If I were able to choose the order I would probably go boy then girl, mainly because I'm a dad and I like the idea of having a slightly older brother I can leverage for protection from interested boys
1. If a couple decide to have kids, should they just stop with one (which means that the parents can provide the best of everything) or should they have more than one (the kid might not have the best of everything, there might be hand-me-downs, but there is more companionship, and all the benefits that brings)
2. If somebody decides to have two kids, how far apart should the kids be. My brother is 8 years younger than me. Since I am quite a bit older, but still not a parent, he gets my advice and guidance on various issues very frankly, but at the same time I am not really in his age group, and there is a minor generation difference.
1. If a couple decide to have kids, should they just stop with one (which means that the parents can provide the best of everything) or should they have more than one (the kid might not have the best of everything, there might be hand-me-downs, but there is more companionship, and all the benefits that brings)
2. If somebody decides to have two kids, how far apart should the kids be. My brother is 8 years younger than me. Since I am quite a bit older, but still not a parent, he gets my advice and guidance on various issues very frankly, but at the same time I am not really in his age group, and there is a minor generation difference.
3. If someone plans to have a boy and girl (dont ask me how they can plan the sex, maybe they are just gonna adopt), does it make any kind of a difference which one is first?
There will be glitches in my transition from being a saloon bar sage to a world statesman. - Tony Banks
Pounding at a thick stone wall won't move it, sometimes, you need to step back to see the way around.
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.<br />- Dr. Seuss
Originally posted by Frank Silbermann:
No hard and fast rules apply to every family. But if you're asking what is best for the _typical_ family (whatever that is), then:
One child per family is social suicide. Two children per family is slow social suicide. When financially successful people under-reproduce and let the poor take up the slack, then children on the average are condemned to grow up in poverty.
It should be the reverse, where affluent people have more children and poor people have fewer -- not only will that be better for the children, but the material goods of society (e.g. western luxuries) will be more evenly distributed.
I'm not sure what the 'benefits of downward social mobility' are, unless you mean the ability for a successful person to fall on the arse. I don't think there is much benefit to that, but don't think there should be any action taken to stop it.
As for the rest of the birth rate stuff, it assumes a static economy in which, in order to gain someone else must lose. Thankfully that does not resemble the economy of industrialized nations.
I disagree completely. The more children the affluent have, the harder it will be to guarantee that every one of them maintains or builds upon their position. It is only because they have so few that they are able to give their children such overpowering advantages.Originally posted by Adrian Wallace:
In our society we demand that everyone has oportunities to achieve upward social mobility (strangely enough we are far less keen on promoting the benfits of downward social mobility). By ensuring that the higher social strata of society have a small birth rate we make room for social climbers from the 'lower' social strata. The chance of social climbing gives the poorer members of society hope that they too can achieve improvements in their position within the cuirrent social structure.
If as you are suggesting the affluent became more reproductive than the poor, then the chances of succesfully climbing the social ladder from a poor background would be dramtically reduced. The removal of the chance of social success could result in alienation of the poor from societies structure with them seeing no potential benefit in belonging to society and result in rejection of society and a revolutionary uprising!!!
You know, even though "natural" childbirth is fashionable, there do exist drugs to remove the pain.Originally posted by kayal cox:
I am deathly terrified of childbirth.. So, I always thought I would have one child, and get it over with.
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Originally posted by kayal cox:
I know the kind of hell I gave my parents
Ernest: You can't imagine what having your own child sleeping on your chest in a darkened room feels like
Originally posted by Ernest Friedman-Hill:
You can't imagine what having your own child sleeping on your chest in a darkened room feels like.
Steven: Ah yes... The drool on my chest, the soda just inches out of arms reach, the remote on the other end of the couch... HELP I'M STUCK HERE!!!
Originally posted by Ernest Friedman-Hill:
But you probably don't know the kind of unfathomable joy you gave your parents. That's the most confounding and amazing thing about parenthood: how scared, sad, angry, and frustrated, yes, but also brave, excited, joyful, and proud you can be all at the same time! You can't imagine what having your own child sleeping on your chest in a darkened room feels like. Or watching your 15-month-old little boy put Legos together. Or hearing your daughter really, for real, read you "Junie B. Jones and the Stupid, Smelly Bus" for the first time.
Having had kids for just about seven years now, I can't imagine life without them -- it would be dreary and meaningless by comparison.
Originally posted by John Todd:
Am I ubnormal ?
There are only two hard things in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors
Ernest: What's right for one person isn't necessarily right for another
Fred: i have to say that if you're afraid of the childbirth process, adoption is a wonderful experience
There are only two hard things in computer science: cache invalidation, naming things, and off-by-one errors
Originally posted by John Todd:
Well, I'm just 22 years old ....
Originally posted by kayal cox:
...this has been going on for thousands and thousands of years, billions and billions of people have gone thru this...![/QB]
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Originally posted by Ashok Mash:
if one can understand and strictly adhere to certain ancient techniques and routines while reproducing, you can almost control and improve many aspects of the personality of your child, and even determine the sex!
There will be glitches in my transition from being a saloon bar sage to a world statesman. - Tony Banks
Originally posted by Dave Lenton:
This seems like something that would be very hard to prove.
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Originally posted by Dave Lenton:
To me the one factor that would be most likely to do this would be diet, but even the effects of that could be dwarfed by genetics and the eventual upbringing of the child.
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Originally posted by Ashok Mash:
a renounced physician