Anger is addictive – and that’s no bad thing

When I was at an all-girls’ school in the late Nineties, I was taught I could pursue any career I set my mind to. I was lucky that my mother’s generation had fought for equal rights in the workplace and I benefited hugely from that legacy.

When I was 17 and in the first year of sixth-form, I remember a friend saying she’d had a vivid dream about being a mother. When she woke up, she was determined to be a parent. She decided she didn’t care about a career as much as having a family: she wanted babies first, then she’d think about the rest.

I was astonished. I would probably have been less surprised if she’d ripped off a latex face-mask and revealed herself to be one of the villains in The Scooby-doo Show.

The idea of putting family before career was anathema to me. I wanted to establish myself as a journalist. Then, I thought, husband and children would fall magically into place. As it turned out, it wasn’t to be. I got the career. I’m 39 and the babies haven’t come – yet.

So I was interested to read about the survey conducted by the Girls’ Day School Trust, which questioned 3,700 girls aged nine to 18. Thirty-six per cent of them said their life goal was a “dream job”, while “travelling the world” came second. Lagging behind on 18 per cent was “having a family”.

It’s wonderful these girls are ambitious and motivated. But I hope that they are also being taught that having babies is – annoyingly – a time-dependent thing. If it’s something you want, get on with it. And if you want to focus on your career, think about freezing your eggs.

Incidentally, my friend with that vivid dream now has three children and a high-powered job in the civil service. She knew what she wanted and did it in the right time-frame. In truth, she was the sensible one all along.