Has Raising Kids Become Too Expensive?

tidy catz wrote:

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How do you go about controlling the "excess" of humanity? Be honest. Is it the actions of the parents that bother you or the fact that society picks up the cost?
You can't control human behavior. With the amount of media-created sexuality in our society we couldn't even begin to make such behavior socially unacceptable for teens and/or the unmarried. We have wanted and encouraged more and more sexuality in our lives so now we're reaping what we've sown. As long as young people are bombarded with sex from every possible angle, there will be pregnancies - wanted and unwanted. As a society we've created a free-for-all and whenever anyone over the years tried to rein it in, society screamed in protest. So now, do we really have a right to complain that it's out of control?

RedKing7 wrote:

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That's consumerism for ya. Ever notice how many commercials are geared towards kids these days? It's become the hottest target demographic. Notice how many of these ads are about how the parents are only loved if they purchase the product for the child. There's a vast industry of consultants and pollsters built around how to get kids to bug their parents into buying products. There's even a mini-van ad that not-so-subtly tries to tell kids to cry and whine unless they are being carried around in that particular make and model because anything else is not cool.
In Sweden there is a law that you cannot broadcast any advertisement aimed at anyone under the age of 12 years old.

RepublicanAbortion wrote:

You dont have to buy new cars, and get stuck with payments until the end of time.
No child is a "bastard" but plenty of republicans are. A bastard is no longer a definable word pertaining to children. I dont care how many kids someone chooses to have....this is not China. Not nazi Germany. Have as many as you want.....
As far as a thousand dollars a month? For having a kid? That is insane and a lie. Food stamps dont count as income.
You wanted no money to go to abortions? Well...this is the result. You dont want to pay for others to eat...I get it. But you cannot punish children for parents mistakes.
Get rid of illegals dropping brown little turds on our soil, and the welfare they illegally get. This is the enemy, not single moms.

tidy catz wrote:

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In the 60's you could get a burger, fries and shake for less than a dollar. A McDonald's hamburger was 15 cents. Even at that my family rarely ate out. We only had one car. My mother didn't work. We lived in a little 1940's "bungalow" just outside DC that cost my parents an incredible $12,000 in 1964. It only had one bathroom, but somehow we survived. My dad was a milkman. Milk used to be delivered right to your door.
Milk delivery went the way of the horse and buggy so in 1971 my family moved to Orlando where my dad got a job delivery snack foods to Disney World. My parents bought a house that cost a whopping $18,000. We never had two cars until I was in high school. We even lived several years without air conditioning in Central Florida, but again, we survived.
My parents were never in debt, never had money problems. The bills were always paid. We always had enough to eat and a clean bed to sleep in. My dad was a hard worker and provided for his family and my mother knew how to take care of the finances. Families didn't spend as much because they didn't have as much to spend on. There wasn't internet or cablevision or cell phones or computers or all the crap people "must" have now.
When women starting going to work back in the 70's, they did so because they said they could no longer get by on one salary. My question back then was...what will happen when we can't get by on TWO salaries? We're too that point now.

Here in Vegas wrote:

Can't find money to raise the kids, but they always seem to have money for cable TV, internet hookups, cell phones, eating out, fancy cars, tons of clothes, way too big house, beer, smokes, party time. All that "must have" stuff.

Justin wrote:

Aint nothing more dangerous than a bi-polar unemployed soccer mom, who skipped breakfast, driving a mini-van full of ADHD kids down a rain-slick highway, late for school, while talking to her ex-husband on the cell phone.

Colorado Chick wrote:

<quoted text>Right on, same family lifestyle almost. mom stayed home and reared us kids. Always had home cooked meals, bills paid and the holidays were special. We never even had a fan, we opened the windows and had radiator oil heat. We accepted what we had, never threw tantrums to get something special. Had chores to do, we earned an allowance. You could see Dad frowning when the bills were due, but he and mom never discussed money woes in front of us. Yes, we have been at the two salary paychecks for awhile now. But as you pointed out, the have to's didn't exist in our day. One land line phone, a phone book, party lines, three TV stations and one car. It's not raising the kids that are expensive, it's the school programs that get the kids involved in activities that once were free and now cost. Stick with either uniforms or dress code and you will save bucks on clothes, shoes also. With all the cellphones and their added features, do you think that folks could retort back to landline phones? I think where we are now, with the rising costs of everything, that having a third job will become a reality. or, the parents can just start cutting this and that and have quality family time and skip the third job.

serfs up wrote:

The world as you know is not perfect. But we screwed up when we destroyed families even if the family structure was imperfect. In the scheme of things we had "camelot" in a simple era. Now we have "cumalot" in a schizoid era that did not have to be. We could have opened up the nation to all trying to keep "camelot". But the powers that be and the charlatans that always seem to be around turned us to "cumalot". So now it costs ten times more then it used to for the same ways of living as a nation goes into decline. And this is not good.

the good wrote:

<quoted text>the good news is that is never too late to start all over again maybe these few past generation have experience excesses of all kinds but doesn't mean it can't be fix.
education is the key, starting as early as possible to teach the future generation better ways.
education, education will bring balance and beauty back.

Colorado Chick wrote:

<quoted text>yeah, I see that also, but don't have money for school pictures. All about the up and up lifetyle, gotta have it all. Where do they find time to spend with their children? With all the stuff you mentioned, where does the child fit into the family unit/ They probably have them involved in sports programss or off to a friends. You see it, right there with the kids home. Values have been placed on material items and personal needs.God forbid if they agree to play a board game with their kids. i can just see them checking out their cellphones every turn. I enjoyed raising our kids without all those fancy gadgets and rich lifestyle and they turn out exceptionally well.

tidy catz wrote:

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To be honest, if every cell phone on the planet exploded today it wouldn't phase me at all. I don't know what the great fascination is with them. There is nothing more annoying than someone yakking on a phone in the grocery store, completely oblivious to the fact they are blocking up the entire aisle as they creep along. Same thing with cars on the freeway. Everyone else is doing 70, then you get some idiot who can't drive and talk at the same time and he's doing 50). I've told my family that when I'm away from home do not call me unless whatever they are calling about involves the fire department, an ambulance or the police. Everything else can wait until I get home.
Also, television. If it went away tomorrow, I wouldn't care a bit. It's become nothing but a bunch of boring competition shows of every size and description. If I hear one more young girl say "I've wanted to be a singer my whoooooole life" I will gag. I can find so many other things to do than watch TV.

serfs up wrote:

The world as you know is not perfect. But we screwed up when we destroyed families even if the family structure was imperfect. In the scheme of things we had "camelot" in a simple era. Now we have "cumalot" in a schizoeid era that did not have to be. We could have opened up the nation to all trying to keep "camelot". But the powers that be and the charlatans that always seem to be around turned us to "cumalot". So now it costs ten times more then it used to for the same ways of living as a nation goes into decline. And this is not good.