You can hardly believe everything that you see on the television, but reduce what you see by half and then take away 90% of that and I really do wonder what is happening to society.
What am I being grumpy about this time?Children – babies – the constant need of the human race to reproduce.
My wife and I have been rain bound in the house recently and by default ended up watching an episode or two (we could not believe the first one, so watched a second) of The Jeremy Kyle Show.
This show has won awards, though for the life of me I cannot understand why.But I digress.
During the two shows that we watched, 70% of the ‘stars’ were hugely overweight, all appeared to have forgotten what a dentist was and the 30% that were not overweight were emaciated.Most had straggly, apparently unwashed hair.Having given you a taste of what you are so lucky to have missed as far as the ‘stars’ are concerned, let’s get on to my grump.
The episodes we saw focused on DNA tests – to see who was the father of the numerous offspring.One woman had three children with five potential fathers, although she had only dragged one of the hapless male individuals on to the show, as she thought two of the children were the fruits of his loins.When asked why he had not ‘put something on the end of it’ if he had not wanted to have a child, his response was that he was allergic to condoms – unbelievable.
It seemed to us that the majority of the people taking part in these two shows lay down and conceived children without a thought for the future.In some cases I am sure that the child/children was a means to an end with larger or better free or subsidised accommodation being offered to them as they continue to give birth.
This led me to thinking about the general view these days that all women should have children if they want to. In our day, my wife and I sat down and discussed the issue of when we may be able to afford to have children.
We never ever considered that we would have children and rely on governmental handouts to bring them up, or to provide us with a home. Were we well off? No, we were not. Hence why we planned our family.
We were an ordinary couple, both working, buying our first house on a mortgage.Our friends were much the same.Some couples had more income than we did and others less, but we all believed in marriage (although in some cases the unions did not last) and, with the exception of one couple, wanted to have a family.
We all achieved our dreams, except for one couple.They longed for a family, but it did not happen. I know this was 50 years ago, but they accepted their lot that they would never have natural children.They did not whine about it – they did speak of their disappointment, but accepted that was their lot.Instead they chose to short-term foster children; something which gave them great satisfaction and not a little heartbreak.
Now in 2013 we hear that everyone is moaning that they do not receive enough tax relief or government support for the children that they have chosen to bring into this world. If you cannot afford to have something then surely you do not have it.
Oh dear, there I go being grumpy, applying a logic which seems to have long been forgotten. Because when you look at the state of the world’s economy, much of the problems have arisen because of greed. Greed to have things that we cannot afford and so take out loans and mortgages that we cannot afford to pay back.But again I digress.
Children are a blessing, but it is time that prospective parents really consider the various elements of parenthood.You don’t need a lot of money to be good parents, but you do need stability in the home and your relationship, as well as unconditional love – oh and you also need to have the sense to know when discipline is needed – but that is another grump.
Do you have a view on this subject?
Please email the Editor at ines.lopes@algarveresident.com
