7 year old suspended from school for shaping breakfast bar into "gun."

[OldGuy43]

Quote:ecause in order to sustain just your self you need a job that gives at least 22 dollars in hour add a family with 1 kid that's 85+ dollars and hour needed and that is just if you want to live like a bum.

I'm sorry Mike, but you remind me of a family that we knew socially. We always knew that they were well off, but of course just not how well off. OldGal used to have a small business cleaning homes, and she charged them, as I recall $45 a week.

Well, they called my wife one day to tell her they were going to have to cancel her service. The price of West Texas oil had dropped drastically and "THEIR INCOME HAD BEEN CUT IN HALF!" They were going to have to sell one of their cars and "THEIR INCOME HAD BEEN CUT IN HALF!" They would have to sell the house in Utah and "THEIR INCOME HAD BEEN CUT IN HALF!" This conversation went on for about 10 minutes, and every sentence ended with "THEIR INCOME HAD BEEN CUT IN HALF!"

My sweet wife was really feeling sorry for them until they said, in all seriousness,

"Why, we don't know how we're going to get by on $10,000 a month!"

 

[chickened]

Then child making should have a little more prethought. I waited until I could afford children. Then made sacrifices to raise them ourselves. Many American women go get an education and then feel obligated to start a career which is fine in and of itself and it is pushed on them culturally which is another debate for another day and then they get pressure from the husband or parents to have children and them they have kids only to find out being a parent is really a full time job and unfortunately they choose the career over kid raising then they adorn the kids with gifts to only find out the kid just wants up spend time with mommy and then later with daddy

 

[newfoundland]

Things are very difficult these days in terms of supporting a family. When my children were small, and I was very young, i had an evening office cleaning job, so that my husband could look after them whilst I worked. Later, I worked in nurseries and schools so that I could either take them with me or have the same hours as they did. My mother had done exactly the same when we were children and I well remember going on the bus with her to work and sitting quietly reading or drawing. We were never left with others and I never left my children. I was proud that I had a working mum but she never neglected the home or family. Every task was dovetailed so that by six o'clock the evening meal was being prepared, my dad, home from work was reading his newspaper and we children we playing happily on the carpet. Wonderful memories of a very happy and secure childhood, made for us by parents who only a few short years before had been at war!

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Quote:

I'm sorry Mike, but you remind me of a family that we knew socially. We always knew that they were well off, but of course just not how well off. OldGal used to have a small business cleaning homes, and she charged them, as I recall $45 a week.

Well, they called my wife one day to tell her they were going to have to cancel her service. The price of West Texas oil had dropped drastically and "THEIR INCOME HAD BEEN CUT IN HALF!" They were going to have to sell one of their cars and "THEIR INCOME HAD BEEN CUT IN HALF!" They would have to sell the house in Utah and "THEIR INCOME HAD BEEN CUT IN HALF!" This conversation went on for about 10 minutes, and every sentence ended with "THEIR INCOME HAD BEEN CUT IN HALF!"

My sweet wife was really feeling sorry for them until they said, in all seriousness,

"Why, we don't know how we're going to get by on $10,000 a month!"

I think mike is right cause I assume he lives in the north east.

Here $22 an hour is good money but in other parts of the country you would be just above homeless.

I think the point he was trying to make though was this...


Minimum wage in 1960 was $1.00 an hour.
Minimum wage today is $7.25
7.25 times higher

45s cost about $.50... You could work for an hour an buy 2.
A CD today is $10 to $15? Takes 2 hours of work to buy one.

A car seat was $6 an is now around $100. 16.6 times higher.

A gallon of gas was $.25 an on the $4 mark now. 16 times as much

A VW Beetle new was $1,769 an a new one today is around $25,000. 14 times as much.

The price of food has kept close to the same rate as pay an some things are lower now than then but I think it is safe to say that it takes two people working now to maintain the same standard of living one person could have done in 1960.


I have seen pictures of my family in the 60s an 70s an everyone seemed to have a new car. All were high-school or less working factory jobs. I dont think any of the 6 of us kids have ever owned a car newer than 10 years old... Two of us have college, one in IT and another works for Kenworth, an a third is a foreman for a railroad crew.


Cost of living is outpacing income in this country an that has an effect on how many kids have a parent at home. An that's before our expectation of "more than they had" comes in to play.

 

[LovePolish2]

How stupid!

 

[OldGuy43]

No, what Mike said was:

Quote:because in order to sustain just your self you need a job that gives at least 22 dollars in hour add a family with 1 kid that's 85+ dollars and hour needed and that is just if you want to live like a bum.

(emphasis added)

I have never lived in New York City, but I have lived in L.A., Chicago, Houston and Dallas, just to name a few and I have never been anywhere that required $22/hour just to sustain one person. Kids, as much as they would like you to think differently do not have to have a car, let alone a new one. They also don't need a dedicated game machine, the latest and greatest cell phone, cable TV or name brand, designer jeans. A real waste is expensive shoes. I remember how quickly I outgrew mine.

By the same token you do not have to have air conditioning and it's attendant electric bills, the newest computer, the biggest TV or even a TV at all for that matter. I could go on and on with this list, but you get the idea.

 

[rebelcowboysnb]

Rent for a one bedroom in NYC can be up there. http://www.forrent.com/search-apartments-by-area/NY/NYC-Metro/Manhattan/New-York.php

I can see how $22 an hour is can be called sustaining one person. Thats $3,500 a month before taxes an NYC rent can eat that fast.

I am sure that other places can cost that much too. Here though, $22 an hour is more than anyone I know makes. I think $14 an hour puts you in the top 10% here.

 

[feathers4fun]

Exactly, drugs are used I am afraid to replace no or poor parenting skills. Now this may ruffle some feathers but why in the hell do people have kids and then both work full time, shuffle kids off to daycare for the majority of the day, have no nurturing time or very little and then when a kid acts out for attention (ADHD) then whammo they put them on drugs... easy peasy right? I have seen parents with children with ADHD and other disorders quit working and spend the time with thier kids and seen these problems dissapear. The key is taking time out of your busy life for the kids you brought into this world... Or give them to someone who will.

 

[Mike Winters]

i was just making up a number. but i know minimum wage is way to low in some places because rent and food take a nice chuck of the income if you were paid at the lowest possible pay.

and i did mean in the northeast. in the south and other areas 14 + in hour is alot of money because the cost of living is cheaper. But in places like NYC or Connecticut would be just making it by with 12 dollars in hour. <---- un educated guess the number part

 

[newfoundland]

Comparing standards of living in the 1960s and 70s can be very misleading. Certainly in UK wages were perhaps artificially high. Houses were still at 1940s prices and we, like many more, bought a house that because of inflation, was worth twice what we paid for it in about a year. Out mortgage was for 25 years and at 8% was becoming a smaller and smaller part of our expenditure as inflation hiked up wages. The house that we bought at that time we sold for 6 times what we paid and the subsequent house was sold for more than 6 times our original purchase price. Sadly, for our children, that bubble has burst and we are all experiencing the consequences of that.

The boom years are over and we need to realise that. Many of the gadgets we take for granted are not essential to life. people never had such luxuries as air conditioning, even central heating and still survived. As for video games etc, I believe there is a direct correlation between the excessive use of these games, especially violent ones, and the poor behaviour of some children. Part of their brain is seriously overstimulated by the flashing images and the need to keep 100% focussed on the task in order to complete the game. Children are in fact better off if they don't have access to these games players. We should be playing family board games with our children that teach them planning and strategy. What's wrong with dolls houses and toy soldiers, roller skates and footballs? If you can give your children love and security, an optimistic outlook on life and a sense of belonging to something greater than any individual, you have given them everything!