Posted on 01/03/2005 8:31:56 AM PST by qam1
Zinga!! LOL
Our friend successfully adopted from Romania. US adoption agencies wouldn't consider them because the wife was 36 and the husband 65.
Here is a clue: If your tax dollars are going in, nothing is ever likely going to come out. Once a tax sink, always a tax sink.
Yeah, I know you will all likely crow loudly about financial aid, but 1) it isn't a significant part of the budget and 2) those people will more than repay the investment in future taxes.
Then say so. There's no shame in that.
Why do parents think they need to pay for college in the first place?
Okay, but where is the "selfishness"?
Fifty years ago, women didn't generally work outside the home. Should we go back to that as "normal"? Well, we'd lose almost half of our workforce if we did.
Perhaps we should go back to horses and buggies? I mean, these days there are just so many gosh darn choices in travel. In my grandpappy's day, we never traveled more than 30 miles from home. So why should we travel more than 30 miles from home today?
There are more choices available to people today in terms of careers, travel, medicine, and, yes, whether or not to have children. You can thank birth control for that.
A hundred years ago, 1/3 of women died in childbirth. I bet many women back then would have decided to have fewer kids or no kids if they had the choice.
My wife and I have been married over 24 years...and yes we do not have children either. There were a number of reasons but when it got right down to it we simply did not have a desire to have children. And we thought that important -- for the children, they are a huge investment in time and energy and we were both children of much older parents, who didn't have that much time or energy left.
We don't make it a cause celebre or advocate our choices for anyone else - it's probably the wrong choice for most people, because most people, I suspect, really want children. And we don't apologize for our decisions either. It just worked for us. That's it.
My wife and I have been married over 24 years...and yes we do not have children either. There were a number of reasons but when it got right down to it we simply did not have a desire to have children. And we thought that important -- for the children, they are a huge investment in time and energy and we were both children of much older parents, who didn't have that much time or energy left.
We don't make it a cause celebre or advocate our choices for anyone else - it's probably the wrong choice for most people, because most people, I suspect, really want children. And we don't apologize for our decisions either. It just worked for us. That's it.
Thanks.... both times you said it... I wasn't really asking you to explain yourselves, just thinking maybe you thought like ecurbh and me, with your own reasons :~D
Of course you wouldn't trade the time investment! That is a choice you made.
And, if I guess correctly, the choice on your part was not of an investment equation.
By the way, the quotes were meaningful-child rearing is probably more difficult and complex than trying to split the atom with a dull butter knife!
I am a Hospice nurse, who has cared for many dying people with children too busy to be there for the people that gave them life. "I can only come once, when should I plan to be there.?" Gosh, I wish I had God's confidence.
Dang Abby,
You sound a bit fembotty dear.
Do you really feel that strongly about all this?
You are right though ...our economy is addicted to large numbers of moms in the workforce. Sudden withdrawal would be painful.
Why do women have careers and men have jobs or work?
Why do women need validating beyond being good wives and moms? I get my validation from being a good dad-husband-provider....truthfully I don't even seek validation...I just do it...like Nike.
Oh well...name your dinosaur..me.
Ohioan,
more culture stuff, have you seen this?
my wife put me out to pasture after 4 (2 with her).....are we selfish?
in this modern age, it's more up to the gal....i've tried bribery (big toys and shiny stuff)and even promised a v-cut (trembling as I type that)....but I am still lashed to port.
life is not fair.
procreation is the raison de voire for many of us.
I came from a dysfunctional family -- my father was a monster and my mother was an enabler -- and I left home at the earliest possibility and never looked back. After my father’s death, I found out about the family secret: A particularly vicious form of inherited manic depression that led to a suicide (and other scandals) in the family that nobody wanted to talk about. But my sister and I should have been told when we reached adulthood.
My sister married a good man (pure luck!) and trashed her marriage when bipolar disorder hit at age 30. (The womenfolk in the family all manifest at that age.) Her adult son is an intellectual and emotional basket case, and her adult daughter ran for dear life to get away from her mother at the first possible occasion. (Wait until she hits 30!)
I never married, made a total mess of every relationship and finally had myself sterilized to make sure the family curse stopped with me.
I don't look down on those who reproduce. But I do look down on those who look down on those who don't reproduce. There is a thing called Responsibility, and I respect those who honor it.
Some people just shouldn't have children.
Yes.
Well, we'd lose almost half of our workforce if we did.
Wages would then increase.
Bless you for your work. I know it's not an easy job.
God bless and help you. We are having hospice care here at home for my 90 year old father-in-law. Of course, we are oddballs, with a stay at home mama, and two boys in home school; but having these wonderful folks coming in, and on call to help the old man's last days is such a blessing.
Of course, he could have chosen not to have kids....
I'm going to say that is not accurate the way it is stated.
well, i'm no feminist--i believe in stay-at-home-moms--but, my father died when i was a pre-teen, and i vowed that i would not be put in the position that my mom--a great wife and mother--found herself in, which was little education and a low-paying job. i don't need the validation...i need the security. [i also need a keyboard for my ipaq so i can use caps and punctuations correctly]
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