Vasectomy blogging

Posted on 5/3/2008 by John Rove

I made an appointment to get a vasectomy today.  The procedure sounds pretty easy, I did not even need a pre-surgery appointment and my co-pay is only $40.  This seems like a no-brainer when one looks at the cost of raising a child.  Plus, in my case my dog, Kip, hates kids.  If I ever had a kid I would have to give up him up, (my dog not the kid, although it would probably be smarter to give up the kid, as I am sure most dogs are better companions than the drooling poop factories that some people call children) 

It is interesting that more men don’t decide to go child free, most my friends who have children don’t seem that happy about the situation, they either complain that they cannot do the things they want to do.  Or in some cases they complain about being stuck in a bad relationship for the sake of the children.  I know Al might disagree with me on this but when I look at parents I see people who are tired and have that look of someone who is trying to run out the clock. 

I like the idea that I can live in a small place in a bad school district and be very happy.  Children would ruin that, suddenly I would have to listen to my realtor when he talks about the need to live in a “good area”.  I might even need to worry about finding a good paying carreer so that I could one day send my kid to college.  Thanks to a $40 dollar co-pay I can insure happiness for a very long time.  I think my ROI on this $40 might be almost infinite.

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7 Responses to Vasectomy blogging

  1. caveat bettor says:
    5/5/2008 at 5:39 pm

    Bryan Caplan wrote about this recently here:

    http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2008/04/childlessness_a.html

    JR: I would absolutely agree with your poll results–having kids increases stress, reduces freedom, and reduces spending on adult preferences. But I suspect that you are not polling people in the 60-90 demographic (or else you are and throwing out the results because they do not help your argument).

  2. John Rove says:
    5/5/2008 at 6:09 pm

    My poll was pretty informal, of course people in the 60-90 demographic probably do not have kids so they are happy to see other people misreable 🙂

  3. John Rove says:
    5/5/2008 at 6:14 pm

    BTW
    When I am in my sixties I will let you know if I regret the decision.

  4. John Rove says:
    5/5/2008 at 7:01 pm

    Looks like someone studies this:

    LiveScience Managing EditorLiveScience.com Wed Feb 8, 3:00 AM ET
    Any parent will tell you kids can be depressing at times. A new study shows that raising them is a lifelong challenge to your mental health.
    Not only do parents have significantly higher levels of depression than adults who do not have children, the problem gets worse when the kids move out.
    “Parents have more to worry about than other people do—that’s the bottom line,” said Florida State University professor Robin Simon. “And that worry does not diminish over time. Parents worry about their kids’ emotional, social, physical and economic well-being. We worry about how they’re getting along in the world.”
    Simon knows from experience.
    “I adore my kids,” she said in a telephone interview. “I would do it over again. There are enormous emotional benefits. But I think [those benefits] get clouded by the emotional cost. We worry about our kids even when they’re doing well.”
    The depressing results seem to be across the board in a study of 13,000 people. No type of parent reported less depression than non-parents, Simon said.
    Some parents are more depressed than others, however. Parents of adult children, whether they live at home or not, and parents who do not have custody of their minor children have more symptoms of depression than those with young children all in the nest, regardless of whether they are biological children, step children or adopted.
    Other research has shown there’s a bright side to raising kids, too. One study of people with younger children found the parents have greater social networks and higher levels of self-confidence than non-parents.
    “Young children in some ways are emotionally easier,” Simon said. “Little kids, little problems. Big kids, big problems.”
    The research, announced today, was published in the American Sociological Association’s Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
    Simon also found that married parents are less depressed than the unmarried. But, surprisingly, the effects of parenthood on depression were the same for men and women.
    Part of the problem, Simon figures, is that Americans don’t get as much help at parenting as they once did, or as is the case in other countries.

  5. caveat bettor says:
    5/6/2008 at 5:31 pm

    My mission is to get my kids to move out as responsible decision making adults when they are in their late teens/early twenties.

    Maybe I will miss them more than I think now, when I am thinking about getting beyond all the physical exhaustion of young kids (and the emotional exhaustion of adolescents).

  6. George2u2 says:
    5/31/2008 at 1:22 pm

    Children are expensive. $27,000 for infertilty doctors 25 years ago. $1,100 last month to help with her rent. Heaven only knows what the cost has been in between.
    I don’t begrudge anyone being Childfree or childless for that matter. My own children may be without children, that’s their right to decide. The second box of condoms I bought when I was first married some broke. So don’t lecture about condoms and abstinence.

  7. John Rove says:
    5/31/2008 at 5:14 pm

    Broken condom babies are always the worst, or so I am told.

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