Beck:
Come hang out at my house with the Real Housewives of WNY and tell me how bad your life is.
It seems everyone in our group of friends decided to get pregnant at the same time. There’s probably 8-10 families that my daughter is around on a monthly basis. They do swim classes and music classes and all that crapola. For me, it’s more about whether I’m comfortable with the people I’m forced to hang out with. Oh and if I’d be comfortable with them watching my daughter for 24 hours. I treat it like dating. Would I date this couple? Do I want to see this couple on a weekly basis? Would I feel comfortable with this man watching our daughter’s swim meets? Do their kids suck? What do they do for a living? I REALLY don’t want to hang out with a mathematician on my free time. (Sorry Mathematicians). With WNY being so small, you tend to meet a lot of people through “Oh, my sister just had a baby too! You guys should totally hang out and have a play date”. We’ve had a few, which were like bad first dates. THOSE parents never got a call back.
Growing up my parents had very similar circumstances. Friends/family all had a dozen or so kids all within a few years of each other. Dads were at work, mom’s hung out with the kids. I don’t know if our parents had the economic means that we do, so it was more or less play dates at the house. I don’t think I was ever on a plane until my teens. Now at 18-24 months our kids are going on trips to other countries, the god damn super bowl, $100 music lessons, weekly swim classes, the zoo on a weekly basis, etc.
A $100 dollar music lesson better be from Miles fucking Davis. I took drum lessons from a killer teacher with his own book and it was $26/hr. I realize there is inflation but good lord.
Ha. You wouldn’t believe the amount of people that tell me it’s not okay to not want children.
Beck:
Come hang out at my house with the Real Housewives of WNY and tell me how bad your life is.
It seems everyone in our group of friends decided to get pregnant at the same time. There’s probably 8-10 families that my daughter is around on a monthly basis. They do swim classes and music classes and all that crapola. For me, it’s more about whether I’m comfortable with the people I’m forced to hang out with. Oh and if I’d be comfortable with them watching my daughter for 24 hours. I treat it like dating. Would I date this couple? Do I want to see this couple on a weekly basis? Would I feel comfortable with this man watching our daughter’s swim meets? Do their kids suck? What do they do for a living? I REALLY don’t want to hang out with a mathematician on my free time. (Sorry Mathematicians). With WNY being so small, you tend to meet a lot of people through “Oh, my sister just had a baby too! You guys should totally hang out and have a play date”. We’ve had a few, which were like bad first dates. THOSE parents never got a call back.
Growing up my parents had very similar circumstances. Friends/family all had a dozen or so kids all within a few years of each other. Dads were at work, mom’s hung out with the kids. I don’t know if our parents had the economic means that we do, so it was more or less play dates at the house. I don’t think I was ever on a plane until my teens. Now at 18-24 months our kids are going on trips to other countries, the god damn super bowl, $100 music lessons, weekly swim classes, the zoo on a weekly basis, etc.
I think our generation is typically more willing to assume more debt than go without what we want. But I guess this is true of many successive generations. By design it makes a lot of people indentured to the very wealthy… I try not to pass judgement on people who seem to be spending a lot of money (unless they’re buying tacky shit) – they could even be trust fund babies, especially in SE Michigan!
7+ BILLION people on this planet…and I’d bet that 99% of them serve no true purpose.