Josie & Kelton 7: So Boring that No One Discussed Her Baby Shower

[GreenBeans]

5 minutes ago, Mrs Ms said:

Our school and kindergarten photos the last few years have been so photoshopped, we only got the full class ones. None of the individual ones or sibling sets. Think of everything we slate Taryn for: Blur-tool gone mad, messed up colours, off angles. This year was the best so far. All siblings had the same skin colour. One year, one was yellow, one VERY pink and one off-white. This is a professional with corresponding prices! 

Oh wow. I won’t get my hopes up too high, then. 😁

Some professional photos of baby boy would be nice, though, because we’ve never done that (he was born in the pandemic, photo studios were mostly closed then, and we had so many other things going on that jumping through hoops for a photo shoot just wasn’t a priority).

[Heidijoey]

Our school and kindergarten photos the last few years have been so photoshopped, we only got the full class ones. None of the individual ones or sibling sets. Think of everything we slate Taryn for: Blur-tool gone mad, messed up colours, off angles. This year was the best so far. All siblings had the same skin colour. One year, one was yellow, one VERY pink and one off-white. This is a professional with corresponding prices! 

When they sent home the order packet for my daughters K pictures they had an option to pay extra for retouching!!! Didn’t select it of course because I want my daughter to look like my daughter but was surprised they even had the option

[Melissa1977]

On 3/14/2022 at 5:59 AM, just_ordinary said:

I agree that the room looks boring BUT it’s not as if children suffer when their rooms, toys at home and clothes are more on the neutral side. They have a whole world around them to experience colours. And I don’t think generations of children were developmentally/intellectually stunted because their toys didn’t have bright colours. 
I will criticise them when their children start to express the wish to wear (and later choose things/paints in) a specific colour and they keep on denying it because they dislike it or it doesn’t fit their ideas.

This is so true. How many kids in the world have private, colourful bedrooms? 1%? 

How many had private, colorful bedrooms before 1960? 0.001%?

It's obvious that Josie's decor is dull as hell, but in no way it damages her daughters. Their bedroom is way more comfortable than most bedrooms around the world.

[CanadianMamam]

So Josie and one of her colleagues flew to Nevbaksa for the Wissman-Duggar wedding. She posted early this morning about taking a flight and then Hannah tagged her in a picture from the rehearsal. 

[Jackie3]

On 3/19/2022 at 1:41 AM, Melissa1977 said:

This is so true. How many kids in the world have private, colourful bedrooms? 1%? 

How many had private, colorful bedrooms before 1960? 0.001%?

 

 

One percent? It's way more than that. Take a look at families with a boy and a girl.

Do you really think that 99% of  families with a 15-year old boy and a 16-year old girl have them sleeping in the same bedroom? And 99% of families with a 17-year old boy and an 8-year old girl have them in the same bedroom?

I suspect that in the majority of cases each child has a private bedroom, or at least a private space. Most people are uncomfortable with opposite sex siblings sleeping in the same bedroom after a certain age.

Prior to 1960, you feel virtually ALL these families had a brother and a sister in a room together?  Hmmm, not sure. My mother grew up in poverty in the 40's, but she did not share a room with her brother. That would have been considered extremely inappropriate. She had her own bedroom, as he did.

Finally, lots of children end up with a private bedroom when their same-sex older sib leaves home. If you are 10 and your 18-year old sibling leaves home for college, you now have a "private bedroom" for another 8 years.

 

Edited March 27, 2022 by Jackie3

[HereticHick]

19 minutes ago, Jackie3 said:

 

One percent? It's way more than that. Take a look at families with a boy and a girl.

Do you really think that 99% of  families with a 15-year old boy and a 16-year old girl have them sleeping in the same bedroom? And 99% of families with a 17-year old boy and an 8-year old girl have them in the same bedroom?

I think it is more than 1%, but I think a large percentage of the world's families still live in a couple of rooms, with multiple persons--sometimes of different generations--sleeping in bedrooms. I believe you aren't really considering average home sizes in China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, etc.--those countries alone account for over 40% of world population.

[CanadianMamam]

Opposite sex siblings are.sepested yes, but in a lot of larger family, same sex children are expected to share, no matter the age gap. At 17 my uncle shared his room with a 5 year old and an infant. 

My grandfather grew up on a farm in the 20s and 30s. No one left home until they got married. There was 3 bedrooms, one for boys and one for girls. 

A lot of families with two boys or two girls will choose an office or playroom over giving their children their own room. 

[dawbs]

4 minutes ago, CanadianMamam said:

Opposite sex siblings are.sepested yes, but in a lot of larger family, same sex children are expected to share, no matter the age gap. At 17 my uncle shared his room with a 5 year old and an infant. 

My grandfather grew up on a farm in the 20s and 30s. No one left home until they got married. There was 3 bedrooms, one for boys and one for girls. *

Hell, my gramps was 1 of 7 kids (6 boys)  and when another part of the failure lost their farm and had to move in, nobody had their own room. My great aunt (then a young adult)  shared with the kids (all genders)  under 10 and if you were male and not married, you slept in the barn hayloft.

A lot was fine through the years with pairings. But those actually, IME (these being poor folk. More in lines with "grapes of wrath" than "little house on the Prarie"), the positions were to split the room by gender, and the kids didn't have their own bed (often it was a trundle- yes, even into this century, you can still buy them- now they pop- up to normal heights when up)  let alone their own space. 

 

[Melissa1977]

14 hours ago, Jackie3 said:

One percent? It's way more than that. Take a look at families with a boy and a girl.

Do you really think that 99% of  families with a 15-year old boy and a 16-year old girl have them sleeping in the same bedroom? And 99% of families with a 17-year old boy and an 8-year old girl have them in the same bedroom?

Many kids in the world share rooms with siblings, no matter their sex. And many share rooms with parents or grandparents or other relatives, no matter their age. Not all couples (or single adults) have a bedroom for themselves. There are actual homes around the world with no bedrooms. 

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

I’ve always had issues comparing the US with other countries around the world to prove some sort of point. Many countries around the world don’t require children to wear helmets while bike riding. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t require my child to wear a helmet. We are our own country. Most homes in the US are built with multiple bedrooms. The US is very different from other countries and I don’t think it’s fair to constantly compare the US to other countries to make things seem ok.

[CaptainFunderpants]

7 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I’ve always had issues comparing the US with other countries around the world to prove some sort of point. Many countries around the world don’t require children to wear helmets while bike riding. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t require my child to wear a helmet. We are our own country. Most homes in the US are built with multiple bedrooms. The US is very different from other countries and I don’t think it’s fair to constantly compare the US to other countries to make things seem ok.

The only country I feel comfortable comparing us with is Canada. Yes there are differences, but for the most part the USA and Canada are pretty comparable and the kids and teens live pretty similar lives with their counterparts in similar geography and of similar socio economic status.

[CanadianMamam]

2 minutes ago, CaptainFunderpants said:

The only country I feel comfortable comparing us with is Canada. Yes there are differences, but for the most part the USA and Canada are pretty comparable and the kids and teens live pretty similar lives with their counterparts in similar geography and of similar socio economic status.

This is and isn't true. I am constantly shocked by how different many things are when chatting with American friends, beyond the things I expect to be different. But I think I grew up on American culture and sort of see the two countries as super similar outside of healthcare and gun control and then get surprised by all the little differences. 

Canada's housing market is intense these days and you are defintiely seeing more crowded housing situations because of it. More and more of my friends are putting same gendered kids in the same room up until puberty. In the cities, in particular, it isn't unusual to see families of 5 in a two bedroom apartment. 

A 3 bedroom fixer-upper in my area is half a million dollars. A similar rental is $2200 a month (CAD) plus utilities and I am not in a major urban areas. Real estate in the major cities is enough to make you cry. I have a friend who has had multiple rentals sold out from under her and has had to out her three kids all togethet becuase that was what they could find. 

 

 

[CaptainFunderpants]

1 hour ago, CanadianMamam said:

This is and isn't true. I am constantly shocked by how different many things are when chatting with American friends, beyond the things I expect to be different. But I think I grew up on American culture and sort of see the two countries as super similar outside of healthcare and gun control and then get surprised by all the little differences. 

Canada's housing market is intense these days and you are defintiely seeing more crowded housing situations because of it. More and more of my friends are putting same gendered kids in the same room up until puberty. In the cities, in particular, it isn't unusual to see families of 5 in a two bedroom apartment. 

A 3 bedroom fixer-upper in my area is half a million dollars. A similar rental is $2200 a month (CAD) plus utilities and I am not in a major urban areas. Real estate in the major cities is enough to make you cry. I have a friend who has had multiple rentals sold out from under her and has had to out her three kids all togethet becuase that was what they could find. 

 

 

Similar geography also extending to cities vs. suburbs vs. rural, not just elevation and climate.

I expect what you're saying is pretty common in NYC, as are insane housing markets due to foreign buyers on the west coast, etc.

 

[CanadianMamam]

25 minutes ago, CaptainFunderpants said:

Similar geography also extending to cities vs. suburbs vs. rural, not just elevation and climate.

I expect what you're saying is pretty common in NYC, as are insane housing markets due to foreign buyers on the west coast, etc.

 

"Los Angeles and New York City are now both more affordable, in terms of housing, than Toronto, Vancouver or even Hamilton, Ontario, according to Oxford's North America Housing Affordability Index, as released on Tuesday."

The thing is I am in a relatively rural area, two hours from Toronto and my area is still insane and that basically the case all over Canada, even the rural areas are seeing huge, huge increase in prices. In the 3 years since we have bought, house in my neighborhood have triples in prices.

I agree that geography-wise, there are similarities. There are still big differences there, one of the reasons Target failed in their expansion to Canada is they tried to run it the same way they ran their American stores and failed to consider that Canada is cast expanses of empty space with a few urban areas. They tried a central distribution system that just did not work. 

 

[Maggie Mae]

Housing costs in North America are crazy right now, in almost every city, even so-called "low cost" places like Boise, ID, costs are skyrocketing. The only places still affordable are places no one wants to live, and even those places are seeing dramatic rises in average home costs, inflation, and shortages. 

[CaptainFunderpants]

3 hours ago, Maggie Mae said:

Housing costs in North America are crazy right now, in almost every city, even so-called "low cost" places like Boise, ID, costs are skyrocketing. The only places still affordable are places no one wants to live, and even those places are seeing dramatic rises in average home costs, inflation, and shortages. 

Black Rock + foreign nationals.

We need regulations desperately. We need to eliminate birth right citizenship, tax the heck out of everything beyond your second home, have a massive empty residence tax, not allow U-18s nor trusts to own property, and maybe have some type of no trade deficit allowed as it comes to housing?

Meaning that it would be exceedingly hard for Indians/Chinese/Russians/billionaire Africans to own property here, because only as many Russians could own a house in America as Americans own in Russia -and I get it: in China technically everyone only rents, even if it's a term of 100 years from the government, but same deal. However many Americans own a 100 year rental agreement in China, that's how many Chinese can own homes here.

Smarter people than me have better solutions, no doubt, but those are the quick ones I see -not that they'll ever be implemented.

[SassyPants]

4 hours ago, Maggie Mae said:

Housing costs in North America are crazy right now, in almost every city, even so-called "low cost" places like Boise, ID, costs are skyrocketing. The only places still affordable are places no one wants to live, and even those places are seeing dramatic rises in average home costs, inflation, and shortages. 

I was shocked when I saw new houses (3,000 sq foot) for sale in Boise for $500,000…are salaries rising to match that? Of course 700 sq foot 1 BR/1BA are 1 million in my coastal CA town and average rent for 2 BR/BA is 3500/month.

Edited March 29, 2022 by SassyPants

[Keys]

Yeah, I live in a fairly remote city in Canada, far from the major cities, and the cost of real estate here has gone through the roof. When we were looking for our house 2 years ago, a nicely done 1300 sq ft bungalow would be around 300k. Large new family home around 500k. You could pretty easily buy for under asking, too. Today? Those bungalows are listed for over 400k, the family homes for 700-900k+, and all going almost immediately for often tens of thousands above asking. Rentals, too - we aren’t that far off from southern Ontario prices. 

[indianabones]

14 minutes ago, SassyPants said:

I was shocked when I saw new houses (3,000 sq foot) for sale in Boise for $500,000…are salaries rising to match that? Of course 700 sq foot 1 BR/1BA are 1 million in my coastal CA town and average rent for 2 BR/BA is 3500/month.

A lot of people who can work remotely are moving to Idaho and can afford houses there on their salaries.

As someone who lives on the Idaho border, it seems like most of the people moving to Northern Idaho are older Republicans from California who are loaded compared with locals. I've met quite a few of them.

Edited March 29, 2022 by indianabones

[Maggie Mae]

1 hour ago, SassyPants said:

I was shocked when I saw new houses (3,000 sq foot) for sale in Boise for $500,000…are salaries rising to match that? Of course 700 sq foot 1 BR/1BA are 1 million in my coastal CA town and average rent for 2 BR/BA is 3500/month.

I have no idea. I know in Anchorage, AK, the average home cost rose and are basically starting at 440K, for a fixer-upper, built in the 70s in 10 minutes earthquake damaged home.  Meanwhile, due to giant corporations and their greedy, immoral behavior, average wages are dropping. And zoning laws + NIMBYs (also a problem in Southern California) refuse to  allow companies to develop higher density housing. Remote workers from Seattle & the Bay Area are moving here and paying cash for our shitty 80s split levels, and offering 20-40 over asking price. On top of the lack of space to build new units, airbnbs are keeping people from renting their second homes to long term locals. 

I'm certain that these problems are literally in every single tourist town. 

[just_ordinary]

18 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I’ve always had issues comparing the US with other countries around the world to prove some sort of point. Many countries around the world don’t require children to wear helmets while bike riding. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t require my child to wear a helmet. We are our own country. Most homes in the US are built with multiple bedrooms. The US is very different from other countries and I don’t think it’s fair to constantly compare the US to other countries to make things seem ok.

I think there is a difference if you compare social norms from society to society or make general statements. Yes, in the Western World there is a trend to single rooms or at least gender separated shared bedrooms from a certain age. But, that’s a different observation than stating it’s problematic if several children with different genders share a room. It’s not. It might be unusual in certain societies but that’s all. Same goes for the colour/decorating  choices/ amount of toys children experience.

Erin‘s set up might be unusual but it’s not completely strange or harming if you look at a bigger picture. I think those poor children have more severe and very different problems and difficulties to face than few toys and a small bedroom to share.

Edited March 29, 2022 by just_ordinary

[irish_dancing_canadian]

The crazy housing prices is one of the reasons why I haven't moved back to Canada. My life is so comfortable in Germany and I am so thankful for the rent control here. I live in a 2 bedroom apartment in a city centre and it costs about 870 euros per month plus electricity. My sister in Southwestern Ontario is paying more than double for the same thing, 

[Smash!]

In Switzerland it‘s the same thing with housing prices. The city where I live is very popular not just by Swiss people but also by people from other countries. Prices are crazy and what I pay for my flat is cheap for the area I live in even tough it’s an old building with no dishwasher and not that much sunlight because of the trees in front of it. Lots of houses are getting teared down, built new and afterwards the flats are usually double the price they used to be. But it‘s not just the cities but also the suburbs and countryside. I wish we had rent control like in Germany.

[Jackie3]

On 3/27/2022 at 3:13 PM, HereticHick said:

I think it is more than 1%, but I think a large percentage of the world's families still live in a couple of rooms, with multiple persons--sometimes of different generations--sleeping in bedrooms. I believe you aren't really considering average home sizes in China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Brazil, etc.--those countries alone account for over 40% of world population.

Hmm, you are making some incorrect assumptions, particularly about China

1. China has 13% of the world's children, about 275 million kids. They are mostly only children because of the one-child policy. Only children generally have their own bedroom or sleeping space.

I have traveled extensively in China, particularly the cities. People do not live in crowded huts, as you seem to imply. They live in high-rise apartments, with a bedroom for the parents and a bedroom for the kid.

Most Chinese kids over 6 are only children (because of the one child policy). When this policy ended in 2016, couples continued to want only 0-2 kids (though the law now allows 3.)  It's unlikely extended family is living with them, because there's an average of 2.6 people per family. Families are small, quite small.

So 13% --okay, maybe 10%--of the world's kids have their own bedroom or sleeping space, simply because they have no siblings.

2. What about other countries? Well, in Europe, roughly 50% of families have one child.--far more than 1%.  In the US, 21% of families have an only child (in Portugal it's 58%!)  I don't have stats for Nigeria, Brazil, and Indonesia, but I am pretty sure that more than 1% of their population have only children.

 

 

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by Jackie3

[SorenaJ]

5 hours ago, Jackie3 said:

Hmm, you are making some incorrect assumptions, particularly about China

1. China has 13% of the world's children, about 275 million kids. They are mostly only children because of the one-child policy. Only children generally have their own bedroom or sleeping space.

I have traveled extensively in China, particularly the cities. People do not live in crowded huts, as you seem to imply. They live in high-rise apartments, with a bedroom for the parents and a bedroom for the kid.

Most Chinese kids over 6 are only children (because of the one child policy). When this policy ended in 2016, couples continued to want only 0-2 kids (though the law now allows 3.)  It's unlikely extended family is living with them, because there's an average of 2.6 people per family. Families are small, quite small.

So 13% --okay, maybe 10%--of the world's kids have their own bedroom or sleeping space, simply because they have no siblings.

2. What about other countries? Well, in Europe, roughly 50% of families have one child.--far more than 1%.  In the US, 21% of families have an only child (in Portugal it's 58%!)  I don't have stats for Nigeria, Brazil, and Indonesia, but I am pretty sure that more than 1% of their population have only children.

 

 

 

A large part of the world live in overcrowded conditions: http://chartsbin.com/view/42112

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20200422-1

The average Nigerian household is 5.0 people: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1124435/household-structure-in-nigeria-by-area/

Nigeria’s fertility rate is 5.32.