raise your baby in a spinning underwater room tho.

he'll be a superhero.

Holy shit, man, that's pretty huge. I hope it all works out for you. I think I'd be fucking panicking if I found out I was going to be a father right now, and I'm pretty sure that I'm a few years older than you, so you seem to be handling this pretty well. Of course, I'm sure you had your initial freak out moment when you first hear, but still...

Congrats, I guess, and I seriously hope that it goes well for you now, and in the future.

good luck have fun glad it's not me.

i can picture all of gw saving money away until they're 40, having read all the baby books, THIS WILL BE JUNIOR'S COLLEGE FUND etc

at some point you just have to drop all your fear and neuroses and start fucking, you know

people do it every day, all over the world!



edit: ps from someone who has been through the experience and views it as positively as is probably possible, convincing someone to get an abortion will never achieve a good result. just think about it guys.

If by any case your posts were subtly directed to me, don't picture me when you picture "all of gw".
Still on the line of "If by any case your posts were subtly directed to me", you should as well consider that the logic presented in my posts are not fueled by a sense of fear and neuroses at all but by a sense of prudency.
Your post sucks pretty bad, because you are taking reactions to an extreme. And bucko, I fully agree with you that if we take it to one extreme, it looks sickly. However, there is nothing being taken to the extremes here, we try to react in a balanced way, y'know, the healthy way.

I have a different valoration of what to do with money. My priorities is not to have TVs in all the rooms, 2Terrabytes of memory capacity in my laptop, a sport car, huge houses, etc.
No.
My priorities are education first, then health. Education and culture is what enriches life, not watching the fucking telly and go to the cinema to watch the latest flashy movie. The rest of the money goes to satisfy other needs, such as nutrition and entretainment and whatever the context calls for (like a new laptop for my daughter who's starting university), and when possible, save money for some luxuries such as a new car, etc.
So going back to the point, if I were to have a family, that's where my money would go.
ho hum

he was saying that they had money to buy stuff like that, not that stuff like that was what he based his lifesworth on.
education first then health, because education and culture enriches life. If i was dying, i'd be much happier if I knew the causes of my death and the widespread sociological effect of becomming deceased.
ugh what do you even mean by education? you say education and CULTURE enriches life but you wouldn't WASTE money on MOVIES and TELEVISION. Formal education really isn't all that enriching, else autistics would have a blast.

instead of the fact that every single bit of medical, sociological, and economic advice says it's a bad idea for someone who never even graduated high school to have a child

this is not true. I cannot find the guys name but he guest lectured one of my social psychology classes, and he did some research on poor unintelligent men who had children quite young, and it was the best thing that happened to them. it could be different in VB's case because the people in the study were specifically those doing unqualified work with no real possibility of advance, but if you guage life quality by happiness rather than networth then these guys were doing pretty well.

if vb wants to throw away his dreams (unless BABBY AT 19 is part of those dreams and life he hopes to have) thats up to him

if i remember rightly his dream was to open up a music store. if they have a kid at 19 then that kid could move out by the time they're 38, and will probably need much less input by the time they're 35, so he'll still have a fair bit of time later in life.
i honestly think having a baby at 19 will mess his life up much less than if he spent all his money to open up a store at 19

i wouldnt say "we" are growing up fast. most people do it slowly. you are just cramming as much stuff into as small a time as possible, apparently.

so.. uh.. congrats, i guess, but man kids BEFORE 20 is not something i usually congratulate.

yeah this was along the lines of what i was gonna say!

Congrats, dude! You sure it's yours?

Either way, I'm happy for ya man. ^_^

he was saying that they had money to buy stuff like that, not that stuff like that was what he based his lifesworth on.
education first then health, because education and culture enriches life. If i was dying, i'd be much happier if I knew the causes of my death and the widespread sociological effect of becomming deceased.
ugh what do you even mean by education? you say education and CULTURE enriches life but you wouldn't WASTE money on MOVIES and TELEVISION. Formal education really isn't all that enriching, else autistics would have a blast.

god, you didn't understand me AT ALL.
But it is ok, I write pretty shit.

"he was saying that they had money to buy stuff like that, not that stuff like that was what he based his lifesworth on. "
WELL SONNY SHAME YOU CUT DOWN MY QUOTE, because I said I wasn't saying he was like that but that he reminded me of what I subsequently said.
"education first then health, because education and culture enriches life. If i was dying, i'd be much happier if I knew the causes of my death and the widespread sociological effect of becomming deceased."
I am really amazed by the bluntness of your comment.
Education and health are not Mutually Exclusive.
"ugh what do you even mean by education? you say education and CULTURE enriches life but you wouldn't WASTE money on MOVIES and TELEVISION. Formal education really isn't all that enriching, else autistics would have a blast."
Education is not just school. It has more to do with the familiar environment. It also means learning to play an instrument, read music, paint, do artistic shit, play a sport(with all the ethics and codes it implies). The idea is to foment a rich spirit. These things you don't get by playing vidiot games.
But HO HO WOH! who said I am censoring television and movies? Dude, I watch tv like everyday (just a bit of zapping and I turn it off) and I go and watch a film every other week (I usually watch more plot-wise films).
Climbtree, you have a problem: you jump to extremist conclusions, and that's a mistake because rarely are people that extremist. Going extremes of something sucks balls man.

Aww yeah, that's great! Congratulations.

All we need now is an obligatory baby-name thread. =P

i thinking the guys saying you're too young and very possibly ill-prepared are understandably cautious, and while i'm not going to say congratulations for no reason other than appropriate social response, i'll say if you want to do this and you think you're pretty capable of it then by all means go for it. i don't know you at all. i wouldn't have a kid at this age if it were up to me, but i know i am a total fuck up and would be no good. i have LOTS of babies in my family constantly and i've taken a pretty big hand in helping to raise my littlest bro who has down syndrome so i know how frustrating it can occasionally be with kids, and also how great they can be too. but it's this kind of second hand experience which lets me know it's going to be a good while before i'm where i need to be to be a good dad, but i've got some very obvious problems and also, my priorities are elsewhere right now.

but how can anyone really know if they're gonna be prepared for raising a kid. tell vb that he's too young or whatever isn't going to make a difference. if he doesn't feel too young, then he doesn't feel too young. i don't really think it's the place of anyone other than the mother to be making that kind of judgement at this point. maybe when he has it he'll find that the joys of parenthood are vast and make up for the difficulties, or maybe he'll find that he can't deal with it and has a total breakdown who knows. this is life, and yeah it's dangerous for everyone involved especially the brand new baby, but you can either go for this kind of thing or not. like i say, i would choose not to, right now, but all things considered vb is saying yes.

so i think i agree with bort, and you should let him have this.

Seriously there are shitloads of kids at my college that are like 19-21 and have a kid and they do fine.  He seems to have things on the right tracks...which is better than a lot of people that this happens to.

god, you didn't understand me AT ALL.
But it is ok, I write pretty shit.

"he was saying that they had money to buy stuff like that, not that stuff like that was what he based his lifesworth on. "
WELL SONNY SHAME YOU CUT DOWN MY QUOTE, because I said I wasn't saying he was like that but that he reminded me of what I subsequently said.
"education first then health, because education and culture enriches life. If i was dying, i'd be much happier if I knew the causes of my death and the widespread sociological effect of becomming deceased."
I am really amazed by the bluntness of your comment.
Education and health are not Mutually Exclusive.
"ugh what do you even mean by education? you say education and CULTURE enriches life but you wouldn't WASTE money on MOVIES and TELEVISION. Formal education really isn't all that enriching, else autistics would have a blast."
Education is not just school. It has more to do with the familiar environment. It also means learning to play an instrument, read music, paint, do artistic shit, play a sport(with all the ethics and codes it implies). The idea is to foment a rich spirit. These things you don't get by playing vidiot games.
But HO HO WOH! who said I am censoring television and movies? Dude, I watch tv like everyday (just a bit of zapping and I turn it off) and I go and watch a film every other week (I usually watch more plot-wise films).
Climbtree, you have a problem: you jump to extremist conclusions, and that's a mistake because rarely are people that extremist. Going extremes of something sucks balls man.

ok it looks like i related what you were saying to the topic too much.
still i would rate health, essentially just being alive, over education because i'd rather live longer and happier than know a lil somethin somethin.

Ugh, debates aside, good luck man and congratulations. Prove the naysayers wrong!

Seriously there are shitloads of kids at my college that are like 19-21 and have a kid and they do fine.  He seems to have things on the right tracks...which is better than a lot of people that this happens to.

Depends on what you understand by "they do fine".
They can surely raise the kid alright, but are they raising them as the best damn way they can?
Their age limits their possibilities.
I mean, I may be an education nutty, I want my kid to learn as much as possible, specially when he's young, that's when he is a mind sponge. Of course I don't want to suffocate him with information, but rather foment an interest, etc.
I want to raise him in the best damn way possible and I know that at this precise moment I can't, and I have to focus on preparing myself for this ultimate task in life.
Probably VB will do fine.
When I say Tough Luck it is because he won't be able to do this in the most optimum situation, y'know, when you feel that you are ready, you have everything in order, stabilized, and say "let's maker a baby"

i can picture all of gw saving money away until they're 40, having read all the baby books, THIS WILL BE JUNIOR'S COLLEGE FUND etc

at some point you just have to drop all your fear and neuroses and start fucking, you know

Yeah sure, except most people try not to have children at 19.

I mean, doesn't look like you have much of a choice, but I hope you've thought this over really hard. Having a child will take over most of your life if you intend to be a parent and not just send money to the gal and take the kid to the zoo on weekends. From this topic it looks like you're realizing 50% of the issue and thinking about if you'll be a good parent and such, but not really thinking that much about the other 50% which is, do you like her enough to want to have a family with her for the rest of your life, how will this affect my future life (ans: a lot) etc. The child does have the right to a good life, but so do you! As long as you're sure you're not running your life into the shitter, then have at it, and best of luck.

I love how in a time of celebration and respecting a fellow GW'r still falls out into a Heated debate and jonefest on whats money and knowledge and past experiences helping this guy (and others to be a better father)

Mostly I am bragging but I am also looking for input on things I should take into consideration that I may not have already.

It's kind of why he made the topic.

Congratulations VB! I'm sure you two will be really happy

Also, I am of the opinion that the baby's name should be a+++++ foget whateveryourlastnameis.

It's kind of why he made the topic.

Mostly it was celebration though.

Also I have taken things like WILL WE STILL BE TOGETHER IN 5 YEARS into consideration. I wouldn't enter something like this if I didn't think we would be. She is not some girl I just hooked up with one night. We've been together for five years. And once again, I'm aware this will affect my future, but I did plan on having kids young anyway and there's not a lot I wanted to do beyond that, so it doesn't hurt me much. Like I am not thinking GOD DAMN NOW I'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO CLIMB A MOUNTAIN because I never cared to do shit like that. Or anything, really.