What is the point of me writing when I have a baby?
Can I use it to shape a different career for myself or make money somehow? How will it help me develop as a person? Because I have a baby, and we already established that I don’t spend enough time with her, so I really don’t need another special interest that takes up a lot of time. I want to make sure that if I start writing that I’m not just doing it for some extra dopamine.
I’m glad you asked it because you are teaching me how to talk about writing and autism.
You always need something to get you extra dopamine. You will always need special interests. These are things we need to spend time on as adults:
1. Connecting with our child
2. Understanding autism
3. Connecting with other women who have autism
All those things take time. And we don’t like spending time on things we are not great at. We are great at writing, and if we write about ourselves as part of a writing group we accomplish all three of those things. Plus, we are very good, so we almost always get published, somehow. And we like accolades and winning as well.
At your phase of life, connecting with the baby is the most important. Then as you write more, the time it takes to craft your narrative, will help you understand better the transition to parenting and how work fits into your life. It takes courage and discipline to re-define what work means to you after having a baby.
Penelope