage to find the one cute baby in the room to make eye contact with.
13. Then it's love at first sight. Cue the baby flirting and the baby fever… once again.
