Why not just talk to the pharmacist?

Because if he was the one who said it would be ok, what would complaining to him solve? I didn't think I would be advantaged by speaking to him directly.

FWIW, I've met one of Beverly's sons, and he's awesome. StY is a great person, and you should be proud of having raised him.

As for me, I'm too selfish to choose to be a parent. I like going out to dinner and sleeping in on weekends. I am lucky to be able to make that choice (both in the societal expectation sense and the legal sense) however, if I were to become a parent, I'd be the best damned mom I could,and my kids would be raised by the Buffista Village

I like going out to dinner and sleeping in on weekends.

I like those things.

Vortex, you are an awesome fucking aunt though. And an even better friend. Thank you.

Thank you, Vortex, he is a good man. And you're very kind (as well as gorgeous and awesome) to say so. Mostly I think I'm grateful he survived my mistakes.

I have only one itty bitty spoon right now and I need to use it to say,

Zenkitty, if you check the board, please don't call!! Just getting to bed and don't need to be up until 9 or so.

Fundriaser a success. Deets later. Sleep now.

smonster, I'm glad the fundraiser went well, and I hope you get the rest you need.

There have been times in my life when I thought I wanted a bunch of kids, and times when I was so convinced I would be a terrible parent that it was flat out better not to entertain the thought. At the moment I'm kinda thinking that I don't love the idea of having a kid graduate high school when I'm in my sixties, but if it were to happen I am confident that I would do like my parents did: which was to make some mistakes but generally do better by us than their parents did by them. I would build on what my parents did right, learn from some of their mistakes, and make a few of my own. My goal would be not to show my kid(s) what a perfect person looks like, but what it means to screw up and then work at owning up to the screw up, making amends, learning from it, and forgiving oneself. And hells yeah, I would lean on the Buffista Village.

Smonster, I'm glad the fundraiser went well.

I definitely want kids, and it is one of the main reasons why I am trying to figure out what to do about all my various health issues. But I definitely respect those who know it is not for them. ETA: This this is an interesting article that goes along with the conversation.

IOmemeN, I'm sore this morning, but not quite as sore as I thought I would be.

I'm ticked because I wrote a comment somewhere and it got lost. Because it takes me a while to write these things, argh. Not that I'm fooling myself that it will re-define the argument or anything...

Speaking of parenting:

The Bottom Line of Raising Kids: Parents Rationalize the Economic Cost of Children by Exaggerating Their Parental Joy

Any parent can tell you that raising a child is emotionally and intellectually draining. Despite their tales of professional sacrifice, financial hardship, and declines in marital satisfaction, many parents continue to insist that their children are an essential source of happiness and fulfillment in their lives. A new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that parents create rosy pictures of parental joy as a way to justify the huge investment that kids require.

...

The results were clear: Parents who had the high costs of children in mind were much more likely to say that they enjoyed spending time with their children, and they also anticipated spending more leisure time with their kids.

Eibach and Mock put their findings into a historical perspective: In an earlier time, kids actually had economic value; they worked on farms or brought home paychecks, and they didn’t cost that much. Not coincidentally, emotional relationships between parents and children were less affectionate back then. As the value of children has diminished, and the costs have escalated, the belief that parenthood is emotionally rewarding has gained currency. In that sense, the myth of parental joy is a modern psychological phenomenon.