The next three chapters for this session enlightened us on how human being's journey to life begins with fertilized egg or zygote. "From our microscopic beginnings we travel along a developmental path-one that is rooted in biology, but affected by psychological and social forces."(P.54). Chromosomes, DNA, and Genes are the three structures in the cell nucleus that work together to coordinate our biological makeup. "Chromosomes are structures in the cell nucleus that are composed of DNA and proteins. Every human cell(excluding egg or sperm cells) has 22 matching chromosome pair, plus a 23rd pair of sex chromosomes that determine whether a person is male or female.(P. 54). This chapter reminds me of my life during the child bearing of my girls. When my oldest daughter was born, my ex-husband was happy, then came the second and she was a girl too. he became worried and turned to culture. "enough of girls". This was so sad because it reminds me of my maternal grandparents when my grandmother did not have a male child after the fifth child, my maternal grandfather's family arranged another wife for him. Unfortunately the woman had three boys and they all died at a young age and the only surviving one is a girl. This kind of thinking has caused many problems for many African people. One would think that in the twenty-first century there should be an adequate knowledge for all men to know that they produce XY chromosomes and female produces XX chromosomes and whatever the male release to the female would determine the sex of the baby. My ex-husband did not get this and it was the main reason why our marriage ended after my third child was a girl. I'm very happy with my girls and they are the source of my joy.
"Every pair of genes ultimately determines the specific traits we inherit, from hair and eye color skin shade, the tendency toward baldness, blood type, and so on (P.55). Heredity is the passing on of genetic traits from parents to offspring, sometimes people's actions and ways of life can be traced down to great-great grandparents. My paternal uncle and aunties believed I am their mother. They always tell me how I look, and act so much like her which means we share the same phenotype- " A person's characteristics of traits." We can also inherit some abnormalities which can affects the entire genetic process.
I'm sorry Monsurat that your ex-husband could not see the beauty in his three girls simply because one of them was not a boy. Then again, people who only have boys, like I do, might continue to have children just to get a girl. For me it didn't matter, I only desired healthy children and I'm very content with my four boys. But I do think society as a whole has made us believe in what someone once told me was "the million dollar family" a boy and a girl. Sure, it's nice to have the experience of raising a child of both sexes, but I don't think family size should be based on that.
ReplyDeletehi monsurat, thanks for sharing your story.my culture also believe on the story that you mention it in here.in India also still so many people wants boy, if they find out if you have girls they do abortion because of that now days in India they have law that doctor cannot tell patient who's going to born boy or girl. In 21st century still we can see this problem but it’s less than before.
ReplyDeleteHi Monsurat, I am glad you talked about who determines the sex of the baby. African men are still ignorant about this. They think that since the woman carries the baby during pregnancy that they are responsible for the sex of the child. This has led to many marriage break ups. The well-educated men are the worse of them all; thinking they should know better.
ReplyDeleteThese days, a female can do a lot of things that a male can do; therefore, I don’t see the reason why some fathers are still not happy with having girls. In contrast, they show extreme joy when they have boys.
Great blog Monsurat. I love how you are enjoying your girls and how they bring you so much joy. Press on to your goals I am sure those girls give you the strength to push forward. Plus you will have 3 moms to take care of you when you get older lol. to touch on your comment about you having your grandmothers characteristics my older daughter behaves like my older sister and has my middle sisters bad habits lol go figure. How strange that those things happen.
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