Letters to the Editor
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oh no!
Maybe I'm not so excited about pregnancy after all...
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oh just shut up.
really...you dad's have it easier anyhow, just enjoy your day and shut up.
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So, what's your point?
So Daniel, you think you're sick of hearing about how far your kid can spit a cherry pit? Imagine how sick of you complaining about it, we are.
No, REALLY, Salon, we're sick of it. If you're going to insist on having people write about their kids, at least get some who aren't completely self-absorbed and pretentious.
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I knew I didn't want kids!
I laughed my a** off at this article. My husband did too. I knew not having kids was the right decision. :) Great article.
Now let the "HOW COULD YOU BE A PARENT YOU EVIL MAN" screechers begin to wail and rent their garments. Hell, that could be even funnier.
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Wow.
First, I'm surprised that a rant such as this is the lead article on Salon.
Second, my bona fides: my third wife is 23 years younger than I. So I am not unfamiliar with children or wives.
Third. The little things, the absolutely trivial things, the absolutely irritating things, the maddening things, the insignificant things are jewels. Your wife's concerns are golden.
The sad thing is that you don't perceive that you are a rich man. Been, there, done that, but with a VERY different perception from yours. You, a geezer like me, have been given the greatest gift in the world. But you don't realize it. What can I say, sometimes the wrong people end up with children.
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Swing and a miss
There's funny grumpy and then there's just plain grumpy. Unfortunately for the author, only the barest glimpse of funny emerges from this essay.
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Refreshing!
Look! You gotta see this!! A non-obsessive parent! A parent who's also a complete individual and doesn't live ONLY through their children! Someone who understands that it's NORMAL to not spend every second of every minute of every day completely ABSORBED in your child and nothing else. The benefit? The child will understand that they are loved by their parents very much, but the world does NOT revolve around them, and will not bend to their every whim, thus preparing them to live successfully in the real world as adults.
You know - the way kids were raised for millenia prior to 1960 or so, when parents were more concerned about raising their children to be well-adjusted happy competent adults, rather than short-sightedly raising them to be constantly appeased children (I'm guessing for fear that their children might not like them as much if they say "no" or discipline them?) who can't manage to behave like humans in public.
It's lovely and a relief to know that there are still parents out there with a little bit of perspective. How do we get more of those??
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Just what this country -- nay, world -- needs
Old men making more kids, instead of focusing on the ones they failed the first time.
Great job, slugger.
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old dads
Aren't you just a little too self-satisfied that
you have a trophy wife and the sperm still works?
And you want it all - again? It's still all about you.
I,too, think parenting these days is nauseating but you're
part of the problem, not the solution.
PS I had a friend who married a guy like you. Now they're divorced, he's dead and the boys have a stepfather who's a normal guy and an English teacher.
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I'm Calling You a Grump
So you're going through parenthood a second time, but your wife is going through it for the first time, and your boys will only get to grow up once. You really want them to remember you for cutting off their "trivial" questions and stories? Why not try to see things from their perspective? It might make you feel younger, and who knows, maybe less grumpy!
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Oh please....
Your colossal ego hooks you up with a woman young enough to be your daughter and compels you to go along with her reproductive agenda while the world is awash with surplus population and you want to WHINE about it? Give us a break. You can't be serious.
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You sure you're not related to Debra Dickerson?
Or Camille Paglia?
Or Caitlin Flanagan?
Or another member of Salon's Navel-Gazing Patrol?
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Sad
Sad for your children, not you. When my daugher discovers that catepillars are fuzzy and tickle her finger I share that discovery with her. Not only am I getting to (re) discover some of the small joys of life with a special child, but just the fact that her father cares enough to share her discoveries with her is important in the development of a child.
Her daddy loves her and it shows when I am able to let go of my jaded adulthood and see the world through her new eyes. To not do so is not only show disdain for things she cares about, but a lack of caring for her.
I could never do that to any child, much less my own.
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Hey, d0k0night, pop a couple of spoons of Geritol, wouldya?
I'm not tonia, but have to comment on d0k0night's 1950s misogynistic "Me Cro-Magnon Breadwinner" rant.
S'matta with you, buddy?
Bitter that, unlike Daniel Asa Rose, you can't score a young, fertile babe to pop out some more babettes who are the beneficiaries of your Neanderthal DNA?
Or are you just projecting?
As in, YOU are really the wage-earning, bill-paying drudge, with a Tammy Faye Baker-esque overly made-up wife who sits on her butt all day and can't be bothered to pick up the thousands of pieces of Lego toys strewn about by your ungrateful brood?
Who is bitter much, my friend?
Sounds like you got it hard. Rather than telling tonia to "STFU" -- your advice actually should start at home... where poor whipped old you apparently has a LOT of work to do to get that family of yours in shape!
You ARE the man of the house, after all...
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Missing the stoic Greatest Generation right now.
Now we know where artistically-inclined disaffected youth come from. Someone sign these kids up for a record contract!
It's been a while since Salon has run an appallingly dull "feel my inarticulate, tedious world that somehow deigns to not be about my tedious needs every damn second" submission. We don't want those pieces back! Salong, are we next going to read about how raising dogs is like raising children?