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Single, Childless and ‘Downright Terrified’
New York Times ^ | July 30, 2008 | Jane Gross

Posted on 07/30/2008 6:07:11 AM PDT by reaganaut1

As a single childless woman, I share the fear of my readers, above, and no amount of financial preparation for a prolonged old age calms me. For sure, my long-term care insurance policy will buy me a home health aide and pay to retrofit my house if I’m able to remain here, or contribute to care in another setting. I have the luxury of savings and a mortgage that will be paid off by the time I’m 70. If I need a geriatric case manager, I’ll probably be able to afford one. I count my blessings. But, having witnessed the “new old age’’ from a front-row seat, I’m haunted by the knowledge that there is no one who will care about me in the deepest and most loving sense of the word at the end of my life. No one who will advocate for me, not simply for adequate care but for the small and arguably inessential things that can make life worth living even in compromised health.

(Excerpt) Read more at newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: childfree; liberals
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Have the academics asserting that children make people less happy ever surveyed the childless elderly?

On a related topic, have the greenies who advocate having only one child, if you must procreate at all, ever considered the loneliness of such children, both when young and later in life, when their parents have died?

1 posted on 07/30/2008 6:07:11 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

Another single lib female wringin’ her hands. Boo hoo.


2 posted on 07/30/2008 6:10:20 AM PDT by Huck (A Teddy Roosevelt wannabe is better than a Che Guevara wannabe.)
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To: reaganaut1

Choices have consquences. Now that the libbers are getting what they said they wanted, they are not so happy about it. I have six kids to ‘care’ for me in my old age, if I should live so long.


3 posted on 07/30/2008 6:11:07 AM PDT by Vor Lady (Diplomacy without arms is like music without instruments. Alexander the Great)
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To: reaganaut1

Thank God these people aren’t breeding. If only more libs would follow their example.


4 posted on 07/30/2008 6:11:26 AM PDT by pnh102 (Save America - Ban Ethanol Now!)
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To: reaganaut1

This “terrified” woman is probably a liberal Democrat who wants to freeload off the taxpayers. I am so tired off the Democrats who demand everything be handed to them by the taxpayers.


5 posted on 07/30/2008 6:12:55 AM PDT by detective
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To: Vor Lady
I have six kids to ‘care’ for me in my old age, if I should live so long.

I keep hearing from many grandparents that watching their kids have to go through the same "joys" of parenting that they suffered through is quite life-sustaining. :)

6 posted on 07/30/2008 6:12:55 AM PDT by pnh102 (Save America - Ban Ethanol Now!)
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To: reaganaut1
I’m haunted by the knowledge that there is no one who will care about me in the deepest and most loving sense of the word at the end of my life.

Um, not even Jesus Christ?

7 posted on 07/30/2008 6:13:58 AM PDT by library user
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To: reaganaut1

And some of us don’t have children because we recognize that, for whatever reason, we shouldn’t be parents. Or we never found the right person to settle down with—the old saying that “there’s someone for everyone” is baloney. We’re not all selfish yuppies. In any event, at 47, I’ve come to terms with the fact that it ain’t gonna happen, and I’ll live with the consequences, whatever they are.


8 posted on 07/30/2008 6:15:20 AM PDT by kms61
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To: Jersey Republican Biker Chick; Tijeras_Slim

Free rider ping?


9 posted on 07/30/2008 6:17:37 AM PDT by retrokitten (Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. Mother Teresa)
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To: reaganaut1

So “health care” is the deepest and most loving form of care? These libs are crackers.


10 posted on 07/30/2008 6:17:44 AM PDT by P.O.E. (Thank God for every morning.)
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To: reaganaut1

Oh my God what crap. If the writer is a good person, and has friends she’s not going to die alone or be forgotten. If she leaves behind a positive contribution to the world, there’s no reason to be sad or self-pitying on your death bed.


11 posted on 07/30/2008 6:19:02 AM PDT by mainerforglobalwarming
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To: reaganaut1
Having children in old age doesn't guarantee financial security. It doesn't even guarantee emotional security. Many grown children pay little attention to their parents in their old age.

What raising children does guarantee parents is the knowledge that they have loved. They have loved because they have sacrificed --which is what love is. They may have loved and lost, but they have loved. And in the end, having loved others is all that matters.

12 posted on 07/30/2008 6:19:41 AM PDT by Aquinasfan (When you find "Sola Scriptura" in the Bible, let me know)
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To: retrokitten

Nah, not this maudlin stuff...


13 posted on 07/30/2008 6:19:49 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: reaganaut1

When I was a single guy, I used to wonder if I’d end up like those folks you read about - you die and nobody notices for months...


14 posted on 07/30/2008 6:19:52 AM PDT by Little Ray (I'm a Conservative. But I can vote for John McCain. If I have to. I guess.)
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To: library user

Not much chance that this woman has accepted Jesus Christ or the Word of the Father into her life.

I would conjecture that she sees the teachings in the Bible as “misogynist” and “patriarchal”.

Maybe St Algore of the church of hypocritical environmentalism will bestow his blessing on her for not having children. That could be some solace.


15 posted on 07/30/2008 6:20:41 AM PDT by MrB (You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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To: library user
I’m haunted by the knowledge that there is no one who will care about me in the deepest and most loving sense of the word at the end of my life.

Um, not even Jesus Christ?

Atheism isn't so great in old age.

16 posted on 07/30/2008 6:21:04 AM PDT by Aquinasfan (When you find "Sola Scriptura" in the Bible, let me know)
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To: P.O.E.

I guess you did not read the article.


17 posted on 07/30/2008 6:21:14 AM PDT by Unassuaged (I have shocking data relevant to the conversation!)
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To: reaganaut1

We reap what we sow. If this woman had read the Bible, she’d know that. But if my estimation is correct, being a New York liberal she probably considers the Bible to be a dangerous relic of a patriarchal and heteronormative autocracy which would have prevented her from aborting the children she chose never to have or from divorcing the husband she chose never to marry.


18 posted on 07/30/2008 6:22:04 AM PDT by andy58-in-nh (A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves.)
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To: reaganaut1

Some people are not cut out for the task of childbearing.


19 posted on 07/30/2008 6:22:24 AM PDT by cyborg (My Mom Lives to Nag Me Another Day!)
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To: reaganaut1

Choices have consequences.


20 posted on 07/30/2008 6:22:33 AM PDT by TASMANIANRED (TAZ:Untamed, Unpredictable, Uninhibited.)
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