How Kids Are Suffering Home Alone

Zenit ^ | 2005-02-27

[keats5]

Well, in my house the kids are all skinny, and the parents are all fat. I suppose the parents need someone to impose a little discipline on them. But of course, we don't take orders from the kids!

[It's me]

Are you eating all the kid's food?!!!

Leave some for them!

[keats5]

Thanks. I needed that.

[imskylark]

I'm 40. It's been awhile but I still remember. That's one of the reasons I stay at home with the kids.

[jjames001]

You people who talk about coming home to dinner on a winter night really know how to make a kid feel depressed. I'm getting off this thread.

[It's me]

???

[keats5]

I have one kid, my oldest actually, who hates being alone. Even though I'm usually home, there are times when he'll be alone. He's close to 16 years old, but when he hears he'll be alone for a large chunk of the day he says, "Oh no, this is going to be a sad day."

Some kids need people around them more than others. I have another kid would could care less.

[keats5]

See #65.

[It's me]

You wrote:

I could go either way on this...

I find my friends, those who have stay at home mothers, to be more spoiled and from my point of view, less polite.

snip...

My brother and I have turned out to be good teens who know how to live on our own. Most of what we have isn't from our parents love or caring about us, it is because they pray to God. Our loving relatives (especially my wonderful grandmother) pray and pray to Him for the best for us too.

IMHO

So, what's the problem?

[k2blader]

Read the previous posts. Then you'll actually understand what I posted before leaving a clueless comment.

[knuthom]

Not only is she MUCH healthier than her pampered stay-at-home cousins, but she gets along better with other children, and is infinitely more polite.

In my experience, she is unusual. The daycare kids I know tend to be runny-nosed brats.

[jjames001]

I find kids who don't get as much attention by parents are easier to get along with. That's all. I thought it was strange that so many kids turn out bad when not parented enough.

[savedbygrace]

Well done. You're doing a good thing.

[keats5]

Well, jjames001, your post touched me. I've two sons around your age. If you didn't live so far away, I'd invite you over for a good pot roast, with mashed potatoes and gravy and fresh warm bread.

I'm sorry you missed out on some good meals. I think evening meals are so helpful in helping people connect at the end of the day. I guess no one has everything. Some kids have great meals, but never stepped inside the church or heard the gospel. It seems for all their problems, your folks got the most important thing right. All you can do is to try to start a new tradition when you have your own kids. There's a special joy in that, too.

Like I keep telling my kids, we're not in heaven yet.

[jjames001]

lol yeah i'd like that. Not getting much of one thing makes you appreciate everything else much more.

[imskylark]

"I have another kid would could care less."

My brothers were like that.

[Esther Ruth]

I have just wonderful memories of my grandparents. They had sweet, simple lives, good friends, food, they'd all be around 100 now if still here. Grandparents just adored us, spoiled us rotten, couldn't take their eyes off us, loved us like crazy, every thought they seemed to have was what to cook for us, sew/crochet for us, nothing is better in life than to be loved like that. They could do that easier because all the enticements that are there now where not there then. It is harder now, there are so many things that entice our eyes, that pull us away from loving each other. We really have to be very strong willed and disciplined now adays to not bring this stuff home, keep it off, etc., have to stay away from the malls and stores that taunt us to yet redecorate another room or what not, everything "out there" tells us we will find joy in this stuff, but we won't - it all is for a short while, then it leaves us empty, leaves us with sad regrets that we used our time and money on things that ended up being a waste. (Vanities, all is vanity comes to mind) Solomon did "this" and told us how unsatisfying it all was, how empty it all left us. But as fools we STILL pursue it, thinking, "Oh I am different, IT will make me happy." But it does not. And when it is said and done, we are old and grey we will be filled with regrets because we filled our days with empty pursuits instead of filling the days with loving each other and others.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

"Did she stay home and raise you and your sisters?"

Yes. She worked from home as a seamstress and cake decorator and the odd-secretarial job. I left for the Army at 17, and Sis was a Senior in High School. Then Mom hit the bricks. (We did have a Dad all those years, too. He's a great guy, but she'd had enough of 'Wife & Mother' after 20 years.)

Yes, she was there for us in our formative years, but I'm still a little mad at her that she didn't stick around to be a loving Grandma and all of that. We had about ten years there where she wasn't in my or my sister's life very much. It's a shame she missed out on that part of her life, but I guess she felt she paid her dues, and once her "consciousness was raised" thanks to the NOW hags, there was no keepin' her down on the farm anymore. ;)

I'm sure part of my anger was that it was my own fantasy to have her in my kid's life because I had such terrific GrandMothers, and I wanted that for my son, too. Wasn't meant to be, I guess, though it's so sad to me to lose that connection with the previous generations. You gain so much from knowing your GrandParents.

[Miss Behave]

Ester Ruth, I so enjoyed your post yet again. I especially loved this phrase: "...couldn't take their eyes off us,...."

You have wonderful insight.

[fml]

Two paychecks are needed because they live in a 2000 sq. ft. home, own two cars, eat out a lot, have computers, TV's, cable, internet access, etc. If people lived more modestly, they could make it on one paycheck.

Interesting though, is that mothers who stay home are concentrated in the top 5% of household incomes and the bottom 25% meaning that living in a 2000 plus sq. ft. home and isn't an issue. I do however think eating out costs much more than most people wnat to realize.