Three Kids? You Showoffs

I thought this article was amusing. Of course raising children costs
money, but I don't think parents should be discouraged from having
more than two, unless they are on welfare. One of my wife's sisters
even suggested abortion when my wife was pregnant with her 3rd child,
just because three children would be difficult to "manage" with both
of us working.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...403217_pf.html
Three Kids? You Showoffs.
By Pamela Paul
Washington Post, Sunday, April 6, 2008; B02

My husband and I are getting ready to do what many couples in these
brink-of-recessionary times would consider unthinkable. No, we're not
buying a Martha's Vineyard retreat or planning a month in St. Bart's
or eco-decorating our house.

We're planning to have a third child.

What shocks people, when we tell them, isn't the thought of hauling
three kids onto a place for a vacation, or even the idea of coming
home every night to a houseful of runny noses and homework
assignments. What gets them is the sheer financial audacity. Raising
kids today costs a fortune. Last month, the Department of Agriculture
estimated that each American child costs an average of $204,060 to
house, clothe, educate and entertain until the age of 18.

But to me, a family with just two kids seems minimalist, and even a
bit sad. Back in the 1970s, when my husband and I were born, sprawling
families were more common. My husband had two sisters and, following a
Brady-Bunchy set of remarriages in my family, I wound up with seven
brothers, real and step. I've always fantasized about creating a "Meet
Me in St. Louis"-style household of my own, with children constantly
underfoot and enough relatives around to skip to my lou en masse.

And yet nowadays, people seem aghast if a couple wants more than two
children. When Elana Sigall, a 43-year-old attorney in Brooklyn, was
pregnant with her third, people came up to her constantly, she said,
to admonish her: "You've got a boy and a girl already. Why don't you
just leave it alone?"

What's worse, the desire to have another child opens one up to charges
of elitism and status consciousness.

rest snipped

Beliavsky wrote:
I thought this article was amusing. Of course raising children costs
money, but I don't think parents should be discouraged from having
more than two, unless they are on welfare. One of my wife's sisters
even suggested abortion when my wife was pregnant with her 3rd child,
just because three children would be difficult to "manage" with both
of us working.


I'd have loved to have had 3, and my husband would have liked 5.
Unfortunately, when you have #1 at 42, you're kind of limited.

Clisby

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...403217_pf.html
Three Kids? You Showoffs.
By Pamela Paul
Washington Post, Sunday, April 6, 2008; B02

My husband and I are getting ready to do what many couples in these
brink-of-recessionary times would consider unthinkable. No, we're not
buying a Martha's Vineyard retreat or planning a month in St. Bart's
or eco-decorating our house.

We're planning to have a third child.

What shocks people, when we tell them, isn't the thought of hauling
three kids onto a place for a vacation, or even the idea of coming
home every night to a houseful of runny noses and homework
assignments. What gets them is the sheer financial audacity. Raising
kids today costs a fortune. Last month, the Department of Agriculture
estimated that each American child costs an average of $204,060 to
house, clothe, educate and entertain until the age of 18.

But to me, a family with just two kids seems minimalist, and even a
bit sad. Back in the 1970s, when my husband and I were born, sprawling
families were more common. My husband had two sisters and, following a
Brady-Bunchy set of remarriages in my family, I wound up with seven
brothers, real and step. I've always fantasized about creating a "Meet
Me in St. Louis"-style household of my own, with children constantly
underfoot and enough relatives around to skip to my lou en masse.

And yet nowadays, people seem aghast if a couple wants more than two
children. When Elana Sigall, a 43-year-old attorney in Brooklyn, was
pregnant with her third, people came up to her constantly, she said,
to admonish her: "You've got a boy and a girl already. Why don't you
just leave it alone?"

What's worse, the desire to have another child opens one up to charges
of elitism and status consciousness.

rest snipped

"Beliavsky" wrote in message
...
I thought this article was amusing. Of course raising children costs
money, but I don't think parents should be discouraged from having
more than two, unless they are on welfare. One of my wife's sisters
even suggested abortion when my wife was pregnant with her 3rd child,
just because three children would be difficult to "manage" with both
of us working.

We were in an Aldi's store when I was pregnant with #3 when an elderly
couple asked us, "Don't you know what causes that?" It was later when I
thought of a great answer, "Yeah, F*cking causes that." I wouldn't actually
say that out loud though but I really wanted to once I thought of it.
Marie