The Price of Children

Great post Roughneck :thumbsup:

I think it's sad how some of you feel about having children, but it's a good thing that most of you that are so negative about it are not planning on having kids.

My kids(and my bf and his kids) are the most important people in my life I have never felt tied down, I enjoy being a parent and spending time with them, the good definitely outweighs the bad. I'm also very lucky that my bf is also very involved and feels the same way I do.
And to whoever said that marriage and having a family is like prison, it is what you make it.
 
I can do that without having a kid. With the 100k, I'd buy the smartest dog I could find. It definitely beats raising a teen.
 
Here are some of what I "wanted"

the joy of watching them grow up

to experience that unconditional love thing

to see them smile,laugh,and play

to feel real pride

memories that will last my lifetime

birthday parties

graduations

to share is "beautiful world"...you know it's not that bad

I could go on and on.....

But please know that I respect all of your opinions, this was just mine :2 cents:

priceless:thumbsup:
 
You know what?

Forget it.

- R.
 
Here are some of what I "wanted"

the joy of watching them grow up

to experience that unconditional love thing

to see them smile,laugh,and play

to feel real pride

memories that will last my lifetime

birthday parties

graduations


I couldn´t say it in a better way.

to share is "beautiful world"...you know it's not that bad

I couldn´t say it in a better way.:bowdown:
 

Torre82

Moderator \ Jannie
Staff member
You know what?

Forget it.

- R.

I often feel that way about so many issues. I'd think it's the same as what happens to a telemarketer before every call:

"Do I really want to expound the virtues of some useless product (insert: Philosophical discussion) again? Waste another five, ten..thirty minutes just to barely make a dent on some random mind?"

And it's trying. It really is. Sometimes the best contribution.. is the silent one. Because it is you yourself that benefits the most by not wasting your time and patience. :) Bless everyone who read this/that/all topic(s) and had no reply in mind! You are all loved. ;)
 
If marriage is like a prison ...

Unknown said:
marriage [and having a family] is like prison
If marriage is like having a prison, then I have a life sentence with a sweet, caring, visually stunning, emotionally and physically pleasing lover as my personal, eternal prison guard, warden, everything.
Can I get multiple life sentences please? ;)
 

bigbadbrody

Banned
Re: If marriage is like a prison ...

And to whoever said that marriage and having a family is like prison, it is what you make it.

ouch, somebody said that? thats pretty sad.

If marriage is like having a prison, then I have a life sentence with a sweet, caring, visually stunning, emotionally and physically pleasing lover as my personal, eternal prison guard, warden, everything.
Can I get multiple life sentences please? ;)

Kramer from Seinfeld was the one to say "marriage is a man made prison"

But I was the one to post it
 
Just keep in mind that while almost everybody is physically capable of having kids doesn't mean everyone should. There are a lot of horror stories of people having kids and neglecting/abusing them not to mention people who have too many and cannot support them in any appreciable way.
 
Well that means I'm screwed. A family is just probably one of those things that our society and reality has denied me. By the time I could ever afford to properly raise any children and give it them what they need and properly teach them to deal with the world I will be too old, and that is if I am ever able to do it. The later seems probably and even more likely as time goes on. It makes me wonder, if it keeps on getting more expensive to properly bring children up in the world, does that mean eventually the scale of how much money you will need to do it will rise and less people will be able to do it other than in a half-assed way? Will all the masses of the poor be looked down upon when they do it? Considering that a lot of you consider a family and children an incredibly important part of life I wonder what that says. It sort of makes me feel sorry for the people that have a child or two and can't take care of it, and know they will never be able to give it any advantages or a good education. They will also have to keep hearing how other people think they were stupid to have them in the first place...keeping in mind a lot of those people still think a family is an important part of actually living.

I guess in a way it's not that bad. The world doesn't need my tainted genes being passed on. The more I look at the world and the people around me the more I realize I'm a dying breed. It seems everybody else gets more stupid and apathetic as time goes on while the people like me disappear. It's like I came from a different planet. I don't even think I would want my decedents to live in this type of world. I have to fight a uphill battle every day of my life against, my stupid neighbors, my community, our state, our country, and our world, that logically my brain tells me I'm going to lose unless I get lucky, even if my heart wants to tell me something different; I don't even want to think what they would have to go through. All the few good things of humanity's past are gone. At least then there was the actual advancement of humanity and a sliver of hope for the future. Hope is the last thing to die, but now the thread holding it up is starting to really get stretched. In the past people had a dream, whether that is the “American dream” or some other type of dream. Today more people don’t believe that. Even when stupid and apathetic they aren’t as gullible as they used to be. The dream died a while ago and for too many people is just a tool used by others used to create false hope for them to keep them as complacent as possible. Now we live in a more hollow world with more advanced toys that distract us from realizing just how hollow it is while we destroy ourselves. I don't know. Maybe when the last iota of life escapes from the grasp I have over it, I will just be doing no more than leaving a world, no matter how sad it makes me feel, that is getting what it deserves.
 

McRocket

Banned
Great, deep post D-rock.

If it's any tiny consolation, it sounds like you would make a better parent then most people.
For you apparently have the gift of self discovery. The courage to look at yourself and question yourself. No one grows unless they are prepared to really look inside - IMO.

As for what I think I child 'needs' from a parent.

- a safe, clean, relatively comfortable place to live. An apartment is fine.
- provides enough of the basics (food, clothing and access to adequate health care and education).
- a parent(s) that never lets their child doubt that they are loved unconditionally.
- a parent(s) that treats their child as an equal that is ignorant to the ways of the world and never talks down to them.
- a parent(s) that expects nothing from their child. Not love or gratitude or obedience or respect. Hopes for it? Sure. But never expects nor actively attempts to gain these things from their offspring. All these things must be earned by the parent. Not given blindly to them.
- a parent(s) that never does anything for the child that he or she truly does not want to do unless the child needs it (as opposed to just wants it). This helps to stop resentment.
- a parent(s) that allows/supports the child to be whatever they wish so long as it hurts no one else.
- and finally. A parent should have deliberately created a child so as to help the child's life. NOT for the child to help/enrich the parent's life. The latter should be looked upon as a happy bonus. Not an expectation.
 
You guys should get together and write parenting books.

Where the hell were y'all when my wife and I were struggling to raise ours?
 
You guys should get together and write parenting books.
Where the hell were y'all when my wife and I were struggling to raise ours?
Yet another POTW -- that's 3 in this thread alone!
I'd rep you but I can't -- damn good one!
 
A parent should have deliberately created a child so as to help the child's life. NOT for the child to help/enrich the parent's life. The latter should be looked upon as a happy bonus. Not an expectation.
Ya know what, I just realized something after McRocket posted this (although it hardly applies to him alone).
A lot of you guys are "do as I say not do as I do" type Puritans!
You can't step back and let anyone enjoy anything, let alone yourselves!
 

McRocket

Banned
Ya know what, I just realized something after McRocket posted this (although it hardly applies to him alone).
A lot of you guys are "do as I say not do as I do" type Puritans!
You can't step back and let anyone enjoy anything, let alone yourselves!

If that 'enjoyment' means hurting a child's life through bad parenting (not that I am accusing anyone on here of that), then you are correct.
Basically, I would like to see ALLOT less people have children then do now. Because I believe that most parents right now are not very good at it and are doing more harm then good to their children. And thusly, to the World.

And as for me? If you knew me personally I highly doubt you would call me a Puritan.
But I have certainly been called worse things - so I'll take it.
:)
 
Stop judging others with a narrow-focused set of conclusions ...

If that 'enjoyment' means hurting a child's life through bad parenting (not that I am accusing anyone on here of that), then you are correct.
By the continued statements and "definitions" on this list, you (among others) you'all seem to think -- no, you'all seem to demonize -- that even attempting to enjoy the thought of parenthood is mutually exclusive with being a good parent.

Basically, I would like to see ALLOT less people have children then do now. Because I believe that most parents right now are not very good at it and are doing more harm then good to their children. And thusly, to the World.
Most parenting is bad.
Most porn is bad.
Most "blah" is bad.

And as for me? If you knew me personally I highly doubt you would call me a Puritan.
Then you don't know the definition.
Many "Puritans" are not those who avoid sin, but consistently judge others -- often because they are judging themselves -- for those sins.
You have repeatedly shown that over and over and over again.
From parenting to porn now.

From your own admission in another thread, you have been granted many things that most of us did not have to start.
Yet we have struggled and sacrificed and done other things you have not.
And yet you have continued to judge us for your own "sins" or whatever else you feel you must judge everyone else because you judge yourself.

As I said before, please get over it!
I won't respond again and I shouldn't have in the first place.
But you just made the same point as you always do.

Utterly ignoring the fact that your relationships between concepts and conclusions thereof are narrow-minded and hardly applicable to many -- at least outside yourself.
Stop judging people so much, which I believe begins with stopping judgment of yourself.
 
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