Why do people have children they knew they couldn't provide for?

[ccbatson]

I would not say "always", but "often" is more accurate Elganned.

[Lorax]

Also, ejames01, you should understand that Cc never speaks to the specific instance; he only uses it as a springboard to launch into a polemic about a Universal Principle or "axiom" from the Book of Rand. Much easier to talk in the abstract than to actually address the question.

He'd have made a good politician- talking in circles without saying anything of substance.

[Corn.Bot]

Here's hoping that Child #3 ends up making you very happy, very rich, and very comfortable.
I figure you're not looking for any of that, but I hope you get it anyway.

Why, thank you!

[mauser]

http://www.freep.com/article/2009101...lution----fast

I can't figure out why people have children and they know they don't have the resources to provide them the necessisites.

..........the horny.

[Sstashmoo]

don't blame the wang....

[Lorax]

Blame morning wood.

[DetroitDad]

Funny, I just did a blog post on this topic.

http://campusmartiuschronicle.blogsp...nightmare.html

Excerpt;

....My daughter is getting so big, in three months she has roughly doubled in weight, the pediatrician says it is a good thing. It wasn't to long ago that baby girl was just a baby bump in DetroitMom's belly. We had just found out DetroitMom was pregnant after years of trying. Of course, when we started trying we were in a much better place, and just never stopped. Luckily, I had just gotten a job offer and started enthusiastically at my new job at a Downtown digital media mecca. Unfortunately, things were not to last, and the owner of the company started giving me excuses why I wasn't being paid on time. Eventually, I was not paid at all, and the company owner all but disappeared.

With baby girl on the way, DetroitMom and I had to start getting creative. We attempted to borrow from family, but alas, our families are large, and some were in worse scenarios than us, meaning they couldn't help much. We ended up going into a hawk, getting creative making money on E-bay and at festivals, investing in the stock market, and applying for various government programs....

[Papasito]

Poor folks can get Medicaid, it pays for the whole duration of the pregnancy, and the childbirth.

If people of all levels of income had to pay for having their babies, they would think more about it. It's easy to have several kids when someone else is footing the hospital bills.

[Corn.Bot]

Blame morning wood.

That's a fact. I married a ... morning person.

[Lorax]

That's a fact. I married a ... morning person.

So the result was Children of the Corn.Bot?

Just kidding, please forgive me, I couldn't resist!

[elganned]

Poor folks can get Medicaid, it pays for the whole duration of the pregnancy, and the childbirth.

If people of all levels of income had to pay for having their babies, they would think more about it. It's easy to have several kids when someone else is footing the hospital bills.

Medicaid may pay for pregnancy and delivery, but that's just the start of the money black hole which is child-rearing--and a small part, at that, when stacked up against feeding, clothing, housing, medical care, education [[if they're lucky enough to get that far), etc., etc. Not so "easy to have several kids" then, even if someone is picking up the tab for the delivery.

[exdetroiter]

Medicaid may pay for pregnancy and delivery, but that's just the start of the money black hole which is child-rearing--and a small part, at that, when stacked up against feeding, clothing, housing, medical care, education [[if they're lucky enough to get that far), etc., etc. Not so "easy to have several kids" then, even if someone is picking up the tab for the delivery.

That's when the Bridge card comes into effect.

[Corn.Bot]

So the result was Children of the Corn.Bot?

Just kidding, please forgive me, I couldn't resist!

OMG thanks for cracking me up in the middle of a very serious afternoon. I needed it.

[ccbatson]

Look back in history, unplanned pregnancies happened and they consequences so threatened the survival of both the parent and the child that they would never allow it to happen again. Flash forward where now it is common to see 15 year olds having the 2nd of many more babies without a father in the picture, and they are happy to do it.

[Papasito]

Society sees celebrities having kids as though they are an accessory, like a handbag or a snazzy purse. Some people just don't plan, they just pump out the kids and a mess ensues.

[Lorax]

OMG thanks for cracking me up in the middle of a very serious afternoon. I needed it.

Glad you didn't take offense to it, it was just such a great word-play.

[Lorax]

Look back in history, unplanned pregnancies happened and they consequences so threatened the survival of both the parent and the child that they would never allow it to happen again. Flash forward where now it is common to see 15 year olds having the 2nd of many more babies without a father in the picture, and they are happy to do it.

I beg to differ. Looking back in history, unplanned pregnancies were the norm. People in rural areas had as many kids as possible, because the well-being of the family depended on it, not to mention the infant mortailty rate claimed many of them.

It was much less frequent in urban areas to have scads of children, but was more common with immigrants, and for the same reasons as rural families had children.

The more kids, the better chance that each will contribute to the income of the household. Families were closer knit than they are today, and nowadays the perception that kids need to cost as much as they do- they really don't if you don't buy into the idea that you need to buy everything for them, or if you have an older relative able and willing to care for them while the parents work.

This is what may eventually bring families closer, and a restoration of our original ideals as a nation.

Socialized health care will help return birth rates to what they once were, once that burden of providing modern health care is relieved of the parent.

[Corn.Bot]

Glad you didn't take offense to it, it was just such a great word-play.

I always appreciate a good groaner, and that was pretty high up on the coffee-spew scale.

A truism I embraced long ago and still live by is, if you can't laugh at yourself, you are missing the best joke of the day.

[barnesfoto]

The usual sufferers of myopia are so busy typing about the "subsidies" that supposedly encourage poor people to have babies that they have forgotten the high birth rates of the poor in countries dominated by decades of conservative policies...Mexico, Guatemala and Pakistan come to mind, and of course, Swifts proposal to fatten up and serve as food the offspring of the Irish was written centuries ago, in a time and place where there was no medicaid, no food stamps, no section 8, and yet rampant breeding by the people who could least afford to support children.

Perhaps education, rather than social safety nets or lack thereof, has something to do with poor people having babies that they cannot afford.

[Pam]

Socialized health care will help return birth rates to what they once were, once that burden of providing modern health care is relieved of the parent.

I don't think so. This has not happened in countries that have health care. Outside of religiously motivated people like the Duggars or nutjobs like the Octomom, few people are interested in large families. That's a good thing for the sake of the planet.

[Lorax]

I don't think so. This has not happened in countries that have health care. Outside of religiously motivated people like the Duggars or nutjobs like the Octomom, few people are interested in large families. That's a good thing for the sake of the planet.

I agree completely that's it's better for the planet not to have so many children.

But Americans think differently than modern Europeans, and since we have physically a larger nation, larger houses, once the burden of paying for health care is removed, achieved really only with a single payer system, which I know we aren't there yet, and may never be, but I think the mindset will allow for another child or two, since one of the biggest concerns with starting a new family, or adding to an established one is the cost of health care.

Once portability and pre-existing condition repeal is achieved, and people can move to a better job without sacrificing their plan, I think more kids may be the result.

[Pam]

but I think the mindset will allow for another child or two

Oh when you said "birth rates of the past" I thought you meant like the days of 6-10 kids. Even with part of the financial burden gone, time is still at a premium with so many 2 career families, so that is another factor keeping families small. Kids need attention not just money.

[ccbatson]

Look back at modern American history is what I should have said...my error.