Grindlebob41

joined 3 years ago
[–] Grindlebob41@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah I think you bring up a valid point, where if it was easier to find lists of good/best public schools (and "actual" public, not ones that you only get in via testing etc), it would probably be best to go down the list and note which ones are in walkable neighborhoods that aren't just tiny/mega isolated in a very car centric city.

I have wondered if (and I haven't checked the actual price) if the "cheat code" so to speak is certain Boston suburbs or like Evanston IL, where they are really a city neighborhood in all but name but because they aren't a part of the city school system they are much better like typical suburbs tend to be in the US.

I know NotJustBikes did a thing about how in the Netherlands kids are much more independent compared to Ottawa at least.

 

So I would say I want to have kids, but it's very dependent on being able to have certain standards adhered to- aka I wouldn't just have kids no matter what if the biological clock was ticking etc. So with that said, I have question(s)/thoughts about those who have kids or plan on having them:

As someone who does value things like urbanism/strong social safety nets /all the things that I assume people on the actual left care about, it seems like it's virtually impossible in the US at least to raise a family in an actual urban area, where you at most own a car but it's not used on a regular basis, and still have good public education available that isn't obsenely expensive. To use an example, Chicago is one of the few cities that isn't craaazy expensive and you don't need a car depending on what neighborhood you live in, but it's well known that unless you go private school or a child tests into/wins a lottery to go to one of the amazing public schools, the general "school you go to because that's based on your address" are all objectively bad/somewhat dangerous. Obviously there are histories of corruption/racism and the like that has caused this issue in Chicago, but I don't think I'm wrong that I'd want to send my kid to a bad school just to prove a point. But on the other hand,, I do feel like it's just wrong to endorse the continued brokenness of needing to go private or get lucky to get a good education.

So basically, I wonder what is everyone's plan? My partner is currently in the process of getting EU citizenship, but that's most likely years away to being finalized. Is there any hope in the US to not have to make huge concessions when it comes to having children? Sometimes I wonder if even having two children is too much in terms of $$, but my partner is an only child and we both agree that if possible two would be best, as they were very affected negatively by being an only child, to the extent if I was ever single again I might legitimately hesitate to date an only child again. I guess I just would want to have somewhat of a plan/goal to be at so my partner and I could figure out when would be the time to have kids.

It just sometimes seems hopeless at least in the near future to raise kids in the US, and I'm hoping that's not the case, and if it is I'd love to be able to try to work towards whatever steps needed (whether moving to X country or X state etc) in order to make that a reality.

[–] Grindlebob41@hexbear.net 1 points 1 year ago

That's funny as my partner and I were just watching videos about that out of curiosity , but I do not have this condition.

[–] Grindlebob41@hexbear.net 1 points 1 year ago

thank you for this comment, it really helps and I think for now I'll continue to use it until (if) I have a visceral negative reaction to something there

 

First, apologies if this should go in a different community, it just seemed like this probably made the most sense-mods please move it if it should be someone else.

So I've been seeing my new therapist for a couple of months now, and overall I do like him/seems like a good fit. He recently asked if I had ever done meditation/mindfulness etc, as he wanted to do more than just being 99% similar to a friend you would just air your greivances/problems/thoughts out loud which sometimes therapy feels like, which I also like as I do appreciate actually tactics/methods of improvement and such.

Anyways, he sent me a free trial of Waking Up, which unbeknown to me is created by Sam Harris. Like most here, I am not a fan of him at all, but I figured I'd at least check out the app. There's a 28 day "intro" course which is basically teaching you the principles of meditation/mindfulness, and I'm about halfway through and so far I would say I've benefited from it. I mentioned my concerns to my therapist, who understood my concerns (I know my therapist is pro palestine based on my ramblings/rants about the situation, so he's not a full blown Sam Harris fan/neoliberal etc) and he suggested that as long as it seems to be working for me I should stick with it, and did point out that if there is any legitimate background/knowledge that Sam Harris does know it would be meditation more so than his fraudulent neuroscience/political activities/"expertise".

I've personally kind of for now been like "as long as one of his lessons doesn't obviously show his flawed thinking/views outside of meditation I'll stick with it for now" since I have no idea if there's better resources/alternatives out there, but does anyone have thoughts/suggestions of better resources/apps and what not?

Thanks!