Are you ready for children? Take my quiz and find out!

Here is a quiz to help you determine if the time is right for you to add a bouncing baby boy or girl to your life.  It is an important decision and one that you should seriously consider before you ever even run the risk of getting pregnant. This quiz is aimed at married couples so take it with your spouse. Each question should have a yes or no answer.

1.   Is your relationship solid?

2.   Are your finances in fairly good order?

3.   Do you function well without much sleep?

4.   Do you get angry if you don't get your own way?

5.   Do you require a lot of "me" time?

6.   Do you share well?

7.   Are you jealous of your time with your spouse?

8.   Can you easily handle last minute plan changes?

9.   Do you enjoy spending time with couples that have children?

10. Do you take turns with ease?

11. Does your lifestyle cause you to hurry a lot?

12. Can you multi-task with grace?

1.  A baby cannot save a relationship for very long.  If your relationship isn't solid, now is not the time to have a baby.  It's not fair to you or to the child.

2.  If your finances are a mess, try to straighten them out and then have a child.  You don't have to have $5000 in the bank but it would be good if you could afford to buy diapers.

3.  Although this won't last forever, babies do interrupt your sleep a lot.  If you still function after a rough night, this won't be a concern for you.

4.  If you don't have a grip on anger, get help before you have a child.  Too many angry parents have unintentionally hurt their child.

5.  "Me" time will be reduced when you have a little one.  Make sure that you are ready for that intrusion on your time before you have a little one.

6.  If you don't share well, how will you handle the requirements of a child?  Everything you love will be loved by them too and you will need to share.  This is one you can easily work on since you'd have a few months to master it.

7.  Resenting time loss with your spouse can cause problems.  A child will demand a lot more than give for many years.  Your time and the time of your spouse will often be time for the child.  Make sure you can deal with this.

8.  You are ready to run out the door and the baby burbs up a little on your shirt and you have to stop and change.  The night of your life is right before you and the little one gets sick.  Make sure this is something you can handle before you say yes.

9.  If you can't stand to be around other people's children, you might not be ready for your own.

10. Having a baby means sharing the work.  Can you get up every other time makes you a real partner in the child-raising relationship.  Are you ready to pull your weight?

11. If you are always in a hurry, you need to be aware that a baby will slow you down.  This can often be remedied, but be aware of it before you get pregnant.

12. As a parent, you'll find the need to multi-task often.  This isn't a deal breaker, but you might want to work on it if it is difficult for you!

If you answered no to a lot of these, think hard before you get pregnant.  This is especially true of numbers one and two.  You want to bring your child into a wonderful, loving situation. Parenting is stressful enough and an unhappy marriage or one with no money only compound the stress.  When you do choose to get pregnant, prepare yourself for a wonderful experience.