Studies show having children sucks, having more children even more so

[IndyColtsFan]

I like to do somewhat more interesting things with my time off than go camping in state parks.

Exactly. Try dragging junior on a multi-week trip through Europe, for example. I don't recall seeing a playroom for kids at the Louvre.

 

[SunnyD]

Unless you make $250K+, then yea, it's all the same. You get lower taxes, you send 5 kids to public schools instead of 2, 5 kids get funding for whatever blah blah blah.

You may be in the minority if you make enough to support all your kids, but most people who have 5 kids are subsidized heavily by other tax payers.

Good to see you don't have a fucking clue. Do you know without a doubt my kids even go to public school? Do you know what my tax rate is? Here's a few other tidbits for you, my tax base is far higher than yours. I probably pay about four times as much in sales taxes alone than you do just to support my kids. Pay less taxes? Sure. But here's a hint, those five kids of mine will all be paying taxes as well once they become wage-earners. So guess what bucky, your present will be subsidized more than five times over by my future. Okay, fine, comparing apples to oranges here I guess, since you're probably too near-sighted to see things like that.

You need to get off your high horse and stop thinking everybody with a large family has to be leeching off the government, because I can assure you you're dead wrong.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Yeah as if having a kid is a get-out-of-nursing home card. 95% of kids these days have no qualms about stuffing their parents in an old-folks home.

And even kids who DO care about their parents may have to put them in a nursing home. My mother has medical issues and what it will probably come down to eventually is that she will have to live in some sort of assisted living facility. Otherwise, my brothers or I would have to quit our jobs and take care of her full time. There is no way that can, or will, happen. It does suck, but what else can you do?

 

[IndyColtsFan]

Not yet, I just finished my 23rd year of life.

Call me when you have kids and want to take that multi-week trip around Europe or Asia and tell me how it went. You'll then understand what we're talking about. A camping trip or driving to Disney World or the next state over isn't the "vacation" we're referring to when we say that young kids make it very difficult to enjoy vacations.

 

[MJinZ]

Good to see you don't have a fucking clue. Do you know without a doubt my kids even go to public school? Do you know what my tax rate is? Here's a few other tidbits for you, my tax base is far higher than yours. I probably pay about four times as much in sales taxes alone than you do just to support my kids. Pay less taxes? Sure. But here's a hint, those five kids of mine will all be paying taxes as well once they become wage-earners. So guess what bucky, your present will be subsidized more than five times over by my future. Okay, fine, comparing apples to oranges here I guess, since you're probably too near-sighted to see things like that.

You need to get off your high horse and stop thinking everybody with a large family has to be leeching off the government, because I can assure you you're dead wrong.

Large family leeches more than Small Family.

Are you happy with that?

I did say that you may be an exception if you are a high earner. Regardless, more kids you have, the more, on average, they are a burden on tax payers.

 

[MJinZ]

Call me when you have kids and want to take that multi-week trip around Europe or Asia and tell me how it went. You'll then understand what we're talking about. A camping trip or driving to Disney World or the next state over isn't the "vacation" we're referring to when we say that young kids make it very difficult to enjoy vacations.

For me, it's going to be a lot easier since my parents would love to have grand kids and be apart of their lives. I can probably dump the kids on grandma and grandpa and go to Paris at any time. :sneaky:

Regardless, if you want it to work out, it'll work out. Might take a little sacrifice here and there to pay for camps or baby sitting, but it's not impossible.

 

[ixelion]

Our government already supports enough mothers who have 15 kids by 15 different baby daddies. Taxpayers don't need to support any more deadbeats, we already are supporting too many.

Translation: take more money from people like me to subsidize other people's kids.

F that.

I think my example, and the study's typical case, is of an average middle class household. Of course I was not suggesting any specific welfare policy I was merely suggesting that depression isn't necessarily caused exclusively by having children. There are other broader social problems that can cause depression.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

For me, it's going to be a lot easier since my parents would love to have grand kids and be apart of their lives. I can probably dump the kids on grandma and grandpa and go to Paris at any time. :sneaky:

Regardless, if you want it to work out, it'll work out. Might take a little sacrifice here and there to pay for camps or baby sitting, but it's not impossible.

I don't recall anyone saying it was impossible. What we said was that it makes things more complicated and expensive and in our world view, it isn't worth it. I happen to enjoy kids quite a bit, but I just don't want that responsibility and expense.

 

[SP33Demon]

And even kids who DO care about their parents may have to put them in a nursing home. My mother has medical issues and what it will probably come down to eventually is that she will have to live in some sort of assisted living facility. Otherwise, my brothers or I would have to quit our jobs and take care of her full time. There is no way that can, or will, happen. It does suck, but what else can you do?

You could just as easily say that the kids are putting their parents in a nursing home with good intentions of improving their quality of life vs suffering and dying in a rocking chair. We hear many horror stories about nursing homes but there are some good ones out there. I'd rather see my parents getting attended to vice dying in a rocking chair in the backyard while I'm at work. Just have to do your research on what the best places are to care for the elderly.

 

[IndyColtsFan]

You could just as easily say that the kids are putting their parents in a nursing home with good intentions of improving their quality of life vs suffering and dying in a rocking chair.

Exactly. I don't think most people put their parents into a home because they're mean or nasty, but because they can't take care of the parent because 1) lack of time -- people can't be expected to quit their jobs to take care of mom and dad and 2) lack of knowledge -- I am not a health care pro and have no clue how to take care of sick/injured people.

It will probably come to that for my family eventually. And to be honest, even though I know it will be the right thing to do, I will feel like crap doing it. But we would have no other choice. I can't give up my job and live in poverty to take care of someone.

 

[SunnyD]

For me, it's going to be a lot easier since my parents would love to have grand kids and be apart of their lives. I can probably dump the kids on grandma and grandpa and go to Paris at any time. :sneaky:

Regardless, if you want it to work out, it'll work out. Might take a little sacrifice here and there to pay for camps or baby sitting, but it's not impossible.

World class parent in the making here. Way to go! Keep up the good work.

This kind of mentality right here is exactly why "families" have an overall shitty reputation in the US today.

 

[MJinZ]

I don't recall anyone saying it was impossible. What we said was that it makes things more complicated and expensive and in our world view, it isn't worth it. I happen to enjoy kids quite a bit, but I just don't want that responsibility and expense.

I wasn't saying you were, but some people here are definitely arguing that.

ppatin:
"Having kids means you'll be denied a huge number of experiences though (I love to travel, see the world, have adventures) and IMO losing those opportunities is the biggest drawback to reproducing."

 

[child of wonder]

To be fair, some of the things that Modelworks pointed out are simple lifestyle changes which would have little to no bearing on quality of life. It's more of a question of what kind of light you paint yourself in. I see a lot of redundant and unnecessary things in that financial list. However some people think life status is about having shit. That's fine with me, but don't bitch about it.

And who are any of us to say that his children will be happier or have better lives if they cut expenses and his wife quits her job?

My parents had to work two jobs to support our family. My childhood was happy and rewarding.

People who think they know how to better run everyone else's lives should f*ck off.

 

[MJinZ]

World class parent in the making here. Way to go! Keep up the good work.

This kind of mentality right here is exactly why "families" have an overall shitty reputation in the US today.

Having 5 kids isn't going to affect the amount of care and attention each one receives at all either!

 

[IndyColtsFan]

I wasn't saying you were, but some people here are definitely arguing that.

ppatin:
"Having kids means you'll be denied a huge number of experiences though (I love to travel, see the world, have adventures) and IMO losing those opportunities is the biggest drawback to reproducing."

For many, it would deny those opportunities. I don't remember who it was (maybe Oilfieldtrash?) who explained it well. In a nutshell, if you have enough money, anything is possible. If you aren't wealthy, then many of those things border on impossible once you have kids.

 

[MJinZ]

For many, it would deny those opportunities. I don't remember who it was (maybe Oilfieldtrash?) who explained it well. In a nutshell, if you have enough money, anything is possible. If you aren't wealthy, then many of those things border on impossible once you have kids.

Uhh... the money at this point is fairly irrelevant if we are talking about lots of travel, trips, and adventures.

You need to make good money to begin with in order to enjoy all of these "opportunities" you'd be "denied". And plenty of vacation time.

 

[nick1985]

Uhh... the money at this point is fairly irrelevant if we are talking about lots of travel, trips, and adventures.

You need to make good money to begin with in order to enjoy all of these "opportunities" you'd be "denied".

Not really. A married couple, both working and bringing home modest salaries (40-50k), can afford lots of travel, trips, and adventures. A mortgage on a decent house isnt too bad, and a couple car payments and some utilities would yield at least 2k extra a month.

 

[MJinZ]

Not really. A married couple, both working and bringing home modest salaries (40-50k), can afford lots of travel, trips, and adventures. A mortgage on a decent house isnt too bad, and a couple car payments and some utilities would yield at least 2k extra a month.

With that kind of job making piddly $50k, you're not going to have the vacation time given to you to do what you're talking about.

 

[nick1985]

With that kind of job making piddly $50k, you're not going to have the vacation time given to you to do what you're talking about.

You just love making wild claims dont you?

Right now I make between 40-50k, and accrue 1.2 hours of vacation time for every 10 hours I work. You doubt that I have the time to take vacations? lol, I have almost 2 months worth of vacation saved up already, and thats in just over 2 years of work.

 

[lxskllr]

Exactly. Try dragging junior on a multi-week trip through Europe, for example. I don't recall seeing a playroom for kids at the Louvre.

If you're dropping the kids off at playroom when you're in a foreign country, you're a complete failure at life. Kids can do anything an adult can do. They're a bit slower at it, but it'll get done.

 

[her209]

But if you don't have kids, how do you make yourself feel superior to those around you?

 

[MJinZ]

You just love making wild claims dont you?

Right now I make between 40-50k, and accrue 1.2 hours of vacation time for every 10 hours I work. You doubt that I have the time to take vacations? lol, I have almost 2 months worth of vacation saved up already, and thats in just over 2 years of work.

So you have 1 month of vacation a year. Wow, what kind of awesome, wild, crazy adventures are you going to do?

 

[Fingolfin269]

So you have 1 month of vacation a year. Wow, what kind of awesome, wild, crazy adventures are you going to do?

You are a sad person. Please just stop trolling.

 

[PimpJuice]

this.

25 here, no kids. Dont ever want kids either. Fuck that

I think everyone is in agreement that you shouldn't procreate, glad you agree.

 

[MJinZ]

You are a sad person. Please just stop trolling.

Are you a dumbass?

Anyone claiming to be doing a lot of traveling and fun stuff in life REQUIRES a large amount of earnings and the ability to use it. This is FACT.