Sean gets a discussion rolling, and then some.
(link fixed)
9 Replies to “On The Love Of A Single Parent”
Did you mean to link to PolSpy? That article doesn’t appear to have anything to do with single parents…
duh. Thanks. Will fix.
I think we have something to learn from the 3rd world countries that manage to sustain twice our birth rate with half our death rate on a third of our per capita GDP with no welfare state: Close-knit extended families.
etownie, yes 3rd world countries have twice the birth rate, but their death rate is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than ours. Who are you thinking of that has a lower death rate?
OTOH, you are 100% correct in attributing positives to close-knit extended family. If there’s one thing I respect about foreigners in Canada, it’s their care for the elderly and the cooperation between grown-up siblings and relatives.
Sean sure let a rank one loose on Pol-Spy! I at least admire his willingness to go public with a very touchy unPC subject although I don’t agree with some of his solutions. Adoption is only really an option for new-borns to maybe 6 months old. After that the mother would probably commit suicide before giving up her baby.
There are no absolutes, but it never hurts to get people to not only take a stand, but examine their motivations for doing so (and that includes me too).
Actually, KingR, a cousin of mine adopted a 9-month-old that ended up with very serious “attachment” disorders – she was born to a welfare mom (known to the cousin, who wanted to adopt her at birth) that decided to keep the baby when she realized it meant more welfare $, but gave up after 9 months. The baby was essentially parked in a carrier/chair for extended periods of time with no attention whatsoever. The poor kid has been a total mess, and is now at 21 the mother of a child herself (that she refused to give up for adoption given her slightly skewed perception of her own life). And the mom – who has known throughout the girl’s life where she was, only agreed to talk to her after she turned 18 (long and sad story) and then was actually looking for the daughter to support her. Very ugly.
Spare a thought for ‘deadbeat dads’- or, (better still): DISPOSABLE DADS. (And when your children are forbidden to speak English at home and at school, that is not ‘discrimation’- it is called ‘protecting your culture’)
Sean – “There are no absolutes” is itself an absolute complete with motivations and all (sorry, couldn’t resist).
King Richard – I was looking at http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mx.html (CIA World Factbook on Mexico), granted their infant mortality is high and there’s the question of illegally working across the US boarder, but it seems to say that their death rate is 4.73/1000 and Canada’s is 7.73/1000 (I was surprised too).
Still they seem to do alot better ‘dollar for dollar’ that we do here (I’ve seen enough direct evidence of this..).
Makes you wonder about the whole socialist/liberal = anti-family and conservatives = pro-family thing and what the implications are (of which I was previously ignorant of since I consider it to be none of the government’s business).
etownie, James Taranto @ BestoftheWeb (WSJ – Opinion Journal) had a great explanation of infoant mortality rates and how they are misreported several months ago (sorry, but I’m too lazy to look it up right now). To sum up the arguments he made very briefly: statistics depend on who’s reporting them and what exactly they are reporting AND the definition of a live birth significantly varies from country to country. Western countries, because of their excellent health technologies tend to keep babies alive for several months after they are born even if there were severe complications and defects, whereas in a 2nd or 3rd world country those births with complications typically die and are not considered a live birth, therefore there is no infant mortality. The other point about statistics would be to compare Canada vs. US crime stats. Canada has a different definition of “violent” crime than the US, so the US looks worse off when it comes to violent crime. Alberta Report (back when it was operating) did an excellent piece of analysis on that.
Candace, your story is truly horrific. I was simply making generalizations. Having said that, by blaming the 21 yr olds past, are we not following into the liberal/NDP trap of not taking responsibility for our own actions? I’m trying not to be cruel or mean-spirited here, but I’m also tired of hearing other people blame everyone but themselves for problems in their life. OTOH I was raised in a pretty good 2-parent family so it’s hardly fair for me to criticize ppl who’ve had such a crappy life. Where can we find balance? Or maybe How can we find balance?
Did you mean to link to PolSpy? That article doesn’t appear to have anything to do with single parents…
duh. Thanks. Will fix.
I think we have something to learn from the 3rd world countries that manage to sustain twice our birth rate with half our death rate on a third of our per capita GDP with no welfare state: Close-knit extended families.
etownie, yes 3rd world countries have twice the birth rate, but their death rate is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than ours. Who are you thinking of that has a lower death rate?
OTOH, you are 100% correct in attributing positives to close-knit extended family. If there’s one thing I respect about foreigners in Canada, it’s their care for the elderly and the cooperation between grown-up siblings and relatives.
Sean sure let a rank one loose on Pol-Spy! I at least admire his willingness to go public with a very touchy unPC subject although I don’t agree with some of his solutions. Adoption is only really an option for new-borns to maybe 6 months old. After that the mother would probably commit suicide before giving up her baby.
There are no absolutes, but it never hurts to get people to not only take a stand, but examine their motivations for doing so (and that includes me too).
Actually, KingR, a cousin of mine adopted a 9-month-old that ended up with very serious “attachment” disorders – she was born to a welfare mom (known to the cousin, who wanted to adopt her at birth) that decided to keep the baby when she realized it meant more welfare $, but gave up after 9 months. The baby was essentially parked in a carrier/chair for extended periods of time with no attention whatsoever. The poor kid has been a total mess, and is now at 21 the mother of a child herself (that she refused to give up for adoption given her slightly skewed perception of her own life). And the mom – who has known throughout the girl’s life where she was, only agreed to talk to her after she turned 18 (long and sad story) and then was actually looking for the daughter to support her. Very ugly.
Spare a thought for ‘deadbeat dads’- or, (better still): DISPOSABLE DADS. (And when your children are forbidden to speak English at home and at school, that is not ‘discrimation’- it is called ‘protecting your culture’)
Sean – “There are no absolutes” is itself an absolute complete with motivations and all (sorry, couldn’t resist).
King Richard – I was looking at http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/mx.html (CIA World Factbook on Mexico), granted their infant mortality is high and there’s the question of illegally working across the US boarder, but it seems to say that their death rate is 4.73/1000 and Canada’s is 7.73/1000 (I was surprised too).
Still they seem to do alot better ‘dollar for dollar’ that we do here (I’ve seen enough direct evidence of this..).
Makes you wonder about the whole socialist/liberal = anti-family and conservatives = pro-family thing and what the implications are (of which I was previously ignorant of since I consider it to be none of the government’s business).
etownie, James Taranto @ BestoftheWeb (WSJ – Opinion Journal) had a great explanation of infoant mortality rates and how they are misreported several months ago (sorry, but I’m too lazy to look it up right now). To sum up the arguments he made very briefly: statistics depend on who’s reporting them and what exactly they are reporting AND the definition of a live birth significantly varies from country to country. Western countries, because of their excellent health technologies tend to keep babies alive for several months after they are born even if there were severe complications and defects, whereas in a 2nd or 3rd world country those births with complications typically die and are not considered a live birth, therefore there is no infant mortality. The other point about statistics would be to compare Canada vs. US crime stats. Canada has a different definition of “violent” crime than the US, so the US looks worse off when it comes to violent crime. Alberta Report (back when it was operating) did an excellent piece of analysis on that.
Candace, your story is truly horrific. I was simply making generalizations. Having said that, by blaming the 21 yr olds past, are we not following into the liberal/NDP trap of not taking responsibility for our own actions? I’m trying not to be cruel or mean-spirited here, but I’m also tired of hearing other people blame everyone but themselves for problems in their life. OTOH I was raised in a pretty good 2-parent family so it’s hardly fair for me to criticize ppl who’ve had such a crappy life. Where can we find balance? Or maybe How can we find balance?