Two things I tell the college seniors in this group I am a part of is to seriously think about and work at meeting mates in college and to not dismiss having children early. Most of them give me the fisheye, but those are still two of my core pieces of advice.
Yeah, but, if I'd married my college boyfriend (and we came close) we would have been miserable. Would I have kids now? Maybe, but what would the cost have been?
I did get married early, but it really wasn't in the plan. My mother got married college age and had to partly derail her career path for me and my dad.
She had to leave to take me to Dr.'s appointments, or couldn't come in because I was sick, or I had a school thing. Whatever. And when she and my dad divorced things got even worse for her.
Once I reached driving age, she went back to school, got her MBA now she pretty much runs the city's systems.
I wonder if things wouldn't have been different for her (and by extension me) if she hadn't waited to get married until she and dad had been in the real world for a while and waited to have me until she was firmly on a career path and had been married to dad for longer.
Which is to say, sometimes it seems like those stories like the NPR one this morning are designed to keep women paranoid that they must follow the path similar to our mothers' or end up childless and alone.
The poodle was called Trouble, apprently, but we are probably changing his name to Truman. We'll have to see how "Truman-y" he is. He has been outside his whole life, so they don't even know if he's housebroken (although they think he might be).
OMG, if I didn't know people who spout that BS like gospel, I would say that review had to be a joke!
What? You're joking. People actually believe that? Joking about tossing the baby out the window or selling it to the Gypsies is TOTALLY normal. And expected.
Forgot to say, yay, Scrappy! Some friends of my mom's have had standard Poodles throughout their marriage, and they utterly love the breed. Smart, stubborn, loyal, quirky, interesting, athletic: they can't say enough good things about them.
What? You're joking. People actually believe that? Joking about tossing the baby out the window or selling it to the Gypsies is TOTALLY normal. And expected.
Yes. People actually believe that. It's the cult of parenting. Be afraid, be very afraid.
If they're not careful, I can see some people we know falling prey to it if and when the time comes. Interventions may be required.
If they're not careful, I can see some people we know falling prey to it if and when the time comes. Interventions may be required.
I know who you're talking about, and don't worry. The intervention plans are already made.
New puppy! Have fun, Scrappy.
I wasn't going to link to this, because I'm not one of those horrifying link posters, but you people were the ones who shared the damned dead duck story, so therefore are fair game: [link] At least there is nothing dead involved. I guess?
Just to clarify, all I am encouraging them to do is to think about college as probably their best time to meet potential mates, not to necessarily get married right then.
There is always going to be a sacrifice for a woman having a baby. But waiting doesn't necessarily stave that off. The biological stuff is a much more sure fire thing, you will probably have a harder time, there will be higher risks. Having children before you are emotionally ready would be a bad idea, but putting it off when you are emotionally ready is something I saw lots of my friends do because they just never really believed they would have problems.
And I still have to leave work if mac gets sick or has an appointment, and one parent always will - it shouldn't always have to be the mom, but missing work is going to happen - that is whether you have them at 25 or 45 - unless you have a nanny.
sarameg, links to interspecies forcible lewd acts are NOT OKAY.
I am going to have to separate you from ita. She's rubbing off on you.
I didn't say it was ok! Just that nothing died.
