Tot Trot
These little tykes do all their own growth stunts
Babies be Duckstacking fr
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Ok Lets Do It, Fertility Issue
4A society is only as strong as its families and families are only as strong as their women, and our women are doing spreadsheets5
Three years ago6 The state of Utah’s fertility rate dropped below what is called “replacement”- The minimum number of children per family needed for the total population to grow. Utah was the last holdout, and the United States is officially shrinking. This means the United States is spiritually shrinking as well.
I read an account a while ago, about an old out of the way village, where not having kids became a fashion statement. You can read the account here. This had multiple effects: First it generated immediate wealth due to fewer costs, and then, in incredibly short order, it generated too much wealth, as there were no longer any children to help families till their land. So the families would sell off their estate, and rapidly people had to leave the town to find a spouse, and the entire village fell into apocalyptic disrepair and overgrowth, and you can pretty much only reach the place by machete now.
This is an analogy- I think today this happens more with time than it does with land, but anyone can see we have less “culture” than our ancestors did. Where did it go? It followed the women and children. With none to few children, and under massive cultural pressure to achieve “independence”, people and especially women stopped investing in things like dances, fashion, outings, and morality, and I believe movies and books have been affected by this as well.
But children also increase marital bonds- so with fewer children, divorce rates are going up as well. That is of course quite multivariate but, what is a marriage, without children? It is hanging out. It is peter pan. Children, especially biological children, force responsibility, so with low fertility, society as a whole becomes irresponsible. Children also cement uncemented marital bonds. In fact, having a child dramatically reshapes your priorities so much that parents are two or more times more likely to vote conservative.7 The mechanism is that children force you to have hardwired stake in the future, overriding the more natural short-term “plunder” mindset.8 A person who is a parent will feel extra pressure to vote investing in a better future at the cost of the present, because their progeny will inherit it. Put more charitably: An agricultural society has far better outcomes than a hunter-gatherer one.
Smart people do not have kids. This is a fact9. I read that this concept is called the “IQ shredder”- Because IQ is mostly genetic and heritable, the culture of smart people seeking low child counts means they will be evolutionarily “outcompeted” by the people outside of that culture. Since unintelligent people are the (only) ones having kids, major cities quickly become hives of crime and welfare programs. Elon Musk talks about this a lot, but I don’t think he’s right to just have as many affairs as possible, since all this does is add more fatherless kids to the mix, which like, if our goal is to lower crime rates and make society more pleasant10, fatherless kids is like, worse.
What does God think about all this? The commandment given in Eden was “multiply and replenish the Earth.” As our church often reminds us, this commandment has never been repealed, and is a duty God levies upon us all, for reasons mentioned previously and hereafter, and in the hereafter11. It is for our sake and also societies. In the Old Testament, a guy is supposed to have kids and instead “spills it on the ground12”, so God kills him, which I guess sounds harsh unless you’ve ever visited r/childfree13.
I mention reddit because Reddit is a city symbolic of Fools Gold- cloaked in scientific detachment and reasonability, its denizens pursue the highest hedonism they can, and, appropriately, find only myopia. A man dreams of eating and awakes hungry. But I digress. What you must know is that children are fun. While a reddit native would talk about how they are “living their life14” and, without children or a care or responsibility in the world, are happy. However, an outsider might note that most of their professed happiness appears to be depression, anxiety, drugs and alcohol and video games, and scrolling memes online. Not that there's anything wrong with those15 but, realistically I think you can do most of that just fine with kids16.
“Millenials love to talk about “adulting” but just hanging out while being over the age of consent isn't adulthood, its just being alone”
-Quote: bobdaduck, just barely
So what is the benefit of having kids? Suppose you are like me17 and hate exercise just on principle, and cannot imagine doing something that sucks just to “build character”? Then I am come to assure you that having kids is indeed worth it. But I will not sugarcoat that they are an investment, meaning you are taking on a short term cost18 in anticipation of a long term gain. This is how the billionaires on wall street do it. You're a venture capitalist of babies. Grab as many stock options as you can and then chew your fingernails down to your elbows in chattering terror, as the ticker goes up and down far more often than you could possibly be comfortable with. But this is common financial advice- if you are working for money, you are doing it wrong. You are supposed to re-invest your money, and then have your money “work” for you, generating what the big-brains call “passive income™19”.
Now, kids are sort of like pets at first. You feed them and water them and they just kind of sit there looking cute. It is very pleasant, and if you are lucky20 it can even be low effort. Then, usually around the baby's first smile, you get your very first return-on-investment. While kids when they grow up can be a massive help around the house, helping with your other kids, yard, and your projects, I think their main benefit is far more innate: I think everyone can experience what might be termed a "creative high21", which is when you put in a lot of work on a project and come out with something that you like, and you get a little boost for a while because you're happy with it. Essentially, kids are "passive income™22" for this. Because kids are alive, the work you put in raising them does not have a linear correlation to the payoffs- you are merely taking care of them, but you experience the “joy of creation” exactly the same way you would if you had just invested 300+ hours in a painting, every time they surprise you, every time they bless your life, every time they make some new connection, every time they make some random new comment for you to write in the history section of The Duckstack23. Having kids does build character24, because it is hard. It is exercise. But, it also builds fulfilment, in a way utterly inaccessible to those who do not. Having kids, is worth it.
HISTORY
due to inflation The Toddler is now the big one and The Littlest One is now The Toddler
The Toddler (see the history section of today’s Duckstack) loves to blitz down the stairs whenever we leave the baby gate open. I don’t mean blitz as in fall I just mean he crawls down them very carefully very fast while breathing in and out heavily in excitement. His objective is the baby chickens downstairs, who he, being an empath, a thoughful soul, and very kindhearted, wants to give as many toys as possible before we stop him. So we need to wash a whole bunch of stuffed animals now is what I’m saying.
We pickled a few dozen cans of cucumbers, I wonder what they’ll turn into
We also pickled my wife’s sleep schedule because the canning took a while
I spent a good deal of time this week picking apples up off the ground beneath our fruit trees, with the wind as my companion, helpfully following me along and shaking the tree to restock the ground once I pass. The wind I think is a toddler.
My wife asked The Big One what he wanted for dinner, and he shouted “Papa!”. I think this is unreasonable.
SINKS: A REVIEW
I have a sinking feeling
Well, you can put water in them, but they don’t really “sink” anything, do they? That’s a bit of misleading marketing. Usually you don’t even put water in them you just have the water go straight down the drain. I have found the purpose of most sinks is to wash your hands, and I think the sink size would make more sense if the water had enough pressure to get your hands actually clean25.
In sum, I give sinks 2 / 5 ⭐. Do better, sinks.
Not Actually Trademarked
Possibly additional Duckstack Seesaws™ (Not Actually Trademarked)
Especially the household need to launch your kids into the stratosphere
Fertility Issue. Get it?
Working used to be Men’s big contributor to households and society, but not anymore. In fact, I think most guys are lazy and will be happy to not do work at all anymore, “after all work is hard, and women *want* to do it!”
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_13-508.pdf especially page 23
Not that republicans are really “conservative” anymore, but according to our scientists republicans are “probably” more conservative than democrats
With some exceptions, which should be <redacted>
I don’t mean no smart person has never had a kid I just mean smart people are dumb
Because we’re fascists
Hereafter you have kids
Genesis 38:8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother's wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
9 And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother's wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.
10 And the thing which he did displeased the Lord: wherefore he slew him also.
The woman is then forced to become an incestuous harlot to fulfill her obligation to her deceased husband, a fascinating culture to be sure
there is
Probably do not do drugs with your kids please
Its you! bobdaduck!
Kids have so many costs. First you have to buy them, then you have to raise them, and then you have to deal with being attached to them, and then you have to deal with them dating losers
Not Actually Trademarked (I hope)
I am lucky in my selection of wife, for example
Such as how creatively high I am when writing The Duckstack, for example.
Still Not Actually Trademarked (I hope)
Your own personal Duckstack, of course. This one is mine.
and muscle lol these boys gettin HEAVY
if you’re not losing skin, are you actually getting clean?