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So trivial, yet it really ticks you off.

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My mother's basement
As to people calling themselves their pets' "parents" ...

My folks, among other pet keepers of my acquaintance, didn't characterize their relationship with their animals in exactly that language, but they may as well have. And I got no problem with it.

I do believe that my mother's animals give her another reason to get up in the morning. She has a couple of dogs and a changing number of feral and semi-feral cats. She lures the strays with food and either tames them enough for her to carry them to her car and then to the vet for spaying or neutering or traps them for the ride to the surgery. She has fashioned a micro-environment for the cats on her deck (she lives where it snows and temperatures might drop to zero or lower) -- a large plastic dog crate lined with old blankets, under which is an electric heating pad.

The cats that stick around have names, such as The Gray Cat, or The Fluffy Cat.

Taking care of critters might not be parenting, but both are motivated by a similar impulse.
 
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LizzieMaine

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My cat owes her life to a feral trap-and-release program. She was a wild woods cat who wouldn't have survived a second winter if she hadn't been trapped and brought into the shelter, where she was spayed and decided she liked being inside a lot more than skulking around in the cold. You'd never know she was ever feral if they hadn't tipped her ear.
 
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Location
Orange County, CA
The only ways my kids could really disapoint me is having a lack of compassion and an unwillingness to contribute positively to society in some way.

My big fear about having kids is having one who turns out to be a "bad seed." The kind who goes bad REGARDLESS of upbringing. I'm sure we all know of somebody whose entire life was just one bad choice after another -- you name it; drugs, alcohol, jail, etc. -- yet they had siblings with the very same upbringing who all turned out alright.
 

Stearmen

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My big fear about having kids is having one who turns out to be a "bad seed." The kind who goes bad REGARDLESS of upbringing. I'm sure we all know of somebody whose entire life was just one bad choice after another -- you name it; drugs, alcohol, jail, etc. -- yet they had siblings with the very same upbringing who all turned out alright.
Over the years, I have had several friends and colleagues with very well behaved kids, invariably I ask them, what did you do to have such a great kid? They all had the same answer, "I don't know!"
 

sheeplady

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Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, USA
My big fear about having kids is having one who turns out to be a "bad seed." The kind who goes bad REGARDLESS of upbringing. I'm sure we all know of somebody whose entire life was just one bad choice after another -- you name it; drugs, alcohol, jail, etc. -- yet they had siblings with the very same upbringing who all turned out alright.

That's a legitimate risk. But the opposite side of risk is reward; taking no risks means no reward. Kids are definitely rewarding.*

*I'm not saying that everybody would find the same reward to risk ratio as myself. And I really wouldn't recommend having children to anyone who doesn't sincerely want them. That's bad for everyone all around. I can totally understand where child free couples are coming from, and I respect whatever their reasons for not wanting children.

I don't like the whole "selfish to have kids" "selfish not to have kids." Unless you're part of that couple, it's none of your business.
 

GHT

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9,793
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New Forest
After I had cancer, I considered getting a tattoo, because I've always wanted one. (I have a scar on my chest from my port i thought abut covering.) However, they said they wouldn't tattoo me until the scar was completely faded. The scar is barely visible now unless you look.
So now I have to live until 60 to get my tattoo.
Before retirement, my wife was a paramedic in the ambulance service. One patient who had collapsed, was a young girl, very goth looking, hair dyed vivid green, body piercings and tattoos all over her body. The young lady's condition was due to a suspected ruptured appendix, she was seriously ill.
The ambulance protocol always called for a female crew member to check a female patient, if where they check, is deemed intimate. That's if there's a female crew member in attendance. My wife told me that the young lady's pubic hair was dyed the same vivid green as her head. She also had a small tattoo of a signpost that read: "Keep of the grass." Later, when taking another patient to the same hospital, my wife looked in on the young girl. She had made a good recovery. She asked my wife to pull the screens around the bed. "Did you see my pubic tattoo?" She asked my wife. "I had to, in order to check you medically," my wife replied. "Oh, I realise that," the young lady replied, "but look what the surgeon has done." And with that she pulled back the bed covers. There underneath the tattoo, the surgeon, using the marker pen for marking out incisions, had written:
"SORRY, WE HAD TO MOW THE LAWN."
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
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9,793
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New Forest
I don't like the whole "selfish to have kids" "selfish not to have kids." Unless you're part of that couple, it's none of your business.
Well said, bravo.
Edward made a good point in another thread some time ago. He said that some people assume that not being a parent is an indirect way of questioning those that are. Absolute nonsense of course, (the assumption, not Edward,)that's what the internet has done, given everyone a soapbox to stand on and run everyone else's life for them. I've actually been berated for changing the old crossply tyres on my vintage car to the more modern, and much safer, radials. Not in the spirit of the car's vintage. Just like the Lounge, most forums ban political discussion, it can get rather heated, maybe that's why everything else we do, or don't do, in life, is fair game for criticism.
 

vitanola

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Gopher Prairie, MI
With the exception of the smoking -- drugs are counterrevolutionary poison -- I wouldn't mind any of those things, to be honest. What would disappoint me is a kid who just wasn't very bright. All of my cats have been very very intelligent.
I can deal with DUMB. It is beyond the poor soul's control, generally. I cannot, however, abide STUPID. One must actively work to remain stupid in our modern world.
 

GHT

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New Forest
I can deal with DUMB. It is beyond the poor soul's control, generally. I cannot, however, abide STUPID. One must actively work to remain stupid in our modern world.
In the days before we decimalised our currency, we had a unit called: The Shilling. Someone who you might describe as dumb, would have been known as: "Not a full shilling." With the arrival of decimal currency and the demise of the shilling, the expression lost common usage. It was replaced by many similar expressions though, and one such expression was put to President George W Bush by a British journalist, during a press conference on one of The Presidents many visits.
The journalist said to Dubya: "What's your reaction when some accuse you of being a sandwich short of a picnic?" The room rocked with laughter when the journalists all realised that The President had to have the joke explained to him. To be fair though, he did write it down and expressed his amusement. It went out on TV, even though it was alleged that Tony Blair tried to prevent it.
 

LizzieMaine

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Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
We have many such expressions here, many of which date back a long time. A brick shy of a load, not the brightest bulb on the string, couldn't pour p--- out of a boot if the instructions were printed on the heel, cement-headed, knot-headed, pin-headed, dough-headed, stone-headed, block-headed, thick as a board, thick as a brick, numb as a rock, numb as a hake, numb as a pounded thumb, numb as a bag of doorknobs, and on and on. Americans have innumerable words for stupid in the same way that, as the saying goes, Eskimos have innumerable words for snow.
 
Lots of idioms for saying one is stupid. A few others:

Not the sharpest knife in the drawer
Not the sharpest tool in the shed
Not the brightest crayon in the box
Not the brightest light in the harbor
Not the quickest bunny in the forest
A few screws short of a hardware store
A few French fries short of a Happy Meal
A few peas short of a casserole
A few beer short of a six pack
A few Fruit Loops short of a bowl of cereal
A few Bradys short of a bunch
A few noodles short of chow mein
A few bristles short of a broom
As sharp as a bowling ball
Not all his oars are in the water
His elevator doesn't go all the way to the top
The lights are on, but no one's home
Forgot to pay his brain bill
Has the IQ of room temperature
Dumb as the day is long

And that great Southern catch all..."Bless his heart..."
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
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9,793
Location
New Forest
When we lived in London, we went to the funeral of a very dear friend. He was a local dignitary who had raised thousands for charity. The service was held in a grand Anglican church, knowing that he was Catholic, this surprised me. I said to my wife: "I thought that he was a Catholic." She said nothing for a moment and then whispered quietly: "Same circus different clowns."
 

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