Something that pisses me off...

[V8 Beast]

The work structure of today really upsets me. They wonder why our kids are bad, families are falling apart, and the world is going to hell.

 

Most families in this day have 2 working parents. This means that you only really get 2 days a week to spend more than 4 hours with your family (and that’s if you actually have the weekend off to be there with your kids). So in return, this leaves the children with many different parental figures in their life. At the very least it’s usually their teacher, babysitter, Mom, and Dad. A lot of teachers are numb to kids because there are too many bad ones now a day. Good baby sitters are hard to come by and mommy/daddy work too much to be home with the kids.

 

In our pursuit for money and a better life our kids get the short end of the stick. I'm not sexist, but I think its times for moms to quit working full time jobs and be there more for their family. I say moms instead of dads because mom has a proven track record. Women of today have removed their "mom gene" in exchange for a corporate penis. When a mother is home a child is more likely to get the attention and love they need. In my opinion this is a big reason why a house is not a home anymore... Plus people need to live in their means. They need to dedicate time to their kids rather than working all week to pay for shit they don’t need (this includes all parents). If we keep it up we are going to destroy ourselves from the inside out. We won’t have to worry about other countries dropping bombs on us.

 

Xbox, Playstation, the internet, etc. are already breeding kids that are desensitized to violence. Take away the parental teaching that shows these things are wrong and you end up with guns in school... People shooting others for no good reason at all... And ultimately a generation of self destructing parentless kids that do not realize what they are doing is wrong.

 

When did money become more important than family? When did corporate America take over and brainwash us? How many of us could say we would choose a school play over a business meeting? If you have a deadline for a presentation, and your kid has a deadline for his report, which one gets done first? The company in today’s age trumps your "real life". Why, because we feel obligated to bring home a paycheck by any means necessary. This means working OT, being stressed out, killing yourself slowly, and being a puppet just so you don’t get fired. How many people are now on anxiety/depression medication because they overwork themselves and have to take drugs to keep up a pace their body can’t handle? The answer = TOO MANY! Having a solid work/life balance is very important, yet so many companies do nothing to help make that a reality. I dont know about you, but I'm taking a snow day today!

 

/rant

 

(If you actually read this entire thing you are super cool!!! )

 

Edit: The smile on my sons face when I said I was staying home today made it all worth it!

[TimTaylor751647545500]

People today (for the most part) are lazy and they want to live and be compensated like they're not.

[V8 Beast]

People today (for the most part) are lazy and they want to live and be compensated like they're not.

 

+1

[TimTaylor751647545500]

Oh, and I read it all in it's entirety...so I am super cool!!!

 

yeah, trick

[smokin5s]

I think that you're missing the bigger picture though... we all can't afford to stay home and have her not work. The cost to live in today's scioety makes it virtually impossible to live on a single income.

[TimTaylor751647545500]

Depends on the individual and whether they live within their means. Means, being a relative term obviously. People today take more vacations that they can't really afford, buy more expensive stuff that they can't really afford, and drive more expensive cars that they can't really afford more than they did when our grandparents or even some of our parents were our age. My parents didn't live off or even have credit cards when I was a kid and the national average for CC dept is over $8k. This, to me, is living beyond your means. It's on an individual basis and I don't really worry or think about what my neighbor does to pay his bills honestly.

[HAOLE]

Warning: This thread is NOT politically correct!

 

 

Just the way I like it!

[V8 Beast]

I think that you're missing the bigger picture though... we all can't afford to stay home and have her not work. The cost to live in today's scioety makes it virtually impossible to live on a single income.

 

Thats my point. Its not the cost of society, its the cost of having extra luxuries. You can live in Dublin, have a car, and pay less than $1000 for all of it (I know, I actually did it). But instead people buy homes outside their means, run up credit cards, and have multiple cars that require 2 jobs to pay for all of it. People are not happy with having a "good life", they have to try and stretch pennies in an effort to make it a "great life". In the end they end up working too much to be able to enjoy the extra luxuries they are working harder to pay for.

[Science Abuse]

I'm not sexist, but I think its times for moms to quit working full time jobs and be there more for their family.

You're not sexist, you're an idiot. I agree with you 100% on your logic, you are correct. But shit is more expensive then it was 30 years ago. Both parents HAVE to work to keep food on the table.

Work is necessity. Fix that first.

[V8 Beast]

You're not sexist, you're an idiot. I agree with you 100% on your logic, you are correct. But shit is more expensive then it was 30 years ago. Both parents HAVE to work to keep food on the table.

Work is necessity. Fix that first.

 

Its more expensive, but people also make more. Saying that both parents "have" to work is nonsense. I worked a job for $12p/hr and lived in Dublin on a single income for 4 years... I do however agree that having a large family does require people to have to have multiple forms of income. Saying "have to" for everyone is just a very strong statement. Work is a necessity to put food on the table, but family is also a necessity. Its not about quitting a job randomly, its about living within a means to be able to spend more time with family. If people "have" to work 2 jobs its usually because they put themselves in that situation.

 

We need to fix the fact that being able to afford a $7000 TV and a nice car is more important than being around to raise your children. In our society way too many people choose a Lexus over a Kia, and have TV's in every room in their house. So now at their $9 an hour job it takes them over a year to pay for 1 TV, and 6 years to pay for a car at $500+ (not to mention the other things that were picked up along the way). Now this second jobs primary purpose is to pay credit card bills and high car payments. Is that really a necessity???

[Drewhop]

Amen V8beast

 

 

Since december my wife has been off work on short term disability. At first i was nervous how am i gonna afford this. But we have coped. Instead of eating out 1-2 times per week. Eat out once a month. Buying offbrands instead of name brands.

 

The reason i state all of this is cause in the time we have been together i have never seen our family so happy. Our little boy does not throw fits anymore. He sleeps like a normal kid. His speech/number learning/alphabet has all improved to the point if he was old enough i think he would be ready for school.(he just turned 4 in november)

 

On top of all of that my wife and I have not got in any arguments since she has been off work. .

 

V8Beast you are right in every way shape or form. We need to stop living beyond our means. We can afford to live on one income. We need to focus on our families more.

[Skinner]

Amen V8beast

 

 

Since december my wife has been off work on short term disability. At first i was nervous how am i gonna afford this. But we have coped. Instead of eating out 1-2 times per week. Eat out once a month. Buying offbrands instead of name brands.

 

The reason i state all of this is cause in the time we have been together i have never seen our family so happy. Our little boy does not throw fits anymore. He sleeps like a normal kid. His speech/number learning/alphabet has all improved to the point if he was old enough i think he would be ready for school.(he just turned 4 in november)

 

On top of all of that my wife and I have not got in any arguments since she has been off work. .

 

V8Beast you are right in every way shape or form. We need to stop living beyond our means. We can afford to live on one income. We need to focus on our families more.

 

thats great for you but just because that works for you doesn't mean it will work for everyone. I would love it if Autumn could stay home with the boys or hell I would gladly be a stay at home parent either way for us it simply can not happen without our combined incomes.

[Buck531]

I'll throw this into the mix. Try having an Autistic son and having your insurance company deny claims because it doesn't cover the tests and such needed to figure out how to make him better.

 

Also. Tuition for him is roughly 23k a year. Yes. 23 thousand dollars. I'm lucky enough to have the city/state pay for his schooling through waivers, but how is just a single person in say a family of 4 who pays for everything else going to come up with 23k a year to pay for his schooling.

 

There's a lot of variables out there.

[Akula]

Actually it is a decision that people make. Learn to live with less. You don't actually have to have two (or three) cars. You don't need 4000 sq/ft to raise 2 kids.

 

When my wife got pregnant with our first, we said she would stay home and I would work. My children don't know what a daycare is. We lived with less in the beginning, luckily my wife's company let her work part-time with flexible hours and she can do what she wants. Not everyone has it this way but if one of you is working to pay for daycare, it is just dumb to have both work.

 

I agree, raise your kids.

[HAOLE]

Most people can live with 1 income, they choose not too. I know there are exceptions to this like Bucks situation. For the average couple you dont need the 250K house, the two car payments, boat payment, 4 wheeler payments or any of the other payments you have. This is a situation that people get themselves into that forces them to need the two incomes. I have been there!

 

I am in a good situation, I make enough to live in a nice home, and we live well. I took me long time to realize toys are not important. My family is more important than a fast car, boat, or any other "stuff" I think I need.

 

To those that "need" two incomes. It is not impossible to get to the point that you only need 1 income. you just have to work at it. We had two incomes in our home at one time. We were making enough money that I was spending too much. It seemed like every month I looked at the books and I spent 10k on something, but I was not sure what it was for.

[TTQ B4U]

Being in sales and constantly chasing the US Dollar, I always tell my wife "sales cures everything" as unfortunately we do have to have money to essencially "buy time" with our family.

 

That said, this past Saturday my son and I spent near 4hrs straight building all kinds of cool shit with K'Nex (cool lego's) and my wife the same with art/painting in the same room with my daughter.

 

Good times for sure.

 

Note to self....have wife increase her hourly rate thus raising her corporate penis up in size

 

 

The work structure of today really upsets me. They wonder why our kids are bad, families are falling apart, and the world is going to hell.

 

Most families in this day have 2 working parents. This means that you only really get 2 days a week to spend more than 4 hours with your family (and that’s if you actually have the weekend off to be there with your kids). So in return, this leaves the children with many different parental figures in their life. At the very least it’s usually their teacher, babysitter, Mom, and Dad. A lot of teachers are numb to kids because there are too many bad ones now a day. Good baby sitters are hard to come by and mommy/daddy work too much to be home with the kids.

 

In our pursuit for money and a better life our kids get the short end of the stick. I'm not sexist, but I think its times for moms to quit working full time jobs and be there more for their family. I say moms instead of dads because mom has a proven track record. Women of today have removed their "mom gene" in exchange for a corporate penis. When a mother is home a child is more likely to get the attention and love they need. In my opinion this is a big reason why a house is not a home anymore... Plus people need to live in their means. They need to dedicate time to their kids rather than working all week to pay for shit they don’t need (this includes all parents). If we keep it up we are going to destroy ourselves from the inside out. We won’t have to worry about other countries dropping bombs on us.

 

Xbox, Playstation, the internet, etc. are already breeding kids that are desensitized to violence. Take away the parental teaching that shows these things are wrong and you end up with guns in school... People shooting others for no good reason at all... And ultimately a generation of self destructing parentless kids that do not realize what they are doing is wrong.

 

When did money become more important than family? When did corporate America take over and brainwash us? How many of us could say we would choose a school play over a business meeting? If you have a deadline for a presentation, and your kid has a deadline for his report, which one gets done first? The company in today’s age trumps your "real life". Why, because we feel obligated to bring home a paycheck by any means necessary. This means working OT, being stressed out, killing yourself slowly, and being a puppet just so you don’t get fired. How many people are now on anxiety/depression medication because they overwork themselves and have to take drugs to keep up a pace their body can’t handle? The answer = TOO MANY! Having a solid work/life balance is very important, yet so many companies do nothing to help make that a reality. I dont know about you, but I'm taking a snow day today!

 

/rant

 

(If you actually read this entire thing you are super cool!!! )

 

Edit: The smile on my sons face when I said I was staying home today made it all worth it!

[Scotty2Hotty]

All the more reason I'm finding a sugar mama.

[V8 Beast]

Another variable is Grandma. If that is an option its just like mom only older

 

One more thing I thought about after reading another thread is that some people give a lot to daycares. Before my kids started going to school my wife didnt work because daycare costed too much. One child we could have done, but with 2 it would have taken about 3/4 of her check. I worked a little bit of overtime and made the same amount by myself that we could have made with both of us working.

[Drewhop]

thats great for you but just because that works for you doesn't mean it will work for everyone. I would love it if Autumn could stay home with the boys or hell I would gladly be a stay at home parent either way for us it simply can not happen without our combined incomes.

 

 

Unless you are having family or friend watch your kids. (Pretty sure you have 3) The cost of childcare is rediculous you are probally spending half my monthly salary on childcare alone.

 

There are situations were it would be very difficult close to impossible. But to say something is completely impossible makes me glad that I dont listen to anyone that tells me i cant do something.

 

Ill stick to my thoughts on this i think the moral structure of this country needs a overhaul and it starts at home.

[smokin5s]

I have ZERO credit card debt.... soon will have no car payments (or just 1) I just have a mortgage and my utilities.... I don't live above my means and I'm having a hard time making ends meet now....

 

you are correct that you can live for 1k a month IF.. and there's a big IF... if you have your car paid off... you live in a small 1 bedroom apartment, you have no school loans, etc.... that's the problem... if you RENT period, it will never be yours... you will just rent for the rest of your life...

 

The key really is, save up as much money as you can for a down payment on a house, don't get anything too crazy, and live by the philosophy, if you can't pay cash for it, you don't need it... that's what I do and it seems to work out ok I guess....

 

1 income is do-able, but the question is, are you not giving your child a good quality of life since they have to live in a lower income area so in return will be lower schools, never get to go out and experience new things because you can't afford it... things like that.

[smokin5s]

Unless you are having family or friend watch your kids. (Pretty sure you have 3) The cost of childcare is rediculous you are probally spending half my monthly salary on childcare alone.

 

There are situations were it would be very difficult close to impossible. But to say something is completely impossible makes me glad that I dont listen to anyone that tells me i cant do something.

 

Ill stick to my thoughts on this i think the moral structure of this country needs a overhaul and it starts at home.

La Petite charges 225 a week per child

[Guest agtw31]

im not going for the too much violence angle.

 

there were just as many whackos shooting up people in the last 50 years,you just didnt hear about it on a national scale.

 

rmember charles whitman in austin texas in 1965?he pasted about 30 people with a 30.06 from a bell tower,and was a friggin ex marine.

 

one of the most violent movies ever made is over 37 years old.

 

take a guess what it was

 

hint; it was a western directed by Sam Peckinpah

[verse]

you are correct that you can live for 1k a month IF.. and there's a big IF... if you have your car paid off... you live in a small 1 bedroom apartment, you have no school loans, etc.... that's the problem... if you RENT period, it will never be yours... you will just rent for the rest of your life...

 

 

Other than food and other luxuries we pay for. I could easily live off $1000. My mortgage is $700 a month(3 bedrooms, 1 bath, basement) and utlities ~$150. But that's definitely the cheap part of our bills. $250/mon to Snap-on, $540/mon horse boarding, $120/mon cable/internet/phone, $150/mon cell phone, $200/mon other random bills.

 

My wife works from 4-10 most nights, just part-time. and I work full-time from 7-4. My son has never been in daycare, my parents watch him regularly though.

[V8 Beast]

I have ZERO credit card debt.... soon will have no car payments (or just 1) I just have a mortgage and my utilities.... I don't live above my means and I'm having a hard time making ends meet now....

 

you are correct that you can live for 1k a month IF.. and there's a big IF... if you have your car paid off... you live in a small 1 bedroom apartment, you have no school loans, etc.... that's the problem... if you RENT period, it will never be yours... you will just rent for the rest of your life...

 

The key really is, save up as much money as you can for a down payment on a house, don't get anything too crazy, and live by the philosophy, if you can't pay cash for it, you don't need it... that's what I do and it seems to work out ok I guess....

 

1 income is do-able, but the question is, are you not giving your child a good quality of life since they have to live in a lower income area so in return will be lower schools, never get to go out and experience new things because you can't afford it... things like that.

 

 

2 bedroom apartment in Dublin $550, Kids attend Dublin schools.

 

Car payment $175. Went with a cheaper car. Wasnt worried about looks, I just needed something to get me around.

Food $100

 

Utilities $200

 

If you make $9-10 per hour you can afford to live in a good area and give your kids a better education(if your credit is good enough to get an apartment). Things would be tight but it could be done. Like Dr. Rick said it takes time to fix things that are already messed up. If you have student loans, credit cards, etc then working 2 jobs is smart. It just seems like people keep adding to their debt rather than working to bring it down. Then 4 years from now when the loans are paid off another car payment and $5000 of additional credit card debt have been added to the plate.

 

 

 

BTW, I have a house in the burbs, 3 cars, and a bunch of crap I dont need. I'm including myself in this argument, I'm not trying to act like I'm above it.

[HotCarl]

2 bedroom apartment in Dublin $550, Kids attend Dublin schools.

 

Car payment $175. Went with a cheaper car. Wasnt worried about looks, I just needed something to get me around.

Food $100

 

Utilities $200

 

I agree this can absolutly be done. It will take some work to find such cheap living but i know of a few select places in dublin where a 2bedrom 2bath can be had for under 600/month. But food for more than 1 person at 100$/month? Not sure about that. I grocery shop regularly and always brown bag it and I still pay an average of 50/week. However I dont cut coupons or shop at Aldi so Im sure there is room for improvement.