It's good to have kids
if it's done at the right time and for the right reasons. I'm glad that I had mine early, as I have had the energy to keep up with them- most of my kids' friends have parents who are considerable older and stodgier than I am. I'm something of a rarity in that I keep in contact with what's current in music and society, ya know?

At the same time, I think we had them for the wrong reasons. Nurse Ratched was raised by a fanatical Catholic, as I've mentioned, so she was programmed early on to think that the key to life was to get married, buy a house and start pumping out babies as soon as possible. She bought into the whole Barbie and Ken/Brady Bunch illusion of how idyllic life would be with a house and kids and a dog.

The reality, of course, is sleep interrupted by small children, getting up early on Saturdays, cleaning shit off someone else before you've even had coffee, cutting up someone else's food for about five years, not going to nice restaurants unless you have a baby sitter, huge amounts of laundry and dishes to be washed and a house to be cleaned in the few free moments you get while the kids are watching TV or something, having nothing fragile or sharp anywhere in the house unless it's locked away where you can guarantee that they can't reach it, and dealing with lots of colds and other minor illnesses that you too will get. It's a LOT of work, and generally involves having to put your needs second or third on the list. Odds are that your sex life will take a SERIOUS hit for a while, as you'll be tired and have to be careful not to wake the kids- it will no longer be spontaneous, but will have to be scheduled and will detract from your already minimal sleep.

Many people get into the situation, realize that it's really not as easy and fun and sweet as they show you on TV and feel cheated and disillusioned. Sometimes they take it out on their spouse. Sometimes they turn to drink. Sometimes they go out and find someone else to take care of their needs and make them feel young and sexy again.

I blame much of the increase in divorce rates on the influence of TV sitcoms and the marketing that goes with Barbie dolls and such. *shrug* People are inundated with that sort of imagery as children and have an utterly unrealistic view of what parenthood is really like, get disillusioned when they find out the reality, and things go deeply bad.

Like I said before- think long and hard before you make any decisions.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 24 Nov 2008, 14:56, Reply)