Who else is sick of hearing the laughter of children?

[cd2448]

I don't know about everyone else, but I would prefer to hear the laughter of children over most of the other noises they can be known to make.

Can I call you twenty-somethings hippocrates now, or in twenty years from now after some of you nay sayers actually procreate?

you got that right. smart money says that 70%-80% end up with kids

 

[Soulive]

I love the fact that all the "I'm never having kids" crowd always seems to forget that THEY WERE ONCE KIDS THEMSELVES, and if their parents hadn't had kids, they would not be here to complain about kids...


I don't have any kids yet, but I plan to.

+1 on both accounts...

 

[shafferpilot]

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, let's try not to get too personal.

There's this strange, strange thing that happens to people when they become parents...... They decide that the whole world instantly revolves around their little kid. Then there's this idea that suddenly they have all the answers to child raising, and everyone else has no clue. Plus any attack on any parent suddenly becomes a personal attack. It truly boggles me. I understand that most kids are well behaved, small versions of adults. Those kids are being raised by men and women like the ones here on HBT. But I do think it's reasonable to say that there are parents that are screwing up big time, and could benefit from some advice from, well, anybody 'cause whatever they're doing or not doing clearly isn't cutting it!

Drop public education? I'm thinking that's probably not a great answer. The vast majority of our highschool graduates (and dropouts) are not educated enough to get anything approaching a real job. Sure they're qualified to work at McDonald's, but that does the country no good at all. Those kids used to be able to go and work in the factories and earn a reasonable living, but well educated people some years ago decided that it would be better for our country to give those jobs to computers, Mexicans, Chinese, Thai, etc etc etc.... Now we're in quite a pinch. Millions of under-educated well-fare recipients who are reproducing like rabbits. Take a guess what their kids are going to do with their lives. I don't pretend to have a great answer here, but we are definitely in trouble. Personally, I don't blame education..... I blame the people who decided that America was ready to open the doors to the world market in every way possible instead of doing it slowly, one industry at a time, and carefully considering the consequences.

Frankly, at this point, I'm not sure I can blaim kids today for not respecting the people that have come before them. Take a look at the economic mess that we're handing them. I'd be pretty pissed too.

 

[RodfatherX]

Everyone's entitled to their opinion, let's try not to get too personal.

There's this strange, strange thing that happens to people when they become parents...... They decide that the whole world instantly revolves around their little kid. Then there's this idea that suddenly they have all the answers to child raising, and everyone else has no clue. Plus any attack on any parent suddenly becomes a personal attack. It truly boggles me. I understand that most kids are well behaved, small versions of adults. Those kids are being raised by men and women like the ones here on HBT. But I do think it's reasonable to say that there are parents that are screwing up big time, and could benefit from some advice from, well, anybody 'cause whatever they're doing or not doing clearly isn't cutting it!

Drop public education? I'm thinking that's probably not a great answer. The vast majority of our highschool graduates (and dropouts) are not educated enough to get anything approaching a real job. Sure they're qualified to work at McDonald's, but that does the country no good at all. Those kids used to be able to go and work in the factories and earn a reasonable living, but well educated people some years ago decided that it would be better for our country to give those jobs to computers, Mexicans, Chinese, Thai, etc etc etc.... Now we're in quite a pinch. Millions of under-educated well-fare recipients who are reproducing like rabbits. Take a guess what their kids are going to do with their lives. I don't pretend to have a great answer here, but we are definitely in trouble. Personally, I don't blame education..... I blame the people who decided that America was ready to open the doors to the world market in every way possible instead of doing it slowly, one industry at a time, and carefully considering the consequences.

Frankly, at this point, I'm not sure I can blaim kids today for not respecting the people that have come before them. Take a look at the economic mess that we're handing them. I'd be pretty pissed too.

This is exactly why I was just saying in another thread that I hate the global economy. We are in a pickle of a mess all together. All of our jobs now are all service jobs. It was the factories and production that turned this country into a super power.

 

[the_bird]

What do you propose, though? Keep all the crappy manufacturing jobs here? Who makes the decisions which industries are allowed to go global?

THE GOVERNMENT?!?!?!

I hate to say is, Shaffer, but this statement:

I blame the people who decided that America was ready to open the doors to the world market in every way possible instead of doing it slowly, one industry at a time, and carefully considering the consequences.

... is really as Socialist as it comes. "Who" should be making those decisions, other than the marketplace?

The solution isn't keeping crappy jobs here... it's making the population educated enough and having enough skills to succeed in newer industries. Better for your kids to grow up with a good education and learn how to design something rather than sit on an assembly line and just put it together.

 

[BrewWench]

I love the fact that all the "I'm never having kids" crowd always seems to forget that THEY WERE ONCE KIDS THEMSELVES, and if their parents hadn't had kids, they would not be here to complain about kids...

Haha, that is great logic right there. Right up there with "But your kid might end up curing cancer!" and "kids aren't THAT bad!"

Nope, still not convinced. Some people really don't reproduce and they're not bad people for it, and they have their own reasons that don't affect anyone else.

 

[BierMuncher]

I say we go talk about some beer.

Anyone know where I can get a keggle?