Canada has more seniors than children

[DragonChi]

Mortality has gone up like 30%? I remember a time where people only lived till 60. On average, it's now 81.

[Mr.HappySilp]

Seen my sister with her new born (well more like 10months now). Is more than a full time job. I am not really sure how she would manage once she have to go back to work. Luckily my mom is helping to look after the baby 3 times a week and the other 2 days is day care.

I just can't see myself having kids. Is not just spending time with them but also the cost of having kids. I mean sure you can raise your kids with min wage and both parents goes to work. Not really sure how kids will turn out then...... When I was growing up yea both of the parents work long hours and aren't home all day but back then we didn't have this much access to the internet and all these technology. I still remember the worse thing I did was playing tag with friends one his roof top. That's was it. I got grounded for days lol. Now there are way too many scary things out there.

[flagella]

Originally Posted by 68style

Besides the obvious economics factors here or, say, in Toronto... who the hell wants to have kids in the societal climate we live in? I watch what my sister deals with on a daily basis with her kids and the various mommy groups and other parents at daycare and schools... people are absofuckinglutely mental nowadays, there's so many alt-left gender bender recognize everyone nonsense crazy-ass parents out there now it's insane! Our social fabric is complete garbage to deal with, I don't know how my sister keeps her shit together.

Nevermind access to internet and information nowadays makes it so you're effectively choosing to either have kids, and focus on them for the next 20 years of your life, or explore the world and live freely with the 1 chance on the planet you do have... it's pretty intense, you have to REALLY want to have kids and be super invested in that process, otherwise it's just painful to sit there on one side of a window watching single or non-child rearing friends traveling wherever at a whim and taking whatever opportunities in life come their way. You can thank Instagram and Facebook for that depression! Likewise some people are on the other side staring in wishing they had a child, but I think those people are far fewer nowadays than before.

Maybe I'm just not programmed for kids, but I spend a couple hours around my niece or nephew or anyone else's kids and I'm like "See ya, enjoy!" and can't imagine doing that for 16+ hours per day. Gone are the days when I grew up when mommy stayed home and daddy went to work too... so both parents are busting their asses at work and then probably fighting more from stress and financial issues. No thanks!

I think it's great that you realize that you don't want kids, instead of being clueless and have kids without understanding the responsibilities that come with it.

You do seem to have a distorted view about raising a kid though, as if it's all about having your freedom taken away. There's a true joy in raising kids and seeing how they grow and acquire new skills. Yes, raising kids can be highly stressful. It can be very taxing physically and mentally. It will set you back financially as well. But there are so many moments of joy you could only experience as a parent. I'm in fact growing and learning together with my kids. It's not something people without kids can understand as they tend to see only the negatives.

The growing aging population simply isn't sustainable. You have a huge cost burden resting on proportionally smaller younger generation. We need more capable people to raise kids to be productive members of society. Unfortunately, oftentimes it's the dumb ones who have the most time on their hand to reproduce.

[quasi]

Originally Posted by flagella

I think it's great that you realize that you don't want kids, instead of being clueless and have kids without understanding the responsibilities that come with it.

You do seem to have a distorted view about raising a kid though, as if it's all about having your freedom taken away. There's a true joy in raising kids and seeing how they grow and acquire new skills. Yes, raising kids can be highly stressful. It can be very taxing physically and mentally. It will set you back financially as well. But there are so many moments of joy you could only experience as a parent. I'm in fact growing and learning together with my kids. It's not something people without kids can understand as they tend to see only the negatives.

The growing aging population simply isn't sustainable. You have a huge cost burden resting on proportionally smaller younger generation. We need more capable people to raise kids to be productive members of society. Unfortunately, oftentimes it's the dumb ones who have the most time on their hand to reproduce.

Agreed, there are some negatives for sure but the positives are pretty fricking unbelievable and you have to live them to realize how enjoyable they are. My biggest regret now is not having another one when my wife wanted, now I'm to old.

[DragonChi]

Over 51?

Babies at higher risk of autism if father is too young or too old: study - National | Globalnews.ca

Not sure how legit this study is, but it seems to be in line with what I've heard. Then again, this only looks as autism as well.

[quasi]

No I'm in my early 40s but my son is 11 this month not doing diapers and baby's again at this point.

[DragonChi]

I see what you mean. I agree, the first three months of babycare are the toughest.

[MelonBoy]

Isn't this a problem with the majority of the world. Baby boom generation

Wonder how much this will actually effect us..

Could be good for real estate though haha.. Majority of people retiring, means they may not be able to afford their home. Let the downsizing begin! Wooooheee

Wishful thinking aside. I'm 100% sure a LOT of almost retired people with mortgages and what not. Who will not be able to keep their standard of living after they are pushed to retire.. May have to

[Traum]

Originally Posted by flagella

The growing aging population simply isn't sustainable. You have a huge cost burden resting on proportionally smaller younger generation. We need more capable people to raise kids to be productive members of society. Unfortunately, oftentimes it's the dumb ones who have the most time on their hand to reproduce.

Unfortunately, I can't see this as anything other than a downward spiral. The undeniable fact is, those with the least amount of education and in the lower classes of society incur the least opportunity cost when they have children. If you have a doctor or a business woman giving birth, her down time costs in terms of lost wages is gonna be huge compared to a woman earning minimum wage. And then as the child grows, the "costs of investments" into the children is also going to be HUGE for the wealthier and educated parents compared to the poorer and not very educated parents. And so those who are the least equipped to give birth and raise children are the ones that do it the most.

[Reeyal]

Originally Posted by Hondaracer

Soylent green to solve our food problems!

Good one. Not many people get this reference.

[GLOW]

Originally Posted by quasi

No I'm in my early 40s but my son is 11 this month not doing diapers and baby's again at this point.

diapers, and crying all night and zero sleep

[Great68]

Originally Posted by Reeyal

Good one. Not many people get this reference.

Soylent Green is PEOPLE!

[twitchyzero]

remember in school when we were told that jobs would be plentiful because of retiring Baby Boomers?

nah they'll be living longer and continue to work...too bad for the snowflakes

[Bouncing Bettys]

Originally Posted by twitchyzero

remember in school when we were told that jobs would be plentiful because of retiring Baby Boomers?

nah they'll be living longer and continue to work...too bad for the snowflakes

I'm sure some Baby Boomers remember growing up in a time when they were told automation would be great because it meant more leisure time for everyone. Perhaps with the strength of unions at the time, they never considered automation and overseas job displacement to be a threat to the middle class.

[jcmaz]

I disagree about "low" paying jobs. There's lot of opportunity in trades that younger folk can become skilled in. However they don't because they think it's crap/dirty/hard work and would rather work in an office instead. Well guess what, trades is what it takes to make a decent living in Vancouver.

Quite frankly, I wish I did trades instead of getting some bullshit science degree.

People can dream to go travelling when working on a minimum wage job. But you have to be realistic and make the necessary sacrifices to do so, whether it's going back to school or working even harder.

[hotjoint]

Originally Posted by flagella

I think it's great that you realize that you don't want kids, instead of being clueless and have kids without understanding the responsibilities that come with it.

You do seem to have a distorted view about raising a kid though, as if it's all about having your freedom taken away. There's a true joy in raising kids and seeing how they grow and acquire new skills. Yes, raising kids can be highly stressful. It can be very taxing physically and mentally. It will set you back financially as well. But there are so many moments of joy you could only experience as a parent. I'm in fact growing and learning together with my kids. It's not something people without kids can understand as they tend to see only the negatives.

The growing aging population simply isn't sustainable. You have a huge cost burden resting on proportionally smaller younger generation. We need more capable people to raise kids to be productive members of society. Unfortunately, oftentimes it's the dumb ones who have the most time on their hand to reproduce.

I'm a fairly new dad. My son will be 5 months old on the 7th. I totally agree with everything that you've said. Yes, it can be taxing physically, mentally and be a big time hit financially but the joy and happiness that you get is priceless. People who don't have kids will never understand.

[Mr.HappySilp]

Originally Posted by jcmaz

I disagree about "low" paying jobs. There's lot of opportunity in trades that younger folk can become skilled in. However they don't because they think it's crap/dirty/hard work and would rather work in an office instead. Well guess what, trades is what it takes to make a decent living in Vancouver.

Quite frankly, I wish I did trades instead of getting some bullshit science degree.

People can dream to go travelling when working on a minimum wage job. But you have to be realistic and make the necessary sacrifices to do so, whether it's going back to school or working even harder.

The thing with trades you can't do it till you retire. Sister in law is an auto mech makes a ton (They already have one townhouse and an apartment). However he is looking to change jobs. Fully knowing once he grow older (early to mid 50s) or even earlier he won't able to perform the job (not physically enough, younger guys can do your job faster etc etc...) so he is looking for a change. I mean with an office work or something that isn't physically demanding you can do the same work for much much longer than trades.

[quasi]

Originally Posted by Mr.HappySilp

The thing with trades you can't do it till you retire. Sister in law is an auto mech makes a ton (They already have one townhouse and an apartment). However he is looking to change jobs. Fully knowing once he grow older (early to mid 50s) or even earlier he won't able to perform the job (not physically enough, younger guys can do your job faster etc etc...) so he is looking for a change. I mean with an office work or something that isn't physically demanding you can do the same work for much much longer than trades.

Most of our estimators and project managers came from the field. I'm in the trades but I work in an office 5 days week besides the odd side visit and meeting. Most of my friends my age who also started in the trades are also in an office somewhere, they either started their own company, or are in management for someone. I could do this job until I was 70 if I wanted to.

We do some physical stuff here I mean there's golf which can really fuck your back up and sturgeon fishing those bastards like to pull.

[hchang]

Originally Posted by 68style

Funny, but people actually say this stuff! My sister recently sent me a screen-cap of a parent arguing against the autistic puppet on Sesame Street saying it doesn't raise awareness because he's treated like he's special and they should be treated the same as everyone else... you know... pretending there's not something wrong?

She also, I shit you not, said "I probably would have been diagnosed with autism myself as a child"......... ???? are you implying that you cured yourself of a genetic disorder lady? Or are you still autistic???? LOL

Oh and another one where the kid did a math exercise at school that asked them to identify which food had more calories and which one has less sodium from some nutrition charts, and the parents complained against the teacher because she was instilling shame in the kids for eating certain foods and that would lead to body image issues. WTF????

Heard on the radio today that school's shouldn't recognize and do crafts and stuff for Mothers Day / Fathers Day because not everybody has a mom and dad, sometimes it's two moms, sometimes it's two dads.

Fuck. This. Shit.

[Presto]

^^^

and parents can only laud praise on their child via 'jazz hands'

[Mr.HappySilp]

Originally Posted by quasi

Most of our estimators and project managers came from the field. I'm in the trades but I work in an office 5 days week besides the odd side visit and meeting. Most of my friends my age who also started in the trades are also in an office somewhere, they either started their own company, or are in management for someone. I could do this job until I was 70 if I wanted to.

We do some physical stuff here I mean there's golf which can really fuck your back up and sturgeon fishing those bastards like to pull.

That's good. I mean one of my managers (who retire last year) was around 70 and he works in the field a lot (mostly light to medium physically work). But I can tell you he is more healthy than me lol. But then again he doesn't need to do a lot of physical stuff. My dad also works in a cardbox factory till he retire at 66.

I think for more physical work (construction workers for example) is hard to actually contiune the job after mid 50.

[Hondaracer]

Originally Posted by hotjoint

I'm a fairly new dad. My son will be 5 months old on the 7th. I totally agree with everything that you've said. Yes, it can be taxing physically, mentally and be a big time hit financially but the joy and happiness that you get is priceless. People who don't have kids will never understand.

I think the people going on about not knowing the joys of having children are just as ignorant as people who say they won't have children for the joys of the freedom and flexibility.

Personal choice, but to say someone with a kid is just instantly happier and experiences more joy in their life is absolute bullshit imo. The majority of people I know who have kids and struggle financially are overall miserable people.

[MG1]

And that's what's wrong with our society. People who are generally into themselves should never, ever, ever, have children. If they're miserable, just imagine how miserable their offspring will be.

EDIT: Having said that, I've seen people who have children by mistake do a complete 180.

[J____]

I've recently had a baby. Both me and my wife decided to dedicate full time to him and raise him ourselves. Pretty much had to put our business on hold since raising a kid is literally more than a full time job. Honestly though, I'd rather put making money on hold for a few years and raise my kid right, than let some nanny or daycare raise him to grow up and become a little shit like every other kid this generation.

[quasi]

Originally Posted by J____

I've recently had a baby. Both me and my wife decided to dedicate full time to him and raise him ourselves. Pretty much had to put our business on hold since raising a kid is literally more than a full time job. Honestly though, I'd rather put making money on hold for a few years and raise my kid right, than let some nanny or daycare raise him to grow up and become a little shit like every other kid this generation.

The daycare isn't the problem it's the parents. My kid was in daycare from 1 to 10, he's a great kid well mannered well adjusted and overall a good kid. If your kid is going to be a D-Bag it's because of you not because of his or her daycare. You want to see some awkward not well adjusted kids look no further then the kids who are home schooled, my son has played sports with a few different ones over the years and those kids are super introverted and weird as fuck future serial killers of the world.