September 18, 2007 by Barbara.

I noticed in a CBC story today that Danny Williams has promised $1,000 for each child born or adopted in Newfoundland and Labrador if he is re-elected as Premier in the election campaign that just kicked off. I guess that while you can’t put a price on love,  you can put a price on a child.

I wouldn’t say “no” to a thousand dollars but I think it’s awfully simplistic - and more than a little reminiscent of the $100 universal “childcare” payments - and deals with the result of the problem rather than the problem. People decide not to have children for a variety of reasons including financial, lifestyle, including marrying and having babies later, dual-income couples, lack of support systems when people can only find jobs far from the rest of their families, etc. Oh, and some people think that daycare is too difficult to find and too expensive, especially when you have two kids in full-time care. Problems not solved by $100 a month, even when you add $1000 on the birth of a baby.

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September 18, 2007 by Barbara.

This morning we were discussing what to have for supper when Ken said that he didn’t care because he doubted that he’d have a chance to eat anyway. I made some crack about how his outlook was negative and that for him, life was nasty, brutish and short. Ken grinned and said that I was “short” and he was “nasty” and Reid was definitely “brutish”. Watching Reid eat her breakfast, he pointed and said, “definitely brutish”. Just because my little princess was scooping Nutrios off of the table into her mouth.

Ultimately, I forgot to put the pork in the crockpot and so we won’t be having pulled pork for supper. Reid and I made boiled eggs before breakfast. I had some concern about the freshness of the eggs and googled “eggs float if fresh”. Fresh eggs stay on the bottom of the pan of water; mine were super-buoyant floaters. I’m Reid forgets about them. It’s too soon for me to be explaining my silliness again and again. All this to say that the chances that Ken won’t get any supper are higher than ever.

If you’re wracking your brains trying to remember where you’ve heard the quote, it’s from Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathon in reference to the life of humans in their natural state.

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