Letters to the Editor
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For crying out loud
Lighten up people. Good lord.
There's so much projection going on in the negative letters. I'm a dad, and I dote on my kids, yadda.
But having a failed marriage is not synonymous with abandoning your children. Having a second family is not synonymous with narcissism.
Parenting is magical and arduous. Although Rose aimed for humor and missed a bit, the underlying truths are familiar to any honest parent.
This is why moms always used to say, "Go play outside!"
And if nothing else, let it serve as a cautionary note that raising a second set of children might be a slightly different proposition than raising the first ones.
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Look on the bright side
You won't have to worry about paying for college- because you'll be dead!
Parenthood is a choice, you chose it, shut the heck up.
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Password to the Future - "Responsible Reproduction"
With the planet under assault from the demands of 6,500,000,000 + Homo sapiens and the number rising by the second, the only sure path to a better, more environmentally friendly, healthier future is to reduce our numbers to the point that they can be sustained indefinitely. We all must recognize that the resources that have been used to build these huge numbers are depletable and are being depleted: petroleum, arable land, commercially mineable mineral ores, specifically metals, and fresh water. Yes, in many parts of the world, including the America West, aquifers are being pumped down faster than they are replentished by rainfall.
China waited too long before waking up to the huge liability of dense population and is paying a terrific price in trying to put on the brakes at the edge of the precipice with its one-child-per-family policy. Do we really want our children to be faced with the strain this is going to put on Chinese society? A much more reasonable ethic to adopt would be the widespread recognition of the limit of parent replacement in family planning. This would lead to a much more gradual, "soft landing" type of population reduction than the Chinese will experience, as many people cannot have or don't want children. Mr. Rose and his two successive wives would be entitled to 3 offspring among themselves before experiencing societal disapproval in one form or another. I personally hope government is able to stay out of this and let people realize for themselves the personal and social advantages of limiting family size. If you want more kids, then adopt!
Americans are already moving in this direction: my father was one of nine, I am one of four, and I have two now young adult offspring. Germany and Japan are have also peaked in population and, over the next few decades, may begin to approach sustainable population levels. The sooner we begin to follow their example, the less traumatic will be the negative social and economic consequences of living in a nation with a declining population and the sooner we can begin to appreciate living in a country with less stress and more elbow room.
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Bored
No one is responsible for our feelings but ourselves. If you are bored, it is actually YOU who's boring.
Eventually your son and newest model wife will figure that out for themselves.
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Not witty... Not satire... What's the word? Oh, yeah... boring.
First off, I admit I am not a parent. For the most part I've never had the desire, and the moments, few and far between, that I have that yearning are usually short in duration and over when I think of the many ways I am not really well-suited to child rearing. In addition, I have not even babysat since I was in my teens. The point being, I don't really know anything about the trials and joys and frustrations and ecstasies and everything to be found in between of children.
Mr. Rose, however, from his first family, knew all these things. He knew what he was getting into. And to hear somebody bitch about something he knowingly decided to undertake is just tiresome.
He may say he loves them, but I wonder... After reading articles recently stating that children are aware of gender roles at pre-school ages, how aware are they of their father's cues, spoken or unspoken, of his boredom and frustration? Are they going to think of the times he said "I love you"? Or the times he rolled his eyes or ignored his children when they were trying to point out something new and exciting, but it was old hat for him and he didn't care? I suppose he doesn't have to worry too much, as he may be dead or incapacitated or too old to care by the time the resentment starts rising in his children. The whole piece is just selfish, shallow, self-pitying and boring.
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The object of his affections
As "grumpy" as Mr. Rose is, (although in a half-hearted way, and not altogether funny, either) I wonder what his second batch of kids will think of their father when they grow up?
"ah, Dad was always bitching about not wanting to play with me"
"He was such a damn grouch"
"Gee whiz, couldn't spare a minute for me".
"He was always so old!"
If he's complaining about being a father for the second time around, he should have thought twice and gotten his surgery. He knew what he was in for.
It is true though, that our culture is so kid-obsessed that if one criticizes any aspect of kids or child rearing they're automatically called a grump, when in reality they're telling it like it is.
No, I don't have kids...thank god.
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Should have been titled...
'How to raise children that hate you, and for a good reason'
I certainly hope that the last lines of this awful rant mean that you were pulling our leg.
My wife and I decided not to have children early on. I find myself regreting that in some small ways.
the last time we were at that hell hole in FLorida (Disney World) I watched as an exhausted father reacted to his enthralled son... It wasn't quite what I'd call ideal... But the look in the son's eyes was like nothing I've seen before...
Wonderment, awe, giddy surprise... I felt bad for both... I didn't feel so tired afterward... Life is to be shared... Children are to be loved and supported and yes, even tolerated...
They are likely to be the only thing that will survive you and carry on your legacy... You decide what it is: hate or love...
Unless I get a second wife, I see my dotterage being filled with lonely times and listening to stories of other old farts talking about their children calling for advice or to talk...
Love your children for who they are... Be glad that you have them. Cherish the moments that you have with them... I can't...