Started off a concern, turned into a rant about money, education and sex!

I have to warn you that my brain is on over-drive right now and this will probably touch on many topics…pretty much…I have some stuff on my chest right now that I would really like to get out in the open…hopefully typing it all will get it out of my head for a while and relieve some pressure, so here it goes…It all started while I was bored at work today, looking for a good quote to write in TJ’s Veteran’s Day card and found this little quote, “I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, "Mother, what was war?" ~Eve Merriam. That really hit home in so many different ways. TJ and I want a big family (in a few years) and one of the things that are stopping us from starting a family soon is the financial situation, war situation and education system going on in our great nation. Even though I watch the news daily, I still barely understand anything about the war we are in now or the yoyo’s that are running this country. I know that none of what I do understand about the war makes any sense to me since we are barely allowed to defend ourselves but trust me….you don’t want to hear my opinion on the way we are fighting over there so lets just move on……Not only does my generation have to worry about raising children in a time of a war….but we also have to worry about the entire nation being under economic crisis. TJ and I both had an amazing childhoods and we both feel that we will make great parents ourselves but I can not help but to fear raising a child in a time with the nation in such shambles. Growing up, my parents told me stories of a happier time when they could safely walk to school alone or could just hop in the back of the truck on a Friday, drive to Panama City, sleep in the truck or on the beach and head home on Sunday with no regrets. What will I be able to tell my children? We could not take spontaneous vacations or road trips because gas was nearly $3.00 a gallon and there was fear your dad would get laid off work every week (before the USAF)??? Or that we could only take walks around the block when we carried our handguns with us to defend ourselves? Also, even though TJ gets a steady paycheck will we be able to afford a child…or will we have adequate health insurance to be able to afford even the birth of a child???? We pretty much give babies and money to people who refuse to work but hard working, law abiding citizens can not afford to raise a healthy family due to the rising cost of healthcare and education. I by no means have any problems with getting financial help or food stamps from the government if you really need it, after all that is what it was designed for…IF you can and do work for an honest living…I know it sounds harsh but I do feel that I should have a little say so in who gets those benefits since it is hard working people like TJ and I who provide the tax dollars to fund such programs. I myself have a relative that has 4 children, who doesn’t support or have custody of any of them…the kids all need help with insurance and lunch money at school because the grandmother is raising all 4 of them on just her deceased husband’s social security…It is sad because it is not the children’s fault nor do they deserve the fact that they have shitty parents but why were the shitty people even allowed to get pregnant since neither had jobs and neither were and are still not trying to live an honest life??? It is so easy these days to just get knocked up by any Tom, Dick or Harry that you meet not have to take responsibility since it is so easy to get food stamps, free insurance and help with schooling… You can…well…rephrase, not you…but basically any dishonest person can practically live for free all because they are making bad choices in life…I just want to scream..It really gets on my nerves that those kinds of worthless people are allowed to take advantage of the system like that and make honest people suffer. Something else I feel very passionate about….I think we should be teaching better sexual education, current events and financial education in middle and high schools as well as in the home. You can not rely on parents to teach their children about these things so we should teach them in public school. More children need to know what is going on in the country around them…I have a fairly intelligent 14-year old cousin who goes to public school that could not tell you the difference between a governor or mayor much less who those people are or why we are at war….Sad, I know…our children should be educated on not only world events but events happening in the United States and learn to care about these things so their generation can make change happen. I personally went to a high school where the teachers (no offense I know not all but most of the ones I had) didn’t really care what happened to you after high school and I was never taught to be responsible with money or anything like that. To be honest I had just about the worst guidance counselors ever…. one of them (bless her absent minded heart) basically told our senior class that if you went to college for four years you could get a job making six digits, easy. I mean WHAT A JOKE WOMAN…Neither of my parents went to college so I had no idea that she was lying…2 semesters at UAB and a few thousand dollars worth of student loans later I learned the real truth about college….Yes, everyone could benefit from it but some of the smartest people I know can’t afford it…and just because you have a degree doesn’t mean you will make good money, I mean, hell, look at teachers, 4 to 8 years of school and they make just as much as a manager at Lowe’s with out a degree. And a lot of times in the real work force, it is not what you know but who you know! Ok, enough Brookwood bashing…I think if more kids knew at an earlier age the risk of having pre-marital sex or even sex with multiple partners or hell…even sex with out protection then maybe we could cut out some of the unwanted or unneeded pregnancies and STD’s in America. If we didn’t have so many unwanted pregnancies then we could re-direct that tax money to go towards higher education for anyone who wants to go to college to better their lives. Too many grandparents are having to be parents to their grandchildren on nothing but their social security checks and that is barely enough to cover the rising cost of Medicare and utilities much less a child. I hate to point fingers towards the area that I live in, but in the past couple of months I have had two run-ins with parents that bothered me a lot…..One that would not let their daughter (who is of legal age so she could get it if she wanted too bad enough) get birth control all though she was admitting to having unprotected sex, and one who’s 15 year old daughter is pregnant by a 14 year old boy. Let’s stop to talk about that…what were you doing at the age of 14? I mean, maybe I was naïve or sheltered but damn…my mom would have never left me alone with a boy long enough to get pregnant at the age of 14…honestly, she still held my hand while crossing the street when I was 14 and I had never even seen a picture of a penis much less how sex really worked…. Ok, back on subject...Especially around where I live (no disrespect intended) a lot of parents do not want to ask their sons and daughters if they need birth control pills or condoms because they think that if they don’t talk to the kids about it then the kids won’t do it. WRONG! Hormones are hormones people, their will always be curious teenagers. Some (even in my own family) feel that if they give kids the birth control that the child would think it gives them the “right” or “permission” to have sex…I understand that is a touchy subject for some but come on it is 2009 people…if the child is admitting to having sex already then they need to be protected. I know a lot of parents are in denial about their child having sex but the bottom line is that yes, you might know your child is smart and that they aren’t ready for sex but you have no idea what the people around them and their friends are pressuring them into doing or talking about. And let me get onto another sore subject here and once again, I am not meaning to offend anyone, I am sure my views will change after Motherhood but for now, I believe in all of this wholeheartedly…No one can deny that sex is everywhere these days especially in media…You can not blame the child for being interested in sex if you are letting them listen to most of the music out their right now (yes, I know it is hard to admit but lets face it…even country music talks about having sex and even if the song has the dirty words beeped out your kid is smart enough to figure out what the beep means…) or watch pretty much any main stream television. OKAY…wow…way off subject there…Back to me and my family!! Basically I am just worried about the future of the nation. I don’t want to get on the subject of health care reform or Obama because I have to leave work in little over an hour and that just isn’t enough time for me to tell you what I think about those two subjects. At the rate education is going, our children are not going to even have schools to go to or teacher’s to teach.…..Let me get this off my chest before I explode….PEOPLE OF ALABAMA LISTEN CLOSELY…IF YOU WANT BETTER EDUCATION FOR YOUR CHILDREN BUT DO NOT WANT HIGHER TAXES THEN VOTE YES FOR THE LOTTERY OR COME UP WITH ANOTHER WAY TO RAISE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS EACH YEAR…enough said, Alabama doesn’t have enough money to pay teachers what they are worth or to pay for updates for schools which are very important and much needed. If we want better schools then we need money. I don’t care how much you think gambling is a sin (you are not entitled to judge anyway) or how much you pray for Alabama to have more money, simply put, with out real actions being taken the education system will just keep going down the can. Okay, once again, off subject, you can be sure to blame the ADHD for that….I pretty much wanted to say that I am scared to have kids right now because I think the nation has gotten severely off tract…Not just with education, but a lot of parents are relying on public schools and television to teach children everything about life and that just can not happen (especially with the no child left behind bullshit)….I am not going to pull the religious card so other than that kind of thinking America (and Alabamians) need to wake up and take action. We pretty much let any dishonest person with money into office…pat on the back …I stopped my self before I said too much…..I have to leave work now but maybe I will blog soon about over-crowded prisons and dirty politicians but right now I don’t have the time.