Stop having so many damn kids; population control, anyone?

[GeezerSue 7]

Hey, Carlene...I'm not moving my mom in here even though she may be on some kind of welfare I'm not even aware of!!! (LOL) I mean BEYOND the obvious Social Security and Medicare stuff. (But not because of too many flushes...because she's, you know, my role model for "cranky.")

Her assisted living place was originally a joint venture between the company and the city and a community college (it was built on college land.) A certain number of the units in the buiding have sliding scale rent, based on income. Mom has been paying full freight becaue there were no low-income slots available when we felt she needed to move in, but someone is moving out so she is going to experience a rent reduction of between $500 and $1050 per month. Thing is, I don't know who is picking up the tab for the difference.

So, I'm going easy on welfare people this week! ;-D

[Carlene 12]

This IS America, and we all share the burden, one way or another.

My point exactly. I share the cost for services I don't use (my local rec center, for example, and the dog park and the Holiday thing going on as we speak, and the public swimming pools, etc). Young people pick up the tab for the senior citizens' center (I don't go there, either, but I'm constantly trying to get my mother-in-law interested), old people still pay school taxes. Once we start nit-picking how one group uses more public resources than another, there will be no logical stopping point.

We have to allow other people to live as they choose - not as we would have them live.

When we moved from the country in 1977 to a suburb of Ft Worth, a crotchety old neighbor told my four year-old that there was a law against having more than 3 animals (we had 4 - two dogs and two cats). Christa asked me if this was true. "I don't know", I said.

"But what if they have a law like that against children?" (We had 4 children, too.)

"Well", I said with my best straight face, "I guess one of you will just have to go live with Granny George."

To a child who had lived her whole life in an area where there were few restraints on lifestyle, this seemed like a perfectly reasonable comparison. All my kids had a hard time understanding "city" rules. No go-cart riding on public streets. No Halloween bon fires (or trash burning) in the backyard. No horses. No pet raccoons. These are some of the things you trade for living in a metropolitan area, I know. In return you get professional firefighters and EMTs instead of Randy from the service station who volunteers part-time to put out fires and save lives, and you get proximity to the airport, and shopping malls, and better jobs.

The thing is, we CHOSE to move. No one made us. I'm all for choices (most choices, anyway). I'm against making people limit their families to a size that someone else considers "reasonable". I'm against making people sell their homes if they don't want to. Who cares if the Dallas Cowboys want to build a new stadium and my house is sitting on the proposed 50 yard line? It's my house! It's already here! Go find yourself another place to build your ugly, traffic-clogging, over-rated stadium!

I think the government already has too much authority over our lives. I'm against giving them one iota more.

[Carlene 12]

So, I'm going easy on welfare people this week! ;-D

Good call.

My MIL was originally going to move into an assisted living place in W VA, where she lived, where all her friends are, but she has too much money to qualify for the low-income subsidy. So she refused. Because she didn't want to pay full freight. She has more money than she will ever spend (she's almost 87), but NOTHING is more important to her than hanging onto it. So her two "boys" can spend it, I guess. I told her one time that that was the wrong thing to do because Mary (my SIL) and I will start spending it as soon as she dies. You should have seen her face! I thought she was going to self-destruct right before my eyes!

[Jachut 487]

Hmmm, I dont know about you but I'd kind of like there to be some taxpayers keeping things together when I'm old. I've already come to terms with the fact that there's not going to be any pension for me, I'm going to have to fund my own retirement, but the whole economy is going to be very different because overall people arent having enough children.

Its easy to think they are when you see families with a huge number, but we're overall having them much later and in much smaller quantities.

[Katgirl 0]

Weird religious people scare me too, Ariel.

Kat.

[~Jules~ 0]

I personally have not had any children. It was a personal choice for a while, then after my hysterctomy, it was no longer an option. I have no problem with people that want a whole slew of children. I would adopt if it wasn't so damned expensive. :-(

[the best me 6]

Population Control would be much better handled with the enforcement of immigration laws, not with taking away the reproductive freedoms of Americans. I wish I could afford 15 kids. I'd love to raise a huge quiver full of religious nutheads. :confused:

[Big girl banded 0]

I worked in child protective services for awhile. families had "farmed" children out bc they could care for them... only to make more. One mother had 17 children. She was a functioning addict She was also a grandmother. She was 35.

Tanf is just a fancy term for welfare. Families still get foodstamps and other services that go with it, and once they have another baby they get exteneded another 3 yrs, and if they live in the projects they pay anywhere from $2.00 a month - 150.00 a month to live. food stamps for 1 adult and 4 children is almost 1100.00 a month. I know even UN BANDED i couldnt fathom eating that much food.

It is a game on how to get the money. Too many kids is not good. It is hard on many structures of life.

I am not against large families. some people can do it ok, but most people can not pull it off this day and age.

Consider me a little saddened and jaded by the "system"

[Carlene 12]

I wish I could afford 15 kids. I'd love to raise a huge quiver full of religious nutheads. :confused:

Why do you (and others) assume that fundamentalists are "nutheads" or "weird religious people"?

I'm Catholic....I think Baptists are a little strange. What's wrong with dancing, for heaven's sake? And those little Shirley Temple curls that (orthodox) Jewish men wear? What's that about? And having your Rabbi perform your son's circumsision....wow!

Church of Christ...now there's an odd group. They don't allow music in their worship services. Singing, yes - music, no. Most music sounds way better than my singing, by the way. Be glad that I don't belong to your church.

[the best me 6]

I just read this article on the "Quiverfull" movement where the idea is to have as many kids as possible and that "God is the only one who can open or close the womb". Some of these idiots have 12, 18 and 20 kids. ~Sunta

weird religious people scare me~ Ariel, et al.

I admire these quiverfull-thinking folks, who are considered religious nut heads by a few here. I suppose I took it a bit persoanlly? Kind of like slamming red heads at a party and turning around to find one staring at you, mortified. It's a shame we aren't all tolorated and respected for our personal convictions, and in this case, those convictions regarding procreation. Instead "we" are berated and belittled and called names. I only have my "approved" 2 children, but my heart is aligned to those who are able to and want to bear more. Alot more. Just tired of being, what I percieve to be, maligned. Oops. I'm not good at sarcasm, either, so I have a hard time standing up for myself.

We drink chicken blood at our church, you wouldn't like it Carlene. :confused:

(that was sarcastic and an attempt at humor, in case anyone missed it)

[Carlene 12]

We drink chicken blood at our church, you wouldn't like it Carlene. :confused:

Nope....wouldn't like it at all. We drink wine. More people should drink wine in church, if you ask me.

[Big girl banded 0]

My mom says you should only have as many children as you can GRAB at one time. After that it is too tiring. :confused:

She says she loves all of us (3) but she still thinks that she had one too many. We laugh alot about which one she could "return"

and which child gave her the fit that made her come to that conclusion :Banane19:

[Carlene 12]

My mom says you should only have as many children as you can GRAB at one time. After that it is too tiring. :confused:

She says she loves all of us (3) but she still thinks that she had one too many. We laugh alot about which one she could "return"

and which child gave her the fit that made her come to that conclusion :Banane19:

I had 3 boys, then a girl. If my daughter had been born first, she would have been an only child.

[Big girl banded 0]

I had 3 boys, then a girl. If my daughter had been born first, she would have been an only child.

:biggrin1: :biggrin1: :biggrin1: That is hysterical!!

[wootsie73 0]

I have to agree with almost everyone on a few points they have made. I don't think we should be trying to limit how many children people have. They do that in Communist China and baby girls are routinely killed, because they are girls instead of boys. They have a limit of 2 children and then the one of the parents are sterilized; normally the mother. However, I do believe some peoople take things to far, rather it be for religious reasons or just plain irresponsibility. For example, some 35-40 year old adults receiving welfare have been in the welfare system their entire lives. Then, you have people in plural marriages that are illegal and they receive welfare, medicaid and food stamps, because all but 1 of the mothers are considered single moms with some of them having up to 15 children each. Sometimes there are estimated 50-60 children in 1 marriage. So, all of these situations put a strain on the economy and our entire society.

If people choose not to have children, it doesn't matter to me. I had 1 child while my brother had 4. That was a decision I made when my daughter was very young and I haven't regretted it. But children do tend to get on my nerves sometimes. I just believe that's a personal choice we as American's have the right to make.

I definitely agree with Carlene about the eminent domain issue. When someone purchases a home or a piece of property in the USA, they believe that property will belong to them forever. But, the government has decided we as individuals aren't important anymore, so they are forcing tax paying citizens out of their homes to build football stadiums, such as the 1 for the Dallas Cowboys being built in Arlington, TX, expensive condos on the beach, etc.

All in all, there are lots of issues with few answers. Children do not choose to be born, so it's not right to take their food away from them. Lots of families live in the same house as the parents age due to not only financial reasons, but because they need someone to take care of them and no one really wants to go to a nursing home. Sometimes they are mobile and don't need to be in a nursing home, but are not stable enough to live on their own anymore. Every situation is different but, people should not have more children than they can afford to feed and clothe, so it is definitely a big social problem.