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.

Yesterday was a bad day, but I overheard something on the bus that made me smile. The setting - a fairly crowded city bus; the speaker - a mother giving her son what-for over being stupid in school. She said, "I don't want you going into a downward spiral like Charlie Sheen."

smonster, of course I didn't check the board, and I'm sorry I woke you up early! From now on, if you don't want to be woke up, you don't have to answer! It doesn't bother me to call; I'm up anyway. I'm glad the fundraiser went well.

Dear Fellow Board Members - I get that I'm the secretary of the board, and therefore do the minutes. what that does not mean is that you never have to write anything down or pay attention. It is a pain in the ass to type up shit for you for you to cut and paste or forward to someone else. When you say "I will take care of this list of things" WRITE THE FUCKING LIST DOWN WHEN WE GO OVER IT. Do not call me the next day and ask me to send it to you.

So, your board is made up of my students?