Thu-1-May-2008 - Taking frugal too far . . . .
I really enjoyed this article, I followed a link from a link from a link - somewhere back there is the terrific website Ladies Against Feminisim which eventually landed me here.
Please notice the highlighted part of a quote from a mother of three. Notice what people assume it takes to raise a child!
It appears that Pamela Paul, the author of this intriguing-sounding book: "Parenting Inc.: How We Are Sold on $800 Strollers, Fetal Education, Baby Sign Language, Sleeping Coaches, Toddler Couture, and Diaper Wipe Warmers -- and What It Means for Our Children" wrote an article titled Three Kids? You Showoffs. Here is a glorious excerpt:
"Today's American children, by contrast, get an average of 70 new toys a year, yet child development experts agree that the best toys are simple playthings such as blocks, balls and figurines that a child can play with over and over, in new ways. When I was growing up, a sticker was something precious that a stationery store owner would carefully cut off a roll and sell for 25 cents. Today, a made-in-China jumbo book of 600 stickers can be bought at CVS for $6.99. Something has been lost in this ostensibly positive development.
Far from inducing feelings of inadequacy, saying no to the parenting consumer culture should make parents feel all the wiser. And conversely, no one should have to feel that they should refrain from having a child for fear of being accused of snobbery.
Since her own pokes at deluxe families last year, Molly Jong-Fast has become a mother of three herself, having recently given birth to twins. "I don't blame people for having more, if they can," she told me. "If we had unlimited resources, I think we'd have more children, too."
As for my husband and me, we hardly have unlimited resources, but we're still planning to go forth and multiply in the big city. The way we figure it, one day our children will be grateful for what we didn't give them -- and what we did for them instead."
Ooooh, exactly! Like, happy to be alive. If you would like to read the rest of the article, it's HERE.
What gets me is when people start to talk about farmers; like if you live on a piece of land you don't have real children. As a farmer, your farm wife births obedient, industrious little children that start weeding the garden, making looped pot holders to sell on Ebay and milking the cows without ever requiring much of an investment. But of course I'd have more children if I was in agriculture! Children used to be of such benifit to people that lived off the land.
Yeah, right. They never played when they were supposed to be working or were snake bit or ripped holes in their painfully hand-made clothes or neglected to feed the pigs. Ever. They don't even need trained to work - their grubby little hands start producing helpfulness as so as they can grasp a untensil. Talk about a terrific, instantly rewarding investment! How cool is that?
Tell you what, I have a hard time grasping such a difficult, stressful, doubtful long-term investment. Esspecially when the only dishwasher and clothes washer and dryer and maker and mender and everything elser is me. I mean, look around. There have always been good children to bad parents and bad children to good ones. How do you have any idea if you are going to clothe, feed, sweat over a good financial investment or a bad one?
Thank God today for your parents, your grandparents, even your great grand-parents. Because even if they had high hopes of financial return and that's why they were all busy having your ancestors, I just bet that somewhere along the line reality hit. And to have a child, or even children without most or all of our modern conviences . . . . we are the decendants of some very courageous people!
Ashley
Comments
Thu-1-May-2008 - Untitled Comment
Posted by gokings13
It is a poverty when children are looked at as a commodity that is supposed to give them 'some return on investment'.
Maybe this is why abortion is so prevalent? I don't know...
My kids played with old kitchen spoons, in the dirt in the back yard. Today, my 16 son, after tilling a flower garden bed for me, built a 'lean to' out of old tree limbs and things he found in the back yard? I guess I am raising weirdos!! HA HA HA
My hope is that I 'invest' the Love of Jesus Christ, and in 'return' they Love their neighbor as themselves!!
Have a beautiful day!!
Laura
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