TO HAVE OR HAVE NOT

                                               TO HAVE OR HAVE NOT

                                                    Author Karl Wallace


Some people say you should have few children and drive them relentlessly toward perfection. Others say don't have any children while others say have several children.

I think the argument that people should have the most children they can is best and also very interesting as to why. After analyzing scads of research on the effects of nature and nurture in child-rearing, it has been determined by studies of identical twins that, as a matter of both time and money, they are cheaper than you might think. Kids can basically raise themselves. Kids can cost far less than parents spend. Parents overcharge themselves. They take it upon themselves to constantly entertain and enrich their kids with a course-catalog of activities, violin, and mandolin, and piano, karate lessons in a desperate effort to give them the best and set them on the path to a triumphant adulthood. But parenting has almost no effect on children's life expectancy, intelligence, happiness or success.

Comparing the outcomes of twins raised together in a family with those of twins or triplets raised apart or maybe even quadruplets, concludes that nature matters far more than nurture. Once you've grown up the genes you inherited matters lots more than how you were raised.

Even though parenting DOES NOT help a child make money as an adult or increase his or her chances of a lasting marriage, there are a few areas where parents can make a difference. For instance, parents have a good chance of passing on their religious and political views to their children, and they can lower the chances that, as teenagers, their kids will wind up in jail. But the biggest effect is how children perceive their parents. You can greatly increase the chances of your children voting the way you do, going to your church and thinking fondly of you, and that's about it. Remember, children learn much more by example

You and your kids can make money, lots of money, using your children on work projects, such as putting in a sprinkling system together, painting your home, growing a garden, remodeling the kitchen and so and so forth. Do you see what I mean? You are increasing your savings, having fun, making money, reducing your taxes, and much more. By far, I repeat, by FAR, the biggest advantage is your teaching your young ones how to take care of themselves for after they leave home.

Again studies have shown if children and teenagers have been taught how to take care of themselves, such as by having a paper route, babysitting, even to the point their peers ridicule them, there is virtually no chance of their being suicidal failures, drug addicts, etc. or done you wrong.

One study, of the best studies you can read on this subject was financed by Andrew Carnegie. 800 randomly selected people were yearly, followed up in a questioner. It was discover that religion, divorce, education, rich or poor didn’t have an effect on any of them, but the one thing that was invariably present in the successful, happy to be who they were, with healthy egos, were the ones that had been taught in their youth how to take care of themselves.