Posted on 10/23/2007 6:50:10 PM PDT by qam1
Women choose.
This must be near the height of self-indulgent selfishness — to intentionally have children even knowing you may well never live to see them graduate from college, marry or get their first job. How completely selfish. But then, the baby boom generation always have plowed through life as if the world revolved around them.
How completely and totally selfish. Gone are the days when older men fathered children as fast as possible to keep the farm going or because the bible said to do so or because birth control was unheard of. That just is not the case today. Yet we have 55 year old men fathering children and 55 year old women getting in vitro fertilization, and making children they never should have had.
“Look how wonderfully selfish we can be!” I’m sure the excuse is, they just wanted to have all the financial ducks in a row before bringing a baby into this world. Yeah. Right. Suuuuure.
I’m not saying all these men will drop dead at 75 years old, but face it, a LOT of men never live to see their 70th birthday. You have a kid at 51 or 55, and good luck seeing your child graduate from high-school, let alone college. And if Mom is in her 50s as well, I’m sure your kids are going to be THRILLED when you both kick the bucket before they turn 30, and get to spend another 40 years or more on the planet without the company of their parents. Gee, just swell.
What new trend are the boomers up to next to completely screw up US society? I’m sure they will think of something equally selfish.
Fred Thompson will be 80 plus when his younger children are in high school. What a shame that he will probably never see a college graduation or wedding!
that was my reaction.
wife-o-buckhead
Predictable.
Noone bashing men or scolding them for “being old” when they sire kids.
Not like the women threads, where we’re all scolded as selfish and morally corrupt for not having children at age 20 (really, they don’t even seem to like 30yo moms).
That IS Tony Randall?
I thought he was supposed to be gay?
When all my kids were born, they were very young. I must be the exception to the rule.
That’s really neat that you have a grandma still alive, and over 100!
This is fun! (BTW, I’m pregnant finally, age 38.)
Dad: alive, 69
Dad’s Dad: 98 (and sharp as a tack until the last year; can’t remember “why”, probably just general shut-down)
Dad’s Mom: 83 (rheumatoid arthritis, ????)
Mom: alive, 70
Mom’s Dad: 84 (general shut-down; had Alzheimer’s badly)
Mom’s Mom: 80 (found comatose with large leg gash, died few months later)
Besides the fact I’m struggling alot with GI problems since I got married the other year, my prospects for longevity are reasonable if I overcome them.
That’s wonderful! My grandma says it’s fun to be over 100, if you have all your marbles (which she does) because you can get away with anything when people know you are that old; sleep in church, argue with the doctor, hang up on obnoxious callers, curse at telemarketers, etc.
She is kidding, of course.
She is a very sweet lady and is wonderful with the hordes of grandchildren, great grandchildren, and so on. She still lives in her own, btw.
Iirc, Randall was 77 when his daughter was born. I am an older father myself but 77 is way over the line. As I mentioned in my #56, we believed that I have a good enough of chance of making it to 75 to justify having another child at 53.
Nobody has that kind of chance of making 100, which is just about what Randall would have had to do to be making a responsible decision. Sure enough, he didn’t make it.
I was 41 when I had Junior. So far so good....
If you read the tombstones from the 1800s very few fathers lived to see their children graduate from college, if the children even got the chance. They did live long enough to see their wedding and first job though as these occurred at about age 15. Life was short and sweet back then.
Having children is not usually a selfish act. It's the gift of life.
I felt the same as you until one day I decided its the thing to do.
Well, women having babies in their sixties.. there may be something to be said for older/wiser parenthood, but personally I liked growing up with youthful parents. Would have been odd to have a 70+ geriatric as a dad in high school..
Continued selfishness of Americans. Nobody can tell me that having parents that are 70 when you are graduating from high school is a good thing. I find it repulsive and selfish. More slipping down the slop of no morals this country continues to show almost daily.
There is one result of older people having kids. I have read that it will cause the average age of the population to increase. My youngest child is a High School Senior this year. It is difficult to play football with him since I have a shattered vertebra and an arm that has been torn apart. I still could do most of the things he wants me to do if I hadn’t been injured. I am 63, have 4 children with the oldest being 33.
Not in my ‘hood.
63 - Senior in High School is not even close to what this story is about.
That is odd, I have been accused of being selfish because of my age.
Doesn't he bear a remarkable similarity to Tony Randall?
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