- John Mayer
- iPods
- waiting until you're 30 to have kids to pursue your own dreams, as if a child would ruin your life or something
- The Hills, One Tree Hill, and all those other teeny bopper shows
- Nicholas Sparks books
- The Jonas Brothers & Miley Cyrus
- wearing uncomfortable shoes with blue jeans to look stylish
- those hair bump things that make your hair stand up
- secular music
- pushing your kid to be excellent in sports
- going green...
- frappucinos
What do you think is overrated!?
I agree with your #3! Obviously. ;)
ReplyDeleteThe Bump-It is completely overrated lol. My hair is so straight that it is really flat when I pull it up because I'm not good at teasing it to make it look fuller on stop. So I bought one. It totally doesn't work. :)
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteReasons why we are friends:
ReplyDeleteI hate John Mayer.
Reasons we might not be able to be friends anymore:
Don't judge my love for One Tree Hill.
LOL. Tara, you're great!! :) Mark says that once I'm pregnant, he's going to go out and buy Crocs, because that is the ULTIMATE dad look. All dads have Crocs ;]
ReplyDeleteAnd, Emmy.. I'm sorry. But tune in to TLC or Discovery Health for some REAL tv! :) :) You'll thank me later.
-John Mayer is pretty irrelevant nowadays.
ReplyDelete-I don't know whether I want to wait a long time to have children, but I grew up with a great lifestyle because my parents got married and had children in their 30s and were really established financially. I want to be able to give my children everything (good education, college, sports, ballet lessons, whatever) and it not be a big financial burden. Of course, I'm not married, so I don't have to think about it for a while. :)
-I think TEXTING is overrated. Jarred and I don't have a text plan because we are having to save money.
-ALL As Seen on TV gadgets are overrated. I want to puke all over the Snuggies!
Children are NEVER NEVER NEVER a financial burden. EVER. It's just how society makes it look and tells people that's how they should think. Which is pretty darn sad, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteOh, and TLC & Discovery Health rock.
well, it's all about a person's priorities. if someone really want that vacation to the Bahamas, and that big SUV and the 5 bedroom house, they'd view having a child as a financial burden. which i don't agree with. like the famous saying goes, you can never "afford" a kid. i don't agree with popping out babies left and right and expecting someone else to pick up the tab, but i also don't agree with chasing dreams and ignoring God's command to multiply. i've (personally) never heard anyone WISH they hadn't had their kids or wished they had waited longer. on that same note, i've only heard people say they wished they had started SOONER.
ReplyDeletei definitely don't want to live "my" life and end up regretting that i didn't start our precious family sooner.
but, meaghan, i totally understand where you're coming from. my parents had me in their 30s, and i had all those opportunities too. i definitely believe that a married couple should be established and the man should have a job to support his growing family. can't wait til you get married, dear! :)
and on a different note, it's kind of interesting how society has changed in the last century. i mean, before, when you got married, you KNEW that meant having babies. and if you didn't want babies, well.. you didn't do the Baby Dance. since birth control came along, we all get to "choose" when we have kids. it's just kind of interesting. if our ancestors had the option to CHOOSE when they'd have babies, what would the earth's population be like?? i mean, it would be WAAAY smaller. kinda crazy!
I don't think the earth's population would be smaller if our ancestors were able to "choose" if they had babies or not. (Also, I still don't think anyone who is married has the "option" to have a baby, unless they just AREN'T having sex, or are medically unable to do so. Ultimately, God decides who gets pregnant and has babies and who doesn't.) They had the desire to multiply and have families; they were not encouraged to chase careers and be "settled" and financially stable in order to start having babies. Having families was not just a thing to do because they didn't have anything else to do, it was a desire they had that ruled over any other desire society could have given them. It's only been since the feminist movement that women have put having families on hold because they're more worried about having careers and money and what THEY want. Not what God wants.
ReplyDeleteI also don't think that it's right to think that we can never "afford" to have children. I think it is exactly the same thought as thinking children are a financial burden. If we think we can't afford a child, that implies we're still going to be worried about how we'll be able to provide them with the things they need/want, which, in essence, is still thinking they are a burden. Even if it isn't flat-out saying it. No matter what your income is, God will provide everything you need in order to support a family and the children you have. (Read: God will take care of HIS children. So if you're a believer, you should never worry about affording a child or think of them as a financial burden.)
Also, I don't think it is wrong for women to have lots of babies. Granted, they are having babies to glorify God, not for any other reason.
And I also disagree with families needing to be "established" (read: financially stable) in order to have babies. Are Chris and I established? No. But God has gifted us with this baby He's knitting in my womb anyway. Why? Because we sought/seek to glorify Him alone in our family and with our children. He did not see the need for us to be established or "financially stable" (if there ever is a thing, especially if there's a belief that nobody can ever "afford" a child) in order to bless us with a baby.
In a believer's life, it should NEVER be about affording or making sure your child has what it needs/wants. Our main goal should always be to glorify our Savior and LORD, not worry about whether or not we'll be "okay" and able to "live comfortably" after we have a baby.
oh, I agree with all of that. I'm talking about women who have babies one after another who aren't married and it's just bad situation all around. And I'm not talking about Christians only, I'm talking about the entire world. I know lots of women have kids to get that extra income from the government. It happens. And I said that comment about "affording" a baby and I meant it like: a person cannot afford a baby -- a baby isn't like a car payment or a house payment. it's a life. so it isn't on the same "plane" as purchasing an object. Idk if that makes any sense, but that's how my book Start Your Family. Like, you can't even think of it as "affording" a child, because it's a human being.
ReplyDeleteOh, yep, that totally makes sense now! I still haven't bought that book yet! :( I wonder if libraries have it to check out? I have sooo many books I want/need to read and videos I want/need to watch. Maybe I'll be able to finally when I'm done with this semester!
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, it is bad when women have babies just for the extra paycheck. I guess that's how it works? I don't really know. I just know that you get, like, $2000 on tax returns for every child. But I'm not sure about what happens during the year if you have a lot of babies, are not married, and just rely on the government? But yeah, you're right, because I know there are women out there who do that for the money, unfortunately. :(
oh, well, I'll bring it over the holidays and I'll just letcha borrow it! I'ts kinda a lot to take in (I think) so I think it'd be hard to read in the two weeks that libraries let you check it out for! I'll find some way to get it to you :) It's a cute book!
ReplyDeleteI don't really know how all that works, either.. I just know that you get a bigger welfare check, more food stamp $$, and a bigger tax return. And, if you have a kid with a disability, you get a check from the government for that too.. so a lot of parents have their kids FAKE a disability!! Seriously :( It's very sad!
Really?! Oh, yay! That would be great! Then I can just mail it back to you when I'm done with it! You're the best!
ReplyDeleteOhhhh, I had forgotten about welfare checks. Those are monthly, right? So yep, they'd get more money each month to be able to provide for their kiddos. And that it INSANE and AWFUL that parents make their KIDS fake a disability! OMG! How does that even work?! Wouldn't they have to have proof? OMG, that makes me so sad. How terrible. I had no idea that went on. :(
People aren't just waiting to have children, I've read statistics that couples are waiting to get married too. I definitely wouldn't want to wait another 10 years to get married, but until a few months ago, I was basically the main money earner. Jarred had a part-time job and then went into the car business at a terrible time. He has finally been blessed with a wonderfully paying salaried job. It's been a long 2 years going from job to job. We haven't gotten married yet because we had no money to our names. At all. Until now, marriage has been completely out of the picture, and yes, it's because of finances. Jarred (and I) don't want to start our marriage out like that, because that is what is best FOR US, and us alone.
ReplyDeleteAs for children, I still strongly stand by my opinion. My father works very hard every single day to bring in a paycheck at the end of the month. He worked hard in the beginning of their marriage so my mother could quit her job and stay at home to raise my younger sister and me. He worked hard so we could go to summer camps and take ballet lessons. We never lived an extravagant lifestyle by any means, but my parents wanted to earn money so they could afford to buy a home in the safest neighborhood, buy us new, safe cars when we were 16 and send us to college. If my sister or I wanted something, Mom and Dad wanted to be able to buy it.
My mother was 28 when she met my father. A year before that, she was working as a SPED teacher at a church in NC. She says she remembers praying to God that He would lead her to the right man. And if she was not meant to marry, that He would ease her emotional pain, because she very much wanted to get married. Shortly after, she met my father, who was 30. They married within the year. They waited 2 years after they were married to begin their family. That's what was best for THEM. My mother wasn't out pursuing a career those two years before. In fact, she was a stay-at-home wife. That's what Dad wanted her to do. He worked hard those two years before they had me because I WAS an added expense. But that is not a bad thing. Regardless of whether a baby is planned or not, I think that is a good expense to have! My parents were not wanting to 'keep' a certain lifestyle for themselves, they were wanting to GIVE my sister and me a certain lifestyle.
On the flip side, Jarred's mother and father were married at 19 and had Jarred's older sister immediately. His father wanted both Jarred and Ashley to go to college because he wanted them to be able to provide their families with more opportunities than he was able to. The family was in the farming business and sometimes made less than Jarred does just starting off now. Jarred had to get a part time job in HS to help pay for things and he is paying on his own college bills now. Lisa (his mother) tells me they were unprepared financially for children and that Jarred and I need to wait a few years after we are married. But that was THEIR situation. It's not everyone's. And neither is my parents' situation. I just think couples need to make responsible decisions when they decide to have children. And if the baby is a suprise, there are still responsible decisions to be made - eating out or cooking dinner at home? Going on a week-long vacation, or traveling for a day trip somewhere near home?
Forgive me, since I am a finance major, but in today's society, it IS all about money, unfortunately. Money dictates EVERYTHING Jarred and I do, and it's not fun. We will be getting married sometime in the next year, most likely after I graduate in late 2010, early 2011. That will give us plenty of time to save our finances so we can begin to think about starting our family.
Nope :\ We were "trained" to see the signs of fake disability at WKU because of this. For example, they'll tell their kid to REALLY misbehave at school, and they will be labeled Emotional Behavhioral Disorder (EBD) and that will get you a check. OR tell their kid not to talk, and they will be labeled with something, and that will get them a check too. It's really easy to fake a disability (especially in little kids!!!) for that stupid check. How dumb!!!! One of my teachers used to work in a public school, and once, a kid came to her and said, "I'm so sick of pretending..." :O UGH! :\ Idk how common it is. Hopefully not very common :\ sigh!
ReplyDeleteanyway, I'll definitely bring it when I come back to BG and arrange it somehow for you to get it! don't worry! :) Then you can read it on the road (oh wait. you get car sick. RATS!!!!).. I was going to say you could reat it on the way to NC since that will be a big car ride. ugh. stinky...
this is really off topic, but a few months ago on Oprah (I never watch her anymore, because her show has become stinky in the past few years) but she had an actor on there (I forget who) and he had like 3-4 kids. And he was asking her why she didn't have any kids, and she said because she knew that she wouldn't be a good mother bc of her job, and she couldn't dedicate enough time to her family. So she chose to juts be a business woman. And that actor (forget who... ugh!!) flat out told her that she made a huge mistake and that she wasted her life! :O I couldn't believe that he told her that on national television!! But.. that's some serious guts! Now, it's too bad that I forgot who that actor man was. LOL. Oh me ;)
ReplyDeleteMeaghan, I definitely think everyone's situation is different. But as believers, I think it is best to rely on the Lord's provision and not man's ability to provide. My husband and I got married last year while we both had PT jobs that we knew wouldn't last. We had little to our name when we got back from our honeymoon, and after 6 months of marriage, his PT job was the only income we had. We lived alone and rented, as well as paid bills, and the Lord *somehow* provided us with everything we needed to get by on ONE PT income. I would never have waited to marry him because our finances weren't stable. I don't think it is important or a necessary to make sure you are financially stable to get married or start a family. I think if it is God's will for those things to happen, He will provide a way no matter what. We should trust Him in everything we do, ESPECIALLY big decisions like that! But I know you know that. :) And I totally commend your dad for working so hard to allow your mother to be a SAHM. That's a noble and wonderful thing he did for your mom and you and your sister. I loved reading that! I didn't mean to offend you if I did, I just honestly believe that even though the WORLD is all about money, WE as believers should not be. Our treasure is in Heaven, not here on earth. Our focus should be to glorify Him in everything we do, not make decisions based on our personal finances that will make us/our children most comfortable.
ReplyDeleteAnd Shan, that is SO awful! I honestly didn't know that happened! And OMG at that child telling his teacher he was tired of pretending! How unbelievably sad. :( You would think they would need DOCTOR documentation to be able to get extra assistance for a disabled child. I didn't realize that you DID get assistance, though. Is it kind of like getting things provided like a wheelchair, etc. that you and Lucas said is provided for free? Or is that a completely different program?
And I'm sooo excited about that book! Yay!
And LOL at that guy! Seriously! That made me laugh! What did she say?!
No, it's extra money because those kids provide a stress on families and it continues through adulthood because they can't work. (Or, if they can, they wouldn't be making as much as me or you or someone else without a disability). It's called Supplemental Security Income. I really don't know what program specifically gives kids free wheelchairs & stuff, but I know it exists. I *think* public schools buy things for specific kids, and they get to keep them. I think.
ReplyDeleteOh, and Oprah!? She kinda when "heh heh" and went on to another subject. Because Oprah has been with that boyfriend, Stedman (sp??) for DECADES, and never married him and never had kids. And she loves kids! So I guess he was wondering why the heck she never had children :) So funny!
OHHHH, that's what SSI is. I never knew what it was. Gotcha!
ReplyDeleteAnd I totally didn't know Oprah dated some guy for decades? Ha.
sure thing!! and she won't marry him. I just googled it, and it says she's been dating him for 21 years (but idk when that article was written) but that she kept him completely out of the will. I do know that's true, because it was all over the magazines when her will came out. anyway. Pretty interesting ;)
ReplyDeleteHmm, crazy! So, they're still together now? Or they broke it off? Crazy.
ReplyDeletewell, it was reported that they broke up, but I don't really know. I think they are still together. She also said she wanted to adopt 3 girls from Africa, so we'll have to wait and see!! She is getting close to 60 years old, so I don't know what she plans, exactly! But a friend of mine put on facebook today that her show (the Oprah Winfrey Show) is ending in 2011. I think she MIGHT go to the Oxygen Channel full time. Very strange!
ReplyDeleteStrange, indeed. I have no clue about her these days. I never really watched/liked her show anyway.
ReplyDelete