long time no post ... nevertheless read thru an interesting article regarding having children as investment(thank god i still know how to read) ... some food for thought and I shall post the writing below for the benefit of mankind :)
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In the agrarian age where agriculture was the key economy and manual labour is required, children are great assets for they can help out in the farm. Indeed, strapping boys are prized in such families!
Today, some people still consider having more children to be an investement for the future. When the offspring grow up and become successful, they can look after the parents and shower them with rewards, filial respect and grand holidays.
We were raised the mantra: study hard, get a good education, get a good job("Don't be like me!") and you will be success in life. By "good", they meant something like becoming a doctor, lawyer or engineer. So, we do the same thing with our children. Though we may not expect anything, we are hopeful they will share the fruits of their success with us, and we will be well taken care of in our silver years.
Did that advice work for you? Do you think it will work for our children? If it no longer works, why do we repeat this mantra? All those classes and tuition, the obsession with scoring A's and being in the top class of the best school may not guarantee that you won't be pushed out of sight into a nursing home.
We love our parents dearly but what is their return on investment in us so far? For all the love they've poured and expenses in raising and educating us, are we giving them at least their capital? More than likely not as we have our own financial commitments to worry about. If that's the case, what makes you think your children would be any different? This is not the circle of life, but a vicious cycle. With kids turning out the way they are today, thing might even get worse. I reckon you will be doing pretty well if you get a bed and free meals in exchange for babysitting and day care services.
what are the alternatives?
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In the agrarian age where agriculture was the key economy and manual labour is required, children are great assets for they can help out in the farm. Indeed, strapping boys are prized in such families!
Today, some people still consider having more children to be an investement for the future. When the offspring grow up and become successful, they can look after the parents and shower them with rewards, filial respect and grand holidays.
We were raised the mantra: study hard, get a good education, get a good job("Don't be like me!") and you will be success in life. By "good", they meant something like becoming a doctor, lawyer or engineer. So, we do the same thing with our children. Though we may not expect anything, we are hopeful they will share the fruits of their success with us, and we will be well taken care of in our silver years.
Did that advice work for you? Do you think it will work for our children? If it no longer works, why do we repeat this mantra? All those classes and tuition, the obsession with scoring A's and being in the top class of the best school may not guarantee that you won't be pushed out of sight into a nursing home.
We love our parents dearly but what is their return on investment in us so far? For all the love they've poured and expenses in raising and educating us, are we giving them at least their capital? More than likely not as we have our own financial commitments to worry about. If that's the case, what makes you think your children would be any different? This is not the circle of life, but a vicious cycle. With kids turning out the way they are today, thing might even get worse. I reckon you will be doing pretty well if you get a bed and free meals in exchange for babysitting and day care services.
what are the alternatives?
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Comments
hm....makes me wonder too....actually I was roughly thinking down along that path too, but now I ponder maybe not necessarily until I find an alternative, more "current" child-expectation model.... ;)
Well, it did kinda work out for my parents, the investment thingy. Now I become the main "breadwinner" and "social insurance" and old-folks-home prevention.
They invested a lot last time(not just monetary, also time, sweat, frustrations etc.).
Well, I don't really know yet what to expect from my kids but I won't go to the extreme like "How many A's have ya got?" and stuff like that, more of basic foundation building, to integrate them into society as smooth as possible, to be good citizens, I'm not going for the stereotypical dream jobs like Doctor, Pilot, Engineer, Lawyer etc. that's ridiculous if they're not interested in it themselves. There's IT! Much less risk of lives, Hahah....just kidding.
Thanks for sharing!