I see that it's Monday again. Who let this happen?

[flexagon]

This is definitely an interesting article.

I don't know what to say about this weekend except that a) it was okay and b) I wish HLM would get better. The poor thing was really good last night about trying not to wake me up with his coughing, but I think that just meant he wasn't in bed much until 6 AM. And oddly, he doesn't want to call the doctor because he "keeps feeling like he's getting better." Whiskey tango foxtrot? He's not better, and he's usually the hypochondriac of the two of us! I think maybe this is some insidious disease that attacks the very centers of the brain that would normally worry about disease.

And for one more link, there's a cool poll on the CF board about birth order and being childfree. *blinkblink* The results do make sense, but I'd never heard of this correlation before.

Comments

[webrat.livejournal.com]

Picking up belly dancing anytime soon?

[bluechromis.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry HLM is still sick. :( I understand about him not wanting to go to the doctor, they're useless. Coming from a girl who has an appt today. :P Thanks for coming on Friday anyway. :)

The childfree poll is interesting. I do suppose it makes sense, older children might end up feeling like they've already been parents.

ugh

[hiddenbear.livejournal.com]

Rough article. Makes me feel little and backed into a corner, and I'm trying not to lash out. But a few points:
1) it was the self-reliance that I had developed to protect myself against “beauty blackmail” that made me attractive to others.
She mentions this at the beginning, but fails to come back to it ever again. There are those who are attracted to women who stand up to all the craziness.
2) She doesn't mention much about the pressure applied by other women. I guess the root of that is the male imposed views of beauty, but women don't help themselves to get out from under it.
3) Men get bit too. From dieting picking up in males to the need to work out to appear/be strong to fashion now being a must for guys too.
4) She writes beautifully! Was this translated or ghost-written, or is this woman who grew up in Morocco actually such an amazing writer as to be able to write flawlessly in a language other than her native one?

[saltwatersound.livejournal.com]

That is exactly it. I am the eldest sibling of 4, and the distance in years between myself and the 3rd is 9 years, and myself an dthe 4th is 11 years. Needless to say, I spent much of my teenage years helping to raise babies while my mother worked. I always tell people that I had a pager through highschool not cause I was really cool and had lots of people calling me, but so that my mother could call me and ask me to make dinner, or bathe the kids, or pick up so and so from the bus stop. Ugh.

My husband and I do not want to have children. My being the 2nd mother to my siblings is a HUGE reason for this. I've already been a parent, and I don't want to be one again. [Funny how when I say this, it usually accompanies a jab in the arm by my mother.]

[flexagon]

Argh, I keep forgetting to add you back. :)

As for the poll, I completely understand where you're coming from. I am sure that experience would have had the same effect on me. (As an only child in a pretty disturbed household, I can only say that I felt too much responsibility while I was growing up even though there were no other children involved.)

[flexagon]

Probably... I've done it before, and there's a 4-week CCAE course coming up I was thinking of.

I'm not planning on becoming a BBW, though. That's really not my style.

[bluechromis.livejournal.com]

I hear ya. I too come from a childhood with way too much responsibility (though for myself, not other kids), and have plenty of nice bits of baggage from that. Strangely not childfree issues though...I have few problems with the concept of taking care of a child, I'd just like to stop taking care of my mother at some point. :P

[bluechromis.livejournal.com]

PS - I love your icon photo.

Re: ugh

[flexagon]

I've been meaning for days and days to say sorry about this!

I just always find it interesting when women from the Eastern cultures find it to be just as bad over here. Who's causing the "it" is another story, and you probably know I don't think it's just the men... since there is no entity speaking for the men anyway. Blech, whatever.

I am sorry you felt little and backed into a corner... that was not intended. I was thinking a lot about your #2 and #3 myself when rolling the story around in my head.