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Isn't it always the way - people you hardly know ask the most personal questions. I have a ring on my finger, so the "What no husband yet?" has finally stopped. Now, strangers stare at my stomach and inquire, "Any babies yet?"

I have a pat answer for this intrusion. "Ah, no," I murmur in a low tone and look gravely. "There's insanity in the family."

Time was a woman of my tender years could have said, "Get real. I'm too old," and that would be that. Today, though, it seems nothing's impossible. Like a bad science fiction movie, real-life doctors are fertilizing eggs in everything but a martini shaker and implanting them in females of all ages - even those on Medicare. As a result, women old enough for life alert and Polident are becoming mothers for the first time, (some even having their own grandchildren). I give these women credit. Anyone who can manage a walker and a stroller deserves a toast - Ensure, of course, because she's going to need it.

At any age, becoming a mommy isn't something a woman does just because she can. Choosing motherhood is the single most important decision a female can make, one most women don't take lightly, given the commitment it involves.

It takes a special person to be a Mom. She has to be loving, understanding, self-sacrificing, brave, and have a good sense of humor. She must be as patient as Job, know as much as Google, and be as generous as a Political Action Committee in an election year. Moms have to be nurses, chauffeurs, seamstresses, teachers, cooks and friends. They have to have a cache of money stashed away for frequent emergencies, and keep a spare bed always at the ready.

In short, Moms have to be superheroes. Most (like yours and mine) are all that and more.

Still, not every female is cut out to be a mom. And I think it's the smart woman who recognizes this. Take me, for instance. When God handed out maternal instinct, He gave it all to my sister, (who - honest to goodness - has 12 children). I figured this out early on because while other kids were playing with dolls, I was writing poems about them: "Mary's baby has one blue eye; the other eye fell out. Mary ate it yesterday on a roll with sauerkraut."

Don't get me wrong. I love kids, (roasted with little russet potatoes - just kidding). It's just circumstances weren't right for me to have them before. (I did get plenty of offers from donors, though. Unfortunately, none of them was affiliated with any sperm banks.) And now that my situation has changed, I don't think I could, or that I really want to, balance deadlines and diapers, colic and bursitis.

Some psychologists contend women need to have children to feel complete, except if they're creative in other ways, because that fills the gap in their inner spaces. I think it's fat (or cats?) - not writing - that's filled my gap. But then, I've never put much stock in such mumbo-jumbo anyway.

Still, thoughts of being a mommy did cross my mind once. It was at the park, and my girlfriend was playing with her daughter. The little girl laughed, gave her mom a huge hug, and I felt a sudden pang (which turned out to be gas from the garlic pickle I ate at lunch). Later, my friend wanted to leave, but her daughter didn't. At this, the little cherub kicked her mom in the knee and ran into the playground where a swing hit her in the head leaving us to race madly to the emergency room where the youngster got 11 stitches, bit the resident trying to give her a tetanus shot and, after letting out a screech that'd curl iron, threw up all over him.

This episode cleared my head, and at the same time reinforced my belief that it takes a special person to be a mommy - someone younger, with a stronger heart and a better stomach. Nevertheless, I have to say, though I wasn't cut out to be one, Moms are super people. And after all, where would we be without them?

- Allia Zobel Nolan

Allia Zobel Nolan (ironically) is the author of 200-plus children's books and adult humor books on cats, including Cat Confessions: A Kitty Come Clean Tell-All Book and Women Who Still Love Cats Too Much. Her website is www.AlliaWrites.com.