__________ is/are overrated.

[Rothman]

You'd be amazed how many disgusting things you can put up with when the responsibility of precious life is in your hands. A lot of physical stuff becomes trivial in the heat of the moment, and a lot of problems tend to evaporate when focused on parenting. But those moments are honestly far and few between unless you have a child with a lifetime of digestive issues (not "lettuce makes me sick", I mean those who require G-tubes and frequent visits to actual hospitals) or you're an incapable meth head of ceaseless escapist fantasies. Some of this is because I've had households of cats and dogs for decades so kids are just another animal in the household and your monkey brain instincts tend to kick in and prioritize things. You wind up becoming a zombie, mechanic, cook, chemist, equipment manager, club bouncer, political strategist, and air traffic controller on top of your daily duties. In a lot of ways, parenting shattered a lot fears and it helped widen my scope of tolerance for the imbalances in this messed-up world, and that gives me more peace than just getting my way in a battle to settle a temporary score with the cosmos.

On the other hand, it seems to open up the possibility of random people telling you detailed stories of their kids' excretions while eating...that's only necessary if we're visiting a pediatrician. They can go get lost.

I can never remember who does and who does not have kids on here.

[mgk920]

(I didn't have time to go back through and study this thread, so if this has been mentioned before, my apologies)

College/university degrees.  And they are FAST becoming more over-rated and useless with each passing day.

Mike

[Scott5114]

Complaining about college degrees when one is way the fuck too old to be in college.

Keyboard

[Roadgeekteen]

What do you see as the root cause of the SERIOUSLY declining fertility rates in the 'west'?

Mike

Having kids is no longer a requirement in modern society. Most people do want kids, but those who do usually only want 2 or so which is below replacement rate. Out of the people who want 2 some never find the person to have kids with, some can't have kids, some never feel financially stable enough to have kids, and some have 1 and figure that's enough. Some people want like 4+ kids but is balanced out by people who never want and don't have kids.

[Max Rockatansky]

Complaining about college degrees when one is way the fuck too old to be in college.

Keyboard

Are you really ever too old?  There was a guy in several of my classes who was in his late 40s or early 50s.  Struck me as a boredom thing but he was there at every lecture.

[Rothman]

Complaining about college degrees when one is way the fuck too old to be in college.

Keyboard

Are you really ever too old?  There was a guy in several of my classes who was in his late 40s or early 50s.  Struck me as a boredom thing but he was there at every lecture.

Always seems like a huge cost to benefit ratio the older one gets.  Spending all that money on a credential one will not really use...I'd rather travel to Europe...

[Max Rockatansky]

Complaining about college degrees when one is way the fuck too old to be in college.

Keyboard

Are you really ever too old?  There was a guy in several of my classes who was in his late 40s or early 50s.  Struck me as a boredom thing but he was there at every lecture.

Always seems like a huge cost to benefit ratio the older one gets.  Spending all that money on a credential one will not really use...I'd rather travel to Europe...

Me too, but to each their own I guess.  I never finished college and I don't see a now.  There certainly isn't any career equity to be gained. 

[formulanone]

Complaining about college degrees when one is way the fuck too old to be in college.

Keyboard

Are you really ever too old?  There was a guy in several of my classes who was in his late 40s or early 50s.  Struck me as a boredom thing but he was there at every lecture.

Always seems like a huge cost to benefit ratio the older one gets.  Spending all that money on a credential one will not really use...I'd rather travel to Europe...

Me too, but to each their own I guess.  I never finished college and I don't see a now.  There certainly isn't any career equity to be gained. 

In a few classes at Florida and Florida Atlantic, there were some retirees who could take free classes if they were not degree-seeking and if class space permitted. Usually they were basic level courses. There was one graduate in her 80s during my wife's college graduation, and that moment drew the loudest applause.

Not everyone has the financial means, physical ability, nor patience for travel as they get older. Gotta appreciate that there were some senior citizens who didn't mind being around teens and twenty-somethings for a change.

[thenetwork]

If I knew then what I know now, I would've either waited a year between High School and College, or I would have gone straight into a trade (electrician, plumber, etc...).

At least with the latter, once you gain your certification, you can either work for a company or go on your own.  Either way, you wouldn't be sitting on a huge college loan debt.

[mgk920]

Or nowadays the insane levels of (unforgivable) debt that is being incurred for truly useless degrees.  I have zero sympathy for those people.

Mike

[Rothman]

Or nowadays the insane levels of (unforgivable) debt that is being incurred for truly useless degrees.  I have zero sympathy for those people.

Mike

Me neither.  Institutions that sell useless credentials should be held liable for fraud.

[Max Rockatansky]

If I knew then what I know now, I would've either waited a year between High School and College, or I would have gone straight into a trade (electrician, plumber, etc...).

At least with the latter, once you gain your certification, you can either work for a company or go on your own.  Either way, you wouldn't be sitting on a huge college loan debt.

I waited three years before enrolling in classes.  By then I was able to pay my own tuition for part-time college.  Granted that was almost two decades ago and costs seemingly only have gone up.

[GaryV]

Complaining about college degrees when one is way the fuck too old to be in college.

Keyboard

Are you really ever too old?  There was a guy in several of my classes who was in his late 40s or early 50s.  Struck me as a boredom thing but he was there at every lecture.

Always seems like a huge cost to benefit ratio the older one gets.  Spending all that money on a credential one will not really use...I'd rather travel to Europe...

I went back for a Master's program at age 51, after I'd taken a buyout from Chrysler. I was fortunate with the majority of it being paid by scholarships and grants. But I knew if I wanted to get another IT job, I'd need to upgrade my skills, as almost everything I knew was self-taught. I worked for 10 more years after getting my degree.

[Roadgeekteen]

Honestly, for me, my social development in college was more important than my academic development for me.

[Molandfreak]

Or nowadays the insane levels of (unforgivable) debt that is being incurred for truly useless degrees.  I have zero sympathy for those people.

Mike

Reading between the lines here, most of the folks I know who pursued degrees in areas that are the butt of jokes for being "useless" are doing so while having equal backgrounds in an area that has a more obvious utility, or is intending to pursue a graduate degree in law, social work, or psychology and using their undergraduate title as a specialty.

[kkt]

Or nowadays the insane levels of (unforgivable) debt that is being incurred for truly useless degrees.  I have zero sympathy for those people.

Mike

Me neither.  Institutions that sell useless credentials should be held liable for fraud.

To win a fraud case, wouldn't you have to show where the college claimed your art history degree would lead to gainful employment?

[vdeane]

Honestly, for me, my social development in college was more important than my academic development for me.

Honestly, it is.  The coursework does not suffice as job training, and the real value of the degree from an employment POV is networking.

Or nowadays the insane levels of (unforgivable) debt that is being incurred for truly useless degrees.  I have zero sympathy for those people.

Mike

Me neither.  Institutions that sell useless credentials should be held liable for fraud.

To win a fraud case, wouldn't you have to show where the college claimed your art history degree would lead to gainful employment?

To be fair, there are job for art history majors - just not nearly as many as there are people with that degree.