Raise your hand if you had head lice as a child. No? Just me? OK. I may have even had it twice.

Really?
So what's stopping you?

TPS, I hear lice really like the clean heads. Maybe you are super clean.

Yeah, I liked this strip this AM too. TPS, found ticks on self as child repeatedly. EEEYUUU experience too.

Also a good strip today -- appropriately, it's Non Sequitur.

Oh, I got a tick once in college, that was horrifying. Thank goodness the RA on our floor had grown up living in a wilderness camp (her parents ran the camp)- I ran screaming into her room and she helped me get it off.

Once, in a candid discussion with Mother Trurl, I asked her, "With no fear of her hurting my feelings: Had having my sister and I been - seen from her old age - worth it?"

She unhesitatingly shook her head No - not looking at me. Had she given me a different answer, I'd have been skeptical.

It was one of those moments when you can stop seeing them as the Parent and see them simply as human beings. For her sake, I wished she had been less disappointed by life. While knowing that her nature made any other outcome impossible.

Something in the embittered set of her profle reminded me of Richard Nixon. I took her bony fingers in my hand and gave them an affectionate squeeze.

That's as much physical contact with her as I'm comfrotable with. But that's a different story.

I remember Ann Landers polling her readers about that same question, Trurl, asked those who'd had children "Would you have children again?" Not that they didn't love their children, not that they'd not gotten huge rewards from parenting, nothing else—just having lived their lived having had kids, would they do so again?

Overwhelming: No. They talked about vacations they'd seen others have, higher quality of life that their peers had w/r/t disposable income disposable time etc and etc.

My mother and father? They'd never, ever have allowed themselves to say they'd not want children, that question would not even be allowed on the table for them, as their religious beliefs and just their whole lives were aimed toward family. They had seven kids, their lives a complete and total whirlwind for decades, I just can't really imagine it for myself.

But I do know that I've missed a lot by not having this piece in my life. Some of my old running buddies and siblings have had kids and now grandchildren, and they stay connected to life through them, or maybe that's not the right way to say it, more that they get to be there and watch it unfold for the children.

The closest I get to it is that I mentor some younger guys, guiding them through straits I've previously negotiated; they thank me, not quite yet believing me when I tell them that I get so much more from it than they do. They'll understand later.

Research shows that people with children are significantly less happy and that quality of life does not improve until the children leave the home.
Society views childfree women negatively and there is an awful lot of assumption out there that all women are dying to have kids.
But if it is important to you and your ducks are in a row, it's possible.
I always thought I'd foster or adopt if I was in a position, but I'm not.
But the whole fact I am not consumed by the need to have children seems to stupefy a lot of people. If I am not envious of them, I must be judging them, etc. Lots of weirdo rationalizations going on. Wrote a paper about it.

I don't remember having head lice as a kid, but my kids have had them many times. They seem to me much more prevalent these days for some reason. We are rigorous about applying treatment at the first sign, but the problem is it only takes one kid in the class to have them and net get treated (usually because of parents in denial thinking that their kids couldn't possible have them) to keep the cycle going over and over again.

I guess kids are one of those things that always end up being the wrong decision whether you have them or not - those that don't often wish they had and those that do often wish they hadn't. For me, if I could have a do-over I wouldn't have kids. Not because I don;t love them dearly, but I think I'm just too self-centred to be a good parent.

I think there is more acceptance nowadays of people not wanting to have kids than in years gone by, although yeah, lots of people still find it a bit strange. But that's their problem, not yours.

Yep, had head lice a couple times as a kid. The first time my father buzzed my brothers' hair and cut mine really short. My mother was so pissed off at him about my hair because it took so long to grow as a kid (the boys' hair was buzzed short every summer so that wasn't a big deal).

I have never had a tick or leech stuck to me, thank the gods.

Mum has said that every one of pregnancies had been an accident; mostly birth control failures. She also would have started later in married life (rather than being 17 when Bro#1 was born) and would have had fewer kids (two or three instead of five), but she could never figure out which ones she would send back.

I've never thought to ask her if having kids had been worth it. She'll be here for xmas so, if I remember, I'll ask her.

A friend of mine, a guy, actively doesn't want kids. People have called him selfish. It's kind of selfish to have kids in a lot of ways.
But it's never been a priority to me, I've actively avoided them. But I know people who really want kids, for whatever reasons. If it mattered to me half as much as it seems to matter to them, I can't think of what could stop me.
But I think it's very complicated and people really need to sort it out, and personally, I have specific views on it. Biologically, I had baby pangs at 28, but I avoid slavery to biology.
IRL, I only know of one couple who really wanted a baby and actively tried, everyone else it just happened to.

One nice thing about having had a kid at a fairly young age is that I'm an empty nester in my mid-forties. The kid's off at college and we're having a good time.

My mother claims she would have both my sister and I if she had to do things over, and I think I believe her for the most part. It helps that our presence in her life didn't hold back her education or career, although I'm sure we made it more difficult. She started grad school when my sister was an infant, and carried me through the last months of finishing her dissertation. Dad worked while she was in school, and vice versa. Honestly, I can't imagine having the energy or organizational skills necessary to do it that way, but maybe things would be different if I had someone backing me up.

Of course, in the middle of a family argument a few weeks ago, my mother also said she couldn't recommend marriage to me as something worthwhile. I don't think she would stand by that if she were ever to weigh it out objectively, but in any case I'd like to have the opportunity to make that mistake, if it is one. I don't think marriage or kids would be, for me.

Then again, I've never had lice.

For me, it's less about the fact that I won't/don't have kids as it is about the fact that no guy ever want(ed) to have kids with me. When someone says "Oh, I chose not to have kids" my back goes up a little, and I want to say "you're so lucky to have that choice!"

(Yeah, so I'm a little grumpy over the holidays, with all my co-workers gushing over the iPods they're giving to their kids...)

I got lice once, in high school! Since I was a little hippy-ish then and didn't wash my hair every day, everyone implied that that was the reason I got the little buggers. Nah.

I have a kid. I have never had lice. It's not easy having a kid, especially one like mine with special needs. I had him quite late, I was almost 45 when he was born. He's 5 and now I get why you're supposed to have them when you're younger: It's exhausting.

But the feel of him snuggled into me and the joy on his face when I walk into the house and the sound of his laughter have given me some of the happiest moments I've ever known.

Is it worth it? Worth what? It just is, he's here and he's taught me that I'm tougher and smarter than I ever knew.

My conclusion: Having a child is a lot more fun than having head lice. But having lice is probably a lot easier to deal with.

Yeah, we're in the middle of a head lice siege here. I just spent an hour picking nits. Motherfucker, I wish I weren't so good at it, but it's necessary.

It's kind of selfish to have kids in a lot of ways.
Exactly - the real reason people choose* to have kids is because they want to, not for any sort of altruistic reason. We have plenty of people, we don't need to worry about the race dying out, so you're doing nobody any favours by contributing to population growth.

*yeah, not always by choice, as demonstrated by the failure of two different birth control methods resulting in the son that I adore but who was in no way planned. I guess sometimes babies just want to be.

I had this friend who got offended if I mentioned being harassed or inappropriately propositioned, etc. with this whole "Lucky you!" reaction. We have a strained email relationship at this point. Man, I could go on about her.
Doesn't sound like it's about kids. There's many a loser out there willing to knock you up and ways to get pregnant, just like you could shack up with any willing slob rather than be alone. Those are technically choices.

We had pinworms! And my mom still swears she wanted kids. But I think she may be lying. I can't even imagine having kids but I like and enjoy my boyfriend's teenager on the rare times when we interact.

I wanted kids when I was in my late teens/early twenties, but knew at the time I couldn't afford it on my own. Later on in my twenties I decided it really wasn't for me, in part due to having my nieces and nephew living with me and getting a really good idea what having kids is like*. I didn't have a, for lack of a better word, permanent partner until I met the mister. I was pretty happy to find out that he'd had a vasectomy years ago and, in any case, didn't want anymore kids (he has a son just a few years younger than I).

I can't say that I'm totally regret free, but all-in-all, I think it was the right decision.

*I also had my brothers as an example of kids when they've, allegedly, grown up. Also, with my fucked-up childhood, I wasn't sure I could I be a good mother.

I sort of had the experience of having kids as oldest of 5 and responsible for much of their care as my mom and dad both worked.

And as an adult I've been very close to a lot of kids, including the sexual assault victims whose cases I handled from interview to end of criminal trial and sentencing, nieces and nephews, and their kids, plus the students I've taught and have had working in my office.

But no kids of my own, and that has worked best for me and the Bear. I do occasionally still think about adoption, I admit.

Kids are great. But I've also had a wonderful life so far without giving birth to or raising any of my own.

I've had a complicated history of wanting kids. For a while, when I was married, unhappily, I really wanted a "save the marriage baby" but that necessitated going off a lot of meds that I really need to be on for daily sane functioning.

Now that I'm with the bf, with no marriage plans in sight 5 years into the relationship, the subject of having kids has come up, meaning "I'm 36, if you want me to have babies, it's now or never." He's said he's open to adoption way down the line when the thought of kids enter the picture, which is cool for me too, as that's basically the only way I can see myself having kids at this point.

Having kids or not is a highly personal and rather charged subject. So I speak of it rather carefully.
Also for some people it's less of a choice and more of a result of the vicissitudes of life. One of the things that are part of ones individual road.

For me personally I always felt rather detached from the world of having kids. I didn't know what to say to young children. Could not quite place their reactions, or did not care to.

And then when I was catapulted at the age of 40 into having a baby daughter somehow I effortlessly rose to the occasion. It really felt as if an ancient brain module that had been dormant kicked into gear. As if triggered by some subliminal emanation from the pregnant mother or the baby.

Right after I became a father two befriended couples of a similar age suddenly decided to have kids as well. I think that in spite of my very apparent distress at having a child when the relationship was unfit they saw something beside my resulting heartache that they wanted for themselves.
One of those friends was always very adamant she didn't want kids. But changed her mind when her dancing days were winding down (literally; she did a lot of xtc fueled partying) and she had had her share of self actualisation after trying to get a novel published for instance.
My guess is also that things changed for her after her mother died. I think that she had unwittingly equated having kids with being just as subservient to family life as her mother was.

I know one guy though who regrets having a child. Or 'the child' as he still refers to his son now and then. It doesn't make me happy to contemplate his resentment at having constantly to do stuff. And what that means for his son. So that's definitely an example to avoid.

For me personally I've come to the conclusion that just doing entertaining things isn't the whole story to being happy. For me there's another kind of happiness in being engaged. Either at work through challenges that we overcome and sometimes have to endure. Or through having a baby daughter; cleaning up epic poo spill from the diaper just as much as the fun stuff of playing together.

The pay off chemicals in my brain were so strong that I felt a distinct urge to proselytise; to witness of my newfound insight: "babies are great". I think I've suppressed that obsessive paternal urge successfully when it would have been inappropriate.

If my brain hadn't responded by doping me profusely I'd been rather unhappy now though. So tread wisely.

We never had lice, but I had some furious dandruff as a kid. As a result, kids on the playground thought I had lice, and my parents became very embarrassed.

I'm currently at the age my mother was when she had my older sister, and four years behond that, I will be the age she was when she had me. I was also recently given a clinical diagnosis of polycystic ovarian syndrome, so the idea of whether or not I want to have a kid (by adoption, or surrogate, or what have you) is circling in my mind. No doubt that if I had a birth control failure with my current boyfriend that I'd continue the pregnancy. He's passed that test at the very least. But my health issues would make it difficult, and we definitely don't earn enough to care for a cat (which we'd like) much less a kid.