The Strange Thing That Makes You Want To Have A Kid ASAP
Don't want a child now? Stick to digital clocks only.
file404 / Shutterstock There are plenty of things that make us want kids, and when you welcome a little baby into the world, your whole life changes forever.
Seeing cute little babies in hats with animal ears? Check. The flood of baby pictures on your Facebook feed? Check.
The constant questions from your mother asking when she's finally going to get a grandchild? Yes, even that, too.
Here's the strange thing that makes you want to have a kid ASAP:
A 2014 study pointed out something pretty unlikely that may actually lead you to speed up your plan to have a baby because your biological clock is literally ticking.
A person's biological clock is "a particularly malevolent invention aimed to pressure women to have a child."
Have you seen the 1992 movie My Cousin Vinny? In the film, Mona Lisa Vito tells Vinny, "My biological clock is ticking like this (as she stomps her foot), and the way this case is going, I ain't never getting married!"
According to Justin Moss and Jon Maner of Florida State University, the ticking sound of a clock can make a woman want to have a child at an earlier age. Yes, a literal ticking clock can rev up your biological clock. How weird is that?
There were two experiments conducted that led to this finding. The first study included 59 men and women. They were asked when they would like to get married and have a family.
This set of questions accounted for how a person's socio-economic background might affect their biological clocks.
The second experiment included 74 participants and looked to see how they would alter their standards for their potential mates in order to have kids sooner.
Their results found that reminding someone about the passage of time, even just through a ticking clock, will make a person want to speed up the reproductive process.
Even more surprising is that women from lower socio-economic communities were affected more strongly. They tended to want kids earlier when reminded that time is ticking and they lower their standards in what they are looking for in a mate.
So ladies, if you're trying to put off having babies, you should probably avoid going near any ticking clocks.
Men, however, didn't get swayed as much as the ladies. This is most likely because men are believed to have a limitless amount of time to have children.
But a study that came out in 2019 said that men also have their own biological clocks, and "if these tick for too long they can put the health of their partners and children at risk."
Children with older fathers have been found to have an increased risk of newborn seizures and a low birth rate. They have also found links between older fathers and infants' congenital heart disease, childhood cancer, neurocognitive disorders (such as schizophrenia, OCD, and autism), and birth defects.
Therefore, reproductive health should not only be paid attention to for women, but for men as well, because they also have a biological clock that will run out as well.
Nicole Weaver is a senior writer for Showbiz Cheat Sheet whose work has been featured in New York Magazine, Teen Vogue, and more.