If I take twenty years off to raise them, my training is worthless, but the other message of "Podkayne of Mars" is that if you have kids, you'd darn well better raise them.
I'll be check Poka out too. I commend this kind of attitude ... save for the part where the training is "worthless" simply because it takes at least 10-15 years to get a brood to fulltime schoolage.
I think a lot of women realize too late that ANYONE could have fulfilled their stinkin' career job as well or better than they but that it's not so easy to pop out according to Daytimer Plan the kids they figured on having once the More Important things in their life were established.
Women who worry that their training might become worthless if they have kids should just have themselves sterilized and be done with it. I feel sorry for children-as-desk-accessories. I find it pathetic and depressing in the extreme to hear the daily phone calls and the oft-repeated: "But Mommy's got to work -- along with Daddy the doctor -- so you can HAVE [insert anything but a fulltime Mom here]."
Well, I thought it was funny.
"Training is worthless" only because if I don't stay current (and have the resume to prove it) in computer science, there's no way I'd be able to get back to work... Not that that's more important than a family, but it's a consideration. I would never work full time (unless horrible financial situations required it) while raising children.
And your numbers are low because if I have kids, they'll be homeschooled, which means at least 16 years from the birth of the last kid.
Throw-away-kids at the whim of the mother who only wants them when it is convenient for her. Or keeps them around until another meal ticket comes along.
The lack of maturity of some women with almost grown children is astounding.
Self obsessed, and should never have been put in a position of responsibility over children.
Sterilized...well, maybe you got sumptin' there.