FARK.com: (7924628) How the advent of grandparents change the human race forever and put a wrinkle into nature

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		How the advent of grandparents change the human race forever and put a wrinkle into nature ( slate.com)		44
		More: Cool, grandparents

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6288 clicks; posted to Main » on 09 Sep 2013 at 9:27 AM (4 years ago) | Favorite | share:

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SmackLT

2013-09-09 09:09:48 AM

Ogg, why parent-parent not die?

Dancin_In_Anson

2013-09-09 09:27:11 AM

I LOVE being a Grandparent. It's 100x better than being a parent.

PunGent

2013-09-09 09:30:21 AM

Uncle is a pretty sweet gig, too.

Lady Indica

2013-09-09 09:30:29 AM

I miss my grandfather so much. Always will.

JohnCarter

2013-09-09 09:32:06 AM

PunGent: Uncle is a pretty sweet gig, too.

You aren't "that" Uncle are you?

Poldana

2013-09-09 09:34:36 AM

My Grandmother has made it to Great-Great Grandma. 96 yrs. old and still in pretty good health. Arthritis is the only thing slowing her down.

shabu

2013-09-09 09:37:24 AM

Did not RTFA, but I assume grandparents led to the invention of chewing gum and candy designed to be transported in pockets and purses.

/Was lucky, heard about all my grandparent's flaws after they passed
//Thanks Mom & Pops for letting me enjoy the time I had with them

Poldana

2013-09-09 09:37:55 AM

Lady Indica: I miss my grandfather so much. Always will.

I know what you mean. Mine's been gone 33 yrs. Still miss him. He was really the only one I had, other died right after I was born.

SevenizGud

2013-09-09 09:39:26 AM

Lady Indica: I miss my grandfather so much. Always will.

This. Gramma too.

Also, I am glad to see people thinking of the impact of having grandparents around. Presumably there is some science buried in there somewhere. I am surprised it ended up on fark.

chubby muppet

2013-09-09 09:39:33 AM

JohnCarter: PunGent: Uncle is a pretty sweet gig, too.

You aren't "that" Uncle are you?

MemeSlave

2013-09-09 09:45:03 AM

Since old people aren't dying now, they're not leaving assets to the next generation, instead, this generation is using its prime earning power to sustain the previous generation. How long can you eat your seed corn before you have nothing left to plant?

Arkanaut

2013-09-09 09:45:38 AM

Wow, so grandparents weren't just invented by Werther's Originals?

hoyt clagwell

2013-09-09 09:46:27 AM

FTFA: Neonatal medicine is one of the highest-paid medical specialties

How about no? The cliche of neonatology is that it's one of the few specialties that require extra training to earn LESS money (compared to a pediatrician). They are generally hard-working, wonderful people but are not commensurately compensated for their expertise.

OTOH, fascinating article. Gave me something to think about.

Girl Pants

2013-09-09 09:47:16 AM

Who would have thought that wisdom and experience are valuable?

Could this mean that our youth-obsessed #YOLO culture might not be the best long-term path?

bucket_pup

2013-09-09 09:47:19 AM

And even though we allow parents to brainwash their children with fundamentalist home-schooling,

Nice to see no bias in the reporter's story.

/// Stopped reading right there. No, I do not do "fundamentalist" home-schooling. Just hate is see this bias.

Flab

2013-09-09 09:47:28 AM

This is not particular to humans. Elephants females also live way past their reproductive years, because they are still helpfull to the heard, helping rearing the young and remembering the location of water holes they visited.

Rindred

2013-09-09 09:51:25 AM

GILFs?

denverstevens

2013-09-09 10:01:10 AM

Many, many years ago when I was twenty-three
I was married to a widow who was pretty as could be.
This widow had a grown-up daughter who had hair of red.
My father fell in love with her and soon they, too, were wed.

This made my dad my son-in-law and changed my very life
For my daughter was my mother, 'cause she was my father's wife.
To complicate the matter, even though it brought me joy
I soon became the father of a bouncing baby boy.

My little baby then became a brother-in-law to dad
And so became my uncle, though it made me very sad
For if he was my uncle, then that also made him brother
To the widow's grown-up daughter, who, of course, was my step-mother.

My father's wife then had a son who kept them on the run
And he became my grand-child, 'cause he was my daughter's son.
My wife is now my mother's mother, and it makes me blue
Because, although she is my wife, she's my grandmother too.

If my wife is my grandmother, then I am her grandchild
And every time I think of it, it nearly drives me wild
For now I have become the strangest case you ever saw
As husband of my grandmother, I am my own grandpaw.

WaitWhatWhy

2013-09-09 10:02:07 AM

To be fair, we do allow parents to brainwash their children with fundamentalist home-schooling, so it's not so much a bias as a statement of fact.

SoupJohnB

2013-09-09 10:04:22 AM

Dancin_In_Anson: I LOVE being a Grandparent. It's 100x better than being a parent.

Could not agree more. My daughter had her 1st child this year, and now it's her turn to worry about all the little details. Like diapers.
And later on, her husband can deal with major details like going to "Juvie" court, if necessary.

/been there and done all that

oldfarthenry

2013-09-09 10:06:46 AM

Flab: This is not particular to humans. Elephants females also live way past their reproductive years, because they are still helpfull to the heard, helping rearing the young and remembering the location of water holes they visited.

Are you calling our Grandmas fat?

Rindred

2013-09-09 10:07:43 AM

WaitWhatWhy: bucket_pup: And even though we allow parents to brainwash their children with fundamentalist home-schooling,

Nice to see no bias in the reporter's story.

/// Stopped reading right there. No, I do not do "fundamentalist" home-schooling. Just hate is see this bias.

To be fair, we do allow parents to brainwash their children with fundamentalist home-schooling, so it's not so much a bias as a statement of fact.

I suspect bucket_pup refers to a very small minority of secular homeschoolers, who don't care to be lumped in with the Jesus Crispies.

We're out there, even in the Bible Groin.

kasmel

2013-09-09 10:14:13 AM

Yeah, author has an obvious bias against human sacrifice and child slavery too. Totally ruined the ageist propoganda for me.

RickN99

2013-09-09 10:17:20 AM

We "allow" it? Can you imagine the level of government control necessary to prevent a parent from "brainwashing" their children with ideas the writer doesn't like?

laulaja

2013-09-09 10:23:04 AM

denverstevens said it all, above. Lucky he was able to paste & run!
Spouse & I's finally GtNuncle & GtNant. Chronic Ail forebad me to bear myself; blood niece died of what I got & have lived way beyond expectations with. She's why I felt compelled not to bear, even tho I was spayed about time she was born.
Grandparents are spouse's sis & her spouse; grandson #1 born 8.29.13, they still over-the-moon, may not come down til grandchild #2 if then! Bought them both Tshirts, something like Unduly Influenced By Grandchildren, which they forgot to pack in hurry to Go See Grandson.

Culprit & mom, foto credit Gran methinx. He 1 day old here

Snarky Acronym

2013-09-09 10:49:50 AM

But..but..but old people are evil moochers and they aren't retiring and they're hogging jerbs that are rightfully ours!

Millennium

2013-09-09 10:51:20 AM

I was surprised (and somewhat dismayed) to find that this is not in fact the same author who said that it was profoundly evil to put children into any form of education that is not state-run. But it's still the same site, which takes a little of the edge off.

The Irresponsible Captain

2013-09-09 10:51:46 AM

The article got really weird in the second half. Not valuing children? I call bullshiate on that.

Children were immensely valuable. They were your labor. They were your insurance against sickness. They were your retirement plan.

You get emotionally invested in children because of biology. You're programmed to do it, and it's one of the deeper Mammalian traits. It's the reason baby everythings are "cute".

You had no contraception, of course you'll have more children.

If children weren't valuable, why did kings kill wives, take mistresses, and break away from churches just to have a son?

Smelly Pirate Hooker

2013-09-09 10:55:35 AM

Girl Pants: Who would have thought that wisdom and experience are valuable?

Could this mean that our youth-obsessed #YOLO culture might not be the best long-term path?

This. And I'm pretty sure I would think were I not hurtling towards the age group known as "old." Even as a younger person, I felt kinda like an idiot, and felt that label described most people in my age cohort.

Xythero

2013-09-09 10:59:07 AM

FTFA: "Economists fret about declining birth rates in the developed world and the challenge of financially supporting large elderly populations. But old people are awesome."

They're totally tubular. Some might say biatchin.

Who wrote this?

tcan

2013-09-09 11:14:19 AM

Exactly what happened to me. Thought it was a good article up to that point but as soon as I read that phrase I began to question the whole article.

notyomama

2013-09-09 11:23:11 AM

I'm not a grandparent yet but really looking forward to it. But, I do have 18 great-nieces and great-nephews and one more on the way. I have a great relationship with most of them

Christmas is a freaking zoo at my parent's house. They all want to see Nanny and Paw. It's fun, exhausting and not a little nerve wracking.

Fast Moon

2013-09-09 11:52:25 AM

FTA: Parents knew they couldn't expect infants to live. In the United States and other parts of the world, infants often weren't named immediately; a tradition in China and other parts of Asia is to name a child only after 100 days. According to some interpretations of Jewish law, if a baby dies before 30 days, it never really lived.

Now they get their own Facebook pages before they're even a blob on an ultrasound.

purplegiraffe

2013-09-09 12:05:33 PM

Dancin_In_Anson: I LOVE being a Grandparent. It's 100x better than being a parent.

Ok, sir... I am not single and you likely are not either... That having been said, I clicked on your profile and saw the pic WITH the Grandbaby... Oh. My. God. You are prolly the sexiest person on Fark right now!

Happy belated Grandparents day, BTW

//Not a gramma... YET!

Dancin_In_Anson

2013-09-09 12:23:25 PM

purplegiraffe: Happy belated Grandparents day, BTW

Thanks!

They are a little over 10 months old now.

It's good to be Opi!

bucket_pup

2013-09-09 12:43:10 PM

And even though we allow parents to brainwash their children with fundamentalist home-schooling,

Nice to see no bias in the reporter's story.

/// Stopped reading right there. No, I do not do "fundamentalist" home-schooling. Just hate is see this bias.

Yeah, author has an obvious bias against human sacrifice and child slavery too. Totally ruined the ageist propoganda for me.

4/10 Kasmel. Nice first effort, though.

purplegiraffe

2013-09-09 01:29:37 PM

Dancin_In_Anson: purplegiraffe: Happy belated Grandparents day, BTW

Thanks!

They are a little over 10 months old now.

[i1123.photobucket.com image 850x596]
It's good to be Opi!

Shut the front door! TWINS!! 4 of my 5 kids are twins!! Not really hoping for THEM to have twins themselves... Nevertheless, they are darling. Congrats!

Dancin_In_Anson

2013-09-09 01:47:51 PM

purplegiraffe: Shut the front door! TWINS!!

We hit the Daily Double. Fraternal so they are quite different in every way and yet even at this early age I can see them plotting world domination. I just hope they let Opi join in the fun.

purplegiraffe: 4 of my 5 kids are twins!!

Nothing to it after the first set eh? Congratulations to you!

purplegiraffe: Not really hoping for THEM to have twins themselves

I wish everything on my kids...especially a daughter. The Boys will be spoiled enough but give me a Granddaughter and she will spoiled beyond belief!

purplegiraffe

2013-09-09 02:20:47 PM

Dancin_In_Anson: purplegiraffe: Shut the front door! TWINS!!

We hit the Daily Double. Fraternal so they are quite different in every way and yet even at this early age I can see them plotting world domination. I just hope they let Opi join in the fun.

Like Pinky and The Brain, mine are all set on world domination. They feed off each other... They give each other dating advice (YIKES!), they are each other's 'wing person', they do each other's homework... its kinda scary. I choose not to delve too deeply into what other activities they participate in.

purplegiraffe: 4 of my 5 kids are twins!!

Nothing to it after the first set eh? Congratulations to you!

Both sets are Boy/Girl. Now 19 and 17 years old. The second set came as QUITE the shock. And yes, the second set was WAY easier than the first, and the first set was NUTHIN compared to their big brother, now 22. Good thing I didn't keep on going!

purplegiraffe: Not really hoping for THEM to have twins themselves

I wish everything on my kids...especially a daughter. The Boys will be spoiled enough but give me a Granddaughter and she will spoiled beyond belief!

I tell them, "i wish for you everything you have brought me". Depending on their current level of guilt, they can take that either positively or negatively. Truth is, while I have a pretty good imagination, I can't believe how much I adore them, let alont fathom how frapping awesome THEIR kids are sure to be. I can't wait!

wambu

2013-09-09 02:40:43 PM

Dancin_In_Anson: I LOVE being a Grandparent. It's 100x better than being a parent.

It's the only sane reason to have children.

Dancin_In_Anson

2013-09-09 02:44:13 PM

wambu: It's the only sane reason to have children.

Shoulda had the Grandkids first.

kasmel

2013-09-09 02:58:38 PM

bucket_pup: And even though we allow parents to brainwash their children with fundamentalist home-schooling,

Nice to see no bias in the reporter's story.

/// Stopped reading right there. No, I do not do "fundamentalist" home-schooling. Just hate is see this bias.

Yeah, author has an obvious bias against human sacrifice and child slavery too. Totally ruined the ageist propoganda for me.

4/10 Kasmel. Nice first effort, though.

Haha! Jokes on you! I was just trying to be absurd for a laugh! And you totally wait a tic...

Haha! I failed on multiple levels at the same time! It was a meta-failure and therefore a monumental success!

//hangs head.

Flab

2013-09-09 04:39:26 PM

Dancin_In_Anson: wambu: It's the only sane reason to have children.

Shoulda had the Grandkids first.

Grand kids are cool because, when you've had enough of them and wish you could put them on eBay, you simply hand them back to their parents, instead of being stuck with them.

Loadmaster

2013-09-09 07:41:39 PM

But surely they knew all this back during the Old Testament days when everyone lived to be 600 years old or more. People must have been living with their great-great-great-great-grandparents.

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