Things that are WAAY overdue

[balok]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

You said you had three children. If you're not rigidly conservative and comformist then you don't like them?

My bad. I meant "childless".

I love small kids from birth up to school time. At that time they accept peer pressure and it's over, they only need the parent as a wallet. I have difficulty accepting fashions because I don't believe in them. When they get to be adults then it's way better. It's difficult to be a good parent and surviving at the same time.

Most school environments seem very unhealthy to me. Children are forced to stiffle their creativity and their individuality so they won't stand out in the crowd. So many counter-productive habits are learned that stay with them into adulthood. Anyone who has worked in an office knows that it's an adult version of a school yard: gossip, backstabbing, power struggles, gangs. These things are frowned upon in the real world, but in the school yard they are seen as normal.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by balok

Most school environments seem very unhealthy to me. Children are forced to stiffle their creativity and their individuality so they won't stand out in the crowd. So many counter-productive habits are learned that stay with them into adulthood. Anyone who has worked in an office knows that it's an adult version of a school yard: gossip, backstabbing, power struggles, gangs. These things are frowned upon in the real world, but in the school yard they are seen as normal.

True. But that's when I learned that I was resourceful and that I found the artist in me. Reading was also a great escape.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Waay overdue: Americans being the world's "comedy relief," a nation full of either Thurston Howell the millionths, or Jethro Bodines. It's time to show the world what the "wretched refuse" can do, when properly recycled.

[LazyScot]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Going shopping with my mother, all those years ago, taught me to just start at one end of the store and go aisle-to-aisle to the other end, and you don't have to backtrack.

Doesn't work. Tinned product A is out of stock, so I go back to get dried product Y or fresh product X. Later on product Q is available on special offer, which means I also want products U, I and M to make recipe 43.... And then there's the fact that the shopping list is never perfectly aligned with the shop, and that some items seem to mysteriously move about.

Of course, then I married a girl who just goes back and forth and back and forth and back and forth...

(In the store! In the store!)

Which proves a personal hypothesis that male sons are taught one way to do things by their mothers, but their daughters are taught two ways to do anything. Thus once a heterosexual relationship is established, the female can always tell the male that they are doing it wrong....

By the way, do you often get arrested in the store?

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Waay overdue: Americans being the world's "comedy relief," a nation full of either Thurston Howell the millionths, or Jethro Bodines. It's time to show the world what the "wretched refuse" can do, when properly recycled.

Couldn't they take on the role of the fall guy? (If anyone mentions Lee Majors, I have a trebuchet loaded with angry, half starved squirrels ready to deploy....)

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Waay overdue: Americans being the world's "comedy relief," a nation full of either Thurston Howell the millionths, or Jethro Bodines. It's time to show the world what the "wretched refuse" can do, when properly recycled.

I'm doing my best with Red stories....

(Speaking of things WAAY overdue...)

[GeoffC]

majors lee .... :chortle:

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Heavens - what I strange thing to say. I can't stand small children myself. Once they reach the age of 6 or 7 and become (hopefully) at least a little like civilized human being they are bearable, but before that, I try to avoid them like the plague .

I have to confess I prefer spending time with my nieces now they are older (they're 11 now). We had great fun on Saturday pretending to be explorers - apparently they're still talking about it!

Originally Posted by balok

From some of your posts regarding copyright infringement, I suspected you were a child childless person. You people tend to be rigidly conservative and conformist. Like robots. What a coincidence with your avatar.

From the reactions(*) I get when I say I'm married and that we're childless by choice I'd've thought it was more conformist to have children


(*) Waaaay overdue a change - the belief that a man & woman in a long term relationship, or married, should/must have/want children otherwise why would they be together?

[balok]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

I(*) Waaaay overdue a change - the belief that a man & woman in a long term relationship, or married, should/must have/want children otherwise why would they be together?

I would expect someone who buys an airplane to take it flying instead of just taxiing on the runway, satisfied as he is with just doing that.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by balok

I would expect someone who buys an airplane to take it flying instead of just taxiing on the runway, satisfied as he is with just doing that.

Exactly. Which is one of the main reasons why we have chosen not to have children. Another is that your average housebrick has more maternal feelings than I do. And then it gets into how fair it is to bring children into the world as it is at the moment, and whether or not we would make even half-way reasonable parents (I wouldn't). And so on.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by balok

I would expect someone who buys an airplane to take it flying instead of just taxiing on the runway, satisfied as he is with just doing that.

Heh... silly analogies. Try this one:

I can buy a Corvette and be completely satisfied with driving it on the streets. My satisfaction is not dependent on my entering a race with it.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by LazyScot

Couldn't they take on the role of the fall guy? (If anyone mentions Lee Majors, I have a trebuchet loaded with angry, half starved squirrels ready to deploy....)

I don't wanna by the Fall Guy, either. I wanna be... uh... Jim Rockford!

(Buh-duh-dump-bum! Wee-doo, we-de-doo-doo, wedowedowe-do-do-doo...!)

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

Exactly. Which is one of the main reasons why we have chosen not to have children. Another is that your average housebrick has more maternal feelings than I do. And then it gets into how fair it is to bring children into the world as it is at the moment, and whether or not we would make even half-way reasonable parents (I wouldn't). And so on.

You would be amazed at the mental changes in a pregnant body. I witnessed miracles in just about every woman I've met.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by ShortNCuddlyAm

..And then it gets into how fair it is to bring children into the world as it is at the moment, and whether or not we would make even half-way reasonable parents (I wouldn't).

I'm always puzzled that everyone says being a good parent is one of the most difficult jobs in the world; yet the assumption is that everyone can do it.

I agree that parenting is a difficult job, and getting more difficult all the time; so it seems self-evident to me that not everybody can do it.
It's a lot tougher than driving a car - and we have to take a test to show we can do that!

[balok]

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

I can buy a Corvette and be completely satisfied with driving it on the streets. My satisfaction is not dependent on my entering a race with it.

If making babies was just an accessory to having sex, then we would have an on/off switch, just like you can use a Corvette without driving fast. I think having a family is the primary goal of mariage. Like flying is the primary purpose of a plane.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

You would be amazed at the mental changes in a pregnant body. I witnessed miracles in just about every woman I've met.

We probably wouldn't have survived this long as a species if that didn't happen!