I already have my GED, and I'll be attending school this year, too. I just mean that I could have done all this sooner if I hadn't dropped out in the first place. Also would have saved me a ton of money as well.

Fo'sho izumi. Hows your summer going?

Cool beans, stupid. College is definitely worth it. I've been in college for a while now...
It becomes tedious after a while...

Yup... college is a pain... but 27 credits and I'm done~ =D

Hello everyone :) How are you this evening?

Ah, gosh, I was browsing the nations' forums, and there were so many people I met in the gazebo thread talking here. And I thought, HELL, WHY NOT. I need a place to hang my elderly hat.

Okay, I ain't that old, but you're as young as you feel, and let's just say, I've seen my fair share of brighter, younger days. Life takes its toll on us all.

But yes, I will definitely indulge in Oldfarts R Us and hope that you folk humor me as well. :D

*laughs* Welcome on board Wendy! I'm only 26 myself, I just sometimes feel ancient!

Hello to Midori as well! :) It's so nice to see more faces join us. :)

@Thoth - My summer isn't too terribly exciting. We've been getting the kids every other two weeks for two weeks. That's been fun, and interesting on how the dynamics of the relationship changes as soon as kids are here. It makes me realize why a lot of people divorce after having children. Other than that, it's been same old same old for me. I'm still waiting to hear back from my job - still no hours being released and no announcement as to what the hell is going on. We've got plan B though, and it won't be the end of the world. I'll miss working from home though. :(

Haha awesome Kaze. You're so close! You gonna party afterwords? XD

I'm good, aoi midori. Just listening to music on playlist and drinking coffee...
Life is good. ^^

Hey Wendy. If you don't mind me asking, how old are you?
Yea, I missed all the older people threads... They all died. ><

You're not that old Izumi! Silly... I'm 20 myself.
Hmmm why do people divorce after kids? I'm curious.
Kids are great... but yea, expensive. You work at home on your comp?
I want an at home job... My current job is at a daycare center. I get paid good for getting abused by little kids all day. I'm looking for a different job though, because working with kids every day is really exhausting.

I think people get divorced after kids because they just don't quite understand what they've gotten themselves into. I think they expect a child to help deepen the relationship. What you don't expect coming is that you'll end up probably spending less time together because of the kids. When the kids are here I don't get nearly as much couple time with my husband as he's got to spend more time on the kids. Also your resources all dry up and disappear in record time too when you got 2 more mouths to feed and it seems like 3 times as many clothes. (They dirty and go through laundry at a quick speed...)

Wow Thoth...working with kids on a day in day out kinda thing you must see how much energy and time they consume!

Glad to be here. :D And 26 isn't old, don't worry. I'll admit, I haven't hit 20 yet. CLOSE, but not yet.

And as for the divorce rates with kids, I think children are just big balls of stress. I envy the people that have the patience to raise them -- as adorable as they are, I know I'll never have children of my own. Too much hassle, they ask too many questions, and it's crazy to raise them. It's a shame that people do get divorced when they have kids because I'm a firm believer that both parents need to be there for the children, but at the same time, I wonder how anyone does it, really. . .

Being a single parent is tough. I've never had first hand experience but I've got a friend who is a single mom to three small kids and I really feel bad for her. She can't afford to get sick as there's no one to take care of the kids.

As for parents staying together. I think so too, but at the same time some people find out the hard way that they're not really compatible for each other and really it'd probably be even more stressful to force the parents to stay together for the kid's sake. It's a shame there isn't any regulation on having kids...I know it sounds silly but I think that kids sometimes happen unexpectedly in a relationship and I think it'd be better if more people were in the right times of their lives before having them. :|

Speaking from the kid's perspective, my parents aren't compatible at all; they never really have been, they come from completely different backgrounds, and the only thing they share in common is their work ethic and ability to be independent, ironically enough. I don't think they work together as a couple, and they certainly don't act as if they're married, just more or less as if they're financial partners sharing the same banking account and what not. But at the same time, if they split up even though I've left the nest and my sister is soon going to do that, I think I would still be pretty severely messed up. I just dislike change, and I think once kids see their parents together long enough, they get shaken up when they go through change like that.

As for the single parenting . . . I don't know how people get around doing that with one child, much less three. My god, think of the insurance. I hope she's getting some financial support from the father.

That's the kicker Wendy - she doesn't. I think the little girl who is 5 is a special case since her dad is technically suppose to have full custody of her daughter but he uses the mother as a daycare center since he's still a single parent. The two boys, aged 3 and 20 months, she doesn't know who the father is. Well she claims she knows, but since she wasn't together with the fathers at the time, and apparently the one paternity test failed she can't claim anything. The youngest apparently she's taking someone to court right now to get a DNA test. Now I don't really agree with what she's done, but the thing is she's made drastic changes from what she use to be and she really does give her all to her kids.

She's also a really close friend of my husband's. They went to high school together and they were childhood sweethearts basically. Just they went on their separate ways after school, and she mixed in with the wrong crowd. :(

Well, I'm glad to hear she's trying to have a turn around. That's always a great thing to hear. And it's good to hear that she has support from you and your husband. I know the downfall of most single parents is that they don't surround themselves with people their own age or anyone at all, so they don't have anyone to rely on when things get tough. Even though you don't approve of her past lifestyle, I think she's probably relieved to know that she has support and friendship in the people around her.

That's the way I look at it too. The only thing you can do now is to change your future. I think she's doing what she can for her kids, and that's really all you can ask of her. I felt so bad for her when she said the only regular outing to herself is the once a month trip to Walmart. :O

I offered to help babysitt, and I take down things like my old Cosmos (when I had a subscription) and other items I don't use but know she might have a use for and she has friends that live next to her in similar circumstances so they divvy it out. Like hubby took a big old box of CDs he never listens to down there and they all went through them and passed them round. Little things like that. We also sent down a PS1 and some games for her so she could have that to play with if she gets a chance.

Old school PS1 games are the best, man. ;] That and old school Nintendo. I bet she liked that a lot.

And a once a month outing to Walmart, yikes. :/ Well, Walmart does have lots of awesome surprises along with it. I sometimes get lost for hours in that store just going in between all the groceries and then the home stuff plus all their arts and crafts section. They literally have everything, and for really cheap. <3

Wow! That's super kind of you Izumi!

Yah I love Walmart too. If I were richer and money didn't mean much to me I'd boycott it since they obviously import crap from thirdworld sweatshops and the like. But the quality is good and since I'm doing good to pay rent on time I can't really complain...

Yeah, I know they get their stuff under pretty terrible circumstances, but like you said, the economy's pretty much shit right now, and I shop there for the bargains when I need it. Most of the time though, I hit up the local grocery store instead of Walmart since I've got a special discount card there. They have great ten items for ten dollars deals, so if I can get twenty pretty great items for twenty bucks, I'm all good. Walmart's there for the clothes and home needs like linens and toiletries though.

Ohh that sounds like Meijer's. They always do the ten for ten and the 11th is free. I love those deals. We're constantly trying to hit the sales.

Ooo, I WISH the eleventh was free for me. That sounds great.

I live for sales. My mother taught me never to buy something unless it was on sale. I hate to say I shop on the clearance racks at department stores, but it's not like the clothes are BAD. I just wait till the clothes are out of season. Shop for winter clothes in the summer and vice versa. And you get great deals for 70 - 80 % off. On the rare occasion 90 %, but that's only when they're uber desperate to get rid of their stock.

Yep I do the same things too. I'm a sucker for a bargain. I'm constantly going over to Walmart's 'reject' isle to rummage in junk. My latest score was a jivepod for $2! I was like score! (RRP $19.99)

Wow, that's CRAZY. I remember seeing those when some friends and I hit up the local Toys R Us store. I've heard it's pretty addicting, and for a good reason, too. Wish we had stuff like that when I was growing up. The only thing I can really remember even similar to that was the Simon game.

Well it's been made official as of 3:50 EST - I got an email from work basically saying my line is done after tomorrow (which I don't have any hours booked for anyways) and that to keep checking our urgent news for any new offers. No promises, and they said something the last time they announced that a line was going. I'm going down tomorrow to try to get the ball rolling for unemployment until I either here back with some new job offer through them or find something more worth while.

Yikes, I'm sorry to hear that. My dad had the same problem back years ago and when he was unable to find a line of work that he was good at / they were hiring, he just went to work for himself, and he's been making about two grand a week. He takes apart old cars that he gets off people for cheap and sells the parts separately to buyers off of eBay. It's a pretty great auto business he's got for himself.

Hopefully you'll be able to get a job offer through the same company, or at the very least, they'll recommend you to another company that offers something similar to the line you were working on. I'm sure things will work out.

Yep Izumi... It kinda makes me not want kids when I'm older. lol.
That way I can be a bachelor all my life. XD how sad.
I'm too poor and impatient for kids of my own.

How old are you wendy?

Other than blaming the poor kids, I think woman change after kids... Which is a big reason too.