Getting Pregnant
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Re: UO Thursday
Baby Boy born 5.3.15
Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter
TTC Since January 2011 - We have bad spermTTC#2 4/14
A Parachute in an Oak Tree: A World of Love
I lived in an apartment with a roommate in a town with unreliable public transportation. I worked hard at a crappy retail job at a chain store that later nearly fired me for not getting enough customers to sign up for credit cards.
I support raising minimum wage.
Married August 2009
3 years. 5 losses.
Our rainbow baby boy born 11.16.15
My sister makes barely over minimum wage WITH a bachelor's degree, and has for 3 years now. I'm sorry that you feel like those jobs are for high schoolers or only ones in college. I suggest you wake up and come out if your ivory tower.
Oh, and my sister's job is in her career field. Thank goodness she is married because otherwise she wouldn't be able to pay her bills!
Cinnabun and Junebug say, "Go Wildcats!"
I'll admit to not having watched the SotU last night since I was working, so I don't know firsthand what was said. What I do see firsthand, however, is several people on my newsfeed saying people need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and get an education and it will fix all of their problems.
I think I have lots of friends who have been very fortunate and may not understand today's reality, so I'm going to share my story. I by no means am representative of my entire generation, but I'm representative of many.
My parents were "boostrappers" and worked hard to get where they were, so by the time I was ready for college, they made too much for me to qualify for any needs-based grants or scholarships. I had a 3.9 GPA from an average high school and above average test scores but just under stellar. I could sing but so could millions of other students and with no sport to speak of, merit scholarships were also out of the question.
I didn't expect, I wasn't entitled to, and I didn't receive any assistance in my higher education pursuit. I dropped out of college after 2 years because I simply couldn't afford it. I had as much in student loans after 2 years as my husband had in 5. Does this make me lazy or irresponsible? Absolutely not. This was the MOST responsible decision I could have made.
If I'm completely honest, I don't know that I would have gone back to finish it if it wasn't for my employer. I am EXTREMELY fortunate to work for my company who has footed the bill for me the last several years. By the time I graduate in May, they'll have paid for more than half of my college education.
Millions of students every year are faced with this same decision. "Bootstrapping" today is NOT "boostrapping" even 15 or 20 years ago, much less 30 or 40 and comparisons and personal anecdotes from "the good old days" are quite frankly patronizing. Tuition alone has seen inflation DOUBLE that of general inflation. Tuition for my school this year was $500 a credit hour. For a fulltime student, tuition for a SEMESTER was over $12,000. And that's just tuition. That's not books (which I've spent several hundreds on each semester) or any other college related expenses.
I've worked full time since I was a teenager and even with a full time job I would NEVER be able to afford my tuition as well as my basic living expenses. It came down to a choice, and I chose to live my life as well as I could afford and not take on student debt equivalent to a MORTGAGE.
That was me "bootstrapping" and that's what millions of others are doing too. Had I taken on that debt, obtained my degree, and then became underemployed due to graduating at the start of the recession I have a feeling these same people would have been admonishing me for biting off more than I could chew and making irresponsible borrowing choices.
*Stepping off soapbox*
my read shelf:
2. What is an acceptable "raise" then? You said that $.50/hour is too high. What about 2% for cost of living? What about a raise commensurate to inflation? 'Cause none of these things have happened in years. People in professional settings get cost of living raises regularly; why is it not ok to do at least that for people making minimum wage? Are people in professional jobs better than those working at minimum wage jobs?
3. It's important to remember how replaceable we are all in this economy. My education doesn't mean dick to my company when layoffs happen, it doesn't mean dick to the guy down the street hiring me to serve pancakes, or to the people who would look down on me (or through me) for being 28 and serving pancakes again.
We all could be measly minimum wage employees again in the blink of an eye. A little compassion and empathy goes a long way.
To make you feel my love.
To make you feel my love.
But you said "if you owned it" you would have respect for her which is bs.
Therefore, I said I would respect her more if she went balls to the wall trying to defend her beliefs OR if she realized that she is wrong based on the new information presented to her. There's nothing worse in a debate than someone throwing up their hands and crying victim without even putting up a decent fight.
To make you feel my love.
Baby Boy born 5.3.15
Created by MyFitnessPal - Free Calorie Counter
TTC Since January 2011 - We have bad sperm