|
Mr Cuddles posted:apropos of nothing: Who he?
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 14:09
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 23:33 |
|
|
hookerbot 5000 posted:Personally I've never understood the argument that not having kids is selfish and I feel really guilty about having so many of them. Without asking people who believe that to be the case I can only guess, but I reckon it's something along the lines of (a) the childless are selfish because their parents sacrificed a lot to have them, and they're opting to end the family line just so they don't have to make the same sacrifices, (b) the same, but with regard to society, country, or humanity rather than just parents, or the rather ill-thought out (c) i'm suffering so you should suffer too  Incidentally, I recently got married and we have opted not to have kids. If we could afford to have kids and still have sizeable income left over, we probably would, but doing so in our current situation would leave us with no spare money. One of my colleagues came back to work from maternity leave and said something along the lines of "so you're married now, when are you having kids?" to which I said something along the lines of "we're not having kids, we're going to spend our money travelling instead". She didn't really comment, but I got a vibe of "oh well gently caress you then".
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 14:25
|
|
|
KKKlean Energy posted:Without asking people who believe that to be the case I can only guess, but I reckon it's something along the lines of (a) the childless are selfish because their parents sacrificed a lot to have them, and they're opting to end the family line just so they don't have to make the same sacrifices, (b) the same, but with regard to society, country, or humanity rather than just parents, or the rather ill-thought out (c) i'm suffering so you should suffer too I know your pain. I got married last year and am frankly bored of the 'when are you having kids then?' line. I'm often tempted to just say 'we won't because I'm infertile' and see the reaction. My brother in-law even started the day after the wedding, with some 'see you next year for the christening' schtick. Which is wrong for so many reasons I'm not even going to point out, even if his slightly drunken intentions were good.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 14:41
|
|
|
My partner and I don't have kids, and not for a lack of trying either. We're too old now really, and it's sort of become a non-issue, but sometimes one of us catches the other getting a bit misty-eyed over an adorable toddler doing adorable toddler things. The realisation that a couple of billion years worth of unbroken descent ends here is a bit of a maudlin mind-gently caress and all. Anyway, my advice: if you want kids, don't leave it until you are both in your forties. Fertility drops off a cliff, and there's not much that can be done to help.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 15:27
|
|
|
Utopia has taught me that children are really harmful to the environment and cause lots of carbon emissions so if you're having kids you're literally the reason the sea is rising.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 15:37
|
|
|
One Pigeon posted:I know your pain. This will forever be the most infuriating: "Well you don't want them NOW, but that'll change as you get older"  I'm around the age my Mum was when she had me, I think my decision is pretty well-made cheers you patronising gently caress 
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 15:42
|
|
|
TheHoodedClaw posted:My partner and I don't have kids, and not for a lack of trying either. We're too old now really, and it's sort of become a non-issue, but sometimes one of us catches the other getting a bit misty-eyed over an adorable toddler doing adorable toddler things. The realisation that a couple of billion years worth of unbroken descent ends here is a bit of a maudlin mind-gently caress and all. It might help to consider that the desire for kids is just genetic programming. Everything we find desirable about kids is just a way to make the entire endeavor tolerable, while our basic urges carry out the sad, soulless covert operation of putting our genes in a fleshy sack and fattening that sack up until it does the same. That's not to say kids don't offer more to life, they obviously do (and it saddens me slightly to think I'll probably miss out on that), but consider most people's reaction to the thought of adoption: "it's just not the same". That's because their subconscious doesn't want kids, it just wants a vessel in which to launch their genome into the future. Adoption satisfies every other desire except for that basic urge.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 15:51
|
|
|
"Man, what is it with this goverment? Right guys?" - A man who is literally this government.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 16:03
|
|
|
My wife and I can't have kids because she has some chronic conditions and having kids would be harmful to her and the baby. Kinda sucks. We want to hold a "No Baby Shower" party and just get all the people who would give us presents and money over the kid's life to just give it all to us now so we can do useful things with it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 16:31
|
|
|
My wife gave birth to our first child on Friday morning. I highly recommend it if possible.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 16:33
|
|
|
Pissflaps posted:My wife gave birth to our first child on Friday morning. I highly recommend it if possible. Cool. Is she available to carry mine now, or is there a waiting list?
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 16:44
|
|
|
Pissflaps posted:My wife gave birth to our first child on Friday morning. I highly recommend it if possible. Give that baby a parmo now.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 16:46
|
|
|
Poison Jam posted:Give that baby a parmo now. .....we had parmos last night....
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 16:47
|
|
|
Congratulations to the family Flaps. Just muted someone on FB because she wouldn't stop reposting stuff from "childfree" groups. I'm cool with people not having kids but a load of smug image macros about breeders is way more annoying than any amount of baby pictures.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 16:47
|
|
|
Random question: is it still possible to buy a SIM/mobile in the UK without having to fill out a form saying who you are and where you live? I was reading up on the 7/7 bombings and they used PAYG phones to avoid leaving a trace. I know this is hard/impossible to do in lots of other countries these days, but is Britain one of them? It's oddly hard to find out by Googling (or else my Google-fu is bad). edit: apparently I have plat despite having never paid a single red cent for this account Zephro fucked around with this message at 16:53 on Aug 18, 2014 |
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 16:51
|
|
|
Party Boat posted:Congratulations to the family Flaps. Ugh, is that really a thing? Now we childless have to get together and piss on everyone else because everything ever has to be a conflict? 
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 16:53
|
|
|
Mr Cuddles posted:apropos of nothing: Well, I believe that definitively ends the Greggs discussion. Heroes of the People, one and all.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 16:55
|
|
|
Zephro posted:Random question: is it still possible to buy a SIM/mobile in the UK without having to fill out a form saying who you are and where you live? I was reading up on the 7/7 bombings and they used PAYG phones to avoid leaving a trace. I know this is hard/impossible to do in lots of other countries these days, but is Britain one of them? It's oddly hard to find out by Googling (or else my Google-fu is bad). Short answer - no but, long answer - yes if.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 16:57
|
|
|
Zephro posted:Random question: is it still possible to buy a SIM/mobile in the UK without having to fill out a form saying who you are and where you live? I was reading up on the 7/7 bombings and they used PAYG phones to avoid leaving a trace. I know this is hard/impossible to do in lots of other countries these days, but is Britain one of them? It's oddly hard to find out by Googling (or else my Google-fu is bad). It probably is still possible, phone shops will pester you for details to try and sell you stuff later but afaik there's no legislation that would compel them to do so. Even if there was I'm sure you could get a lovely burner phone down the market no questions asked. e: "childfree" are just another small / annoying internet subculture, I'm pretty sure there was a weekend web on them at some point. The majority of people without children are not dicks about it. 
Party Boat fucked around with this message at 17:05 on Aug 18, 2014 |
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 17:00
|
|
|
Zephro posted:Random question: is it still possible to buy a SIM/mobile in the UK without having to fill out a form saying who you are and where you live? I was reading up on the 7/7 bombings and they used PAYG phones to avoid leaving a trace. I know this is hard/impossible to do in lots of other countries these days, but is Britain one of them? It's oddly hard to find out by Googling (or else my Google-fu is bad). quote:edit: apparently I have plat despite having never paid a single red cent for this account  
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 17:03
|
|
|
One Pigeon posted:I know your pain. I've been with my partner for about 20 years now. When we got a dog, my mum suddenly went very quiet about us having children as think she assumes that we are unable and the dog was a surrogate...
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 17:17
|
|
|
Zephro posted:Random question: is it still possible to buy a SIM/mobile in the UK without having to fill out a form saying who you are and where you live? I was reading up on the 7/7 bombings and they used PAYG phones to avoid leaving a trace. I know this is hard/impossible to do in lots of other countries these days, but is Britain one of them? It's oddly hard to find out by Googling (or else my Google-fu is bad). I'm pretty sure it is possible. Loads of pound shops sell PAYG SIMs and I doubt they'd ask you to fill out a bunch of paperwork. In other news I had my first cigarette for 6 months today. gently caress me it was vile, how do people ever get started? I'm not criticising smokers, hell, I was one for long enough, but man alive, the one I just had was just ewww.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 17:18
|
|
|
You can get a phone with few questions asked if you go to one of those phone repair places that also sell phones. Managed to get a galaxy s3 sim free and a 3 sim with cash in hand and no questions asked. I also look kind of dicey so anyone else should have no problem.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 17:21
|
|
|
My girlfriend has been absolutely clear with me from quite early on that she wants kids at some point in her life. I'm still trying to figure out how I feel about kids in general. I'm not against, but it's just not something I want yet. It has felt like a source of pressure at times. We're getting into our late 20s now and there is a biological clock ticking: of course, it's not urgent yet, but the longer we stay together the more of her time I'm wasting if I ultimately decide I don't want children.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 17:57
|
|
|
Party Boat posted:Just muted someone on FB because she wouldn't stop reposting stuff from "childfree" groups. I'm cool with people not having kids but a load of smug image macros about breeders is way more annoying than any amount of baby pictures. Unfortunately these have been overshadowed by the childfree movement, whose arguments seem to consist of 'kids are dumb and poop, amirite'. Maybe if actual philosophical antinatalism was discussed more in school or popular culture instead of being largely shut out of debates there would be less of the childfree nonsense.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 18:09
|
|
|
Guavanaut posted:There are sound moral arguments for antinatalism, or for adopting/fostering over bringing new life into the world, for example Benatar's Asymmetry as mentioned in Better Never to Have Been, or those put forward by Peter Zapffe, but these are personal moral choices, like Veganism. It seems borne out of the same place as militant atheism - an immature rebellion against being told something you now don't agree with for many years. (I imagine there's quite the overlap in the 2 groups)
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 18:28
|
|
|
Zephro posted:Random question: is it still possible to buy a SIM/mobile in the UK without having to fill out a form saying who you are and where you live? I was reading up on the 7/7 bombings and they used PAYG phones to avoid leaving a trace. I know this is hard/impossible to do in lots of other countries these days, but is Britain one of them? It's oddly hard to find out by Googling (or else my Google-fu is bad).
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 18:36
|
|
|
So the rat-haired rapist is finally leaving the Ecuadorean embassy to seek care for a heart and lung defect. If this says anything, it means that he'll be on a plane to Sweden shortly, as there's no chance that the police won't keep him under guard the second he steps out of the embassy. I wouldn't be surprised if he spent a few months in a British prison on contempt of court charges before being extradited.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 18:40
|
|
|
So there's yet another 'UKIP are racist' story going around, and probably only making it past the fatigue barrier on this topic because it's an actual elected MEP. Apparently she called a Thai woman, and actual UKIP supporter, a 'ting tong from somewhere'. And also more in 'gee-whiz, isn't privatisation great' news, the government's been ordered to pay £224m by an 'arbitration tribunal' to a company contracted under New Labour to provide the e-Borders programme. The coalition terminated the contract after deciding they were failing to meet the terms, hence the suing. Someone more knowledgeable than me about this could probably tell us whether the government didn't have the right to terminate the contract or whether they just did it incompetently, as is the theme of the Home Office, and also from where the tribunal gets its authority.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 19:06
|
|
|
TinTower posted:So the rat-haired rapist is finally leaving the Ecuadorean embassy to seek care for a heart and lung defect. loving good. Watch as he magically gets extradited to Sweden and not the US.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 19:16
|
|
|
TinTower posted:So the rat-haired rapist is finally leaving the Ecuadorean embassy to seek care for a heart and lung defect. I hope we get a rematch of this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tii0yWzeYU4 With Inigo in his black tie again (he was going off to a fancy dinner that evening)
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 19:19
|
|
|
Pork Pie Hat posted:
Just keep trying until you like it, you big baby.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 19:20
|
|
|
mfcrocker posted:loving good. Watch as he magically gets extradited to Sweden and not the US. The theory was always that Sweden would extradite him to the US, after we extradited him to Sweden. It'll be interesting to see.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 19:24
|
|
|
twoot posted:The theory was always that Sweden would extradite him to the US, after we extradited him to Sweden. Which is complete bullshit, as due to the rules of the EAW, Sweden couldn't do that without our consent.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 19:35
|
|
|
twoot posted:The theory was always that Sweden would extradite him to the US, after we extradited him to Sweden.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 19:35
|
|
|
twoot posted:The theory was always that Sweden would extradite him to the US, after we extradited him to Sweden. Yeah sorry, that's what I was trying to say but failed miserably. There's gently caress all way Sweden ship him on.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 19:38
|
|
|
Zephro posted:This is also true, but there aren't that many jobs that will let you work, say 9.00-2.30. The ones there are tend to be low-skilled and badly paid, which is why so many people (mostly women) fall off the career ladder in their 30s. And none of those jobs will give you 16 weeks of holiday a year, so you have to pay for private childminding to cover that, too. It's a mess. I've not much but anecdotal experience to back this up, but aside from the obvious half-truth of "there's just not enough money  " I think the main obstacle to this is good management, specifically the fact that it's very hard to find.Like if you want to cut the hours of all your staff in half you can't just double your workforce to compensate, you have to more than double your numbers because of the additional time it's going to take everyone to make sure they're on the same page and not ballsing up each others work when nobody's looking. Of course if mincome were real then individual businesses wouldn't have to worry so much about the fiscal cost of setting up such a system, but it's just as clear that something more than profit motivation is required to make sure it's done well even then. There's always the other option of accepting longer deadlines on projects that really do require more personal attention from a small number of people, but it seems a bit unrealistic to ask for both greed and impatience to jump back into the fiery pit they came from at the same time.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 19:52
|
|
|
I leave this without comment since I don't know what comment I could make to make it justice: http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21612148-poor-and-demoralised-thames-side-town-stands-britains-white-working-class-trials
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 20:02
|
|
|
Renaissance Robot posted:I've not much but anecdotal experience to back this up, but aside from the obvious half-truth of "there's just not enough money One thing my company is really good at is parental leave and flexitime, and like you say it really does come down to management - not just in the direct "Okay have six months off then only work mornings" way, but in softer skills like making sure no one person is completely indispensable and fostering a good enough team ethic that people are happy to work around those sort of arrangements. It's really noticeable how - despite a common policy - different parts of the company, and even different teams doing the same jobs have wildly different attitudes to it. On a related note, one thing that doesn't get mentioned about the housing price stupidity is how badly it can affect starting a family. People are putting off trying until their late 30s or even early 40s because that's how long it takes to get on the housing ladder and while late parents can do a perfectly fine job it's a hell of a lot easier to bring up a kid when you're in your early twenties and still have all that energy.
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 20:03
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 23:33 |
|
|
Munin posted:I leave this without comment since I don't know what comment I could make to make it justice: I'll comment that the second paragraph is already the most middle-class thing I've ever read. Apparently Tilbury Docks still has stevedores and billmen (also manual labour is for dumb people).
|
|
#
?
Aug 18, 2014 20:06
|
|