Brats quoted as new status symbol

Quote from article:

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Moo
the hottest status symbol in town is a minivan full of kids

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/as-the-cost-of-raising-a-child-rises-young-parents-wonder-if-their-financial-freedom-is-slipping-away/ar-AA1fRpWj?ocid=msedgntphdr&cvid=d98a952050d645ab93962873f26081e0&ei=295

Definition from Wikipedia of a status symbol:

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Luxury goods are often perceived as status symbols. Examples may include a mansion or penthouse apartment, a trophy wife, haute couture fashionable clothes, jewellery, or a luxury vehicle. A sizeable collection of high-priced artworks or antiques may be displayed, sometimes in multiple seasonally occupied residences located around the world. Privately owned aircraft and luxury yachts are movable status symbols that can be taken from one glamorous location to another; the "jet set" refers to wealthy individuals who travel by private jet and who frequent fashionable resorts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Status_symbol

True status symbols can be sold in a bankruptcy or returned. People who own status symbols tend to want more status symbols. I guess a few people may be jealous of those with brats in tow, but most people are far more envious of a mansion, clothing, trophy spouse, or luxury vehicles.

I've never heard anyone in my life bragging about a mini van. Sounds like one of those pathetic moo fantasies.

I'll believe brats are a status symbol the same day that Reddit has more than 75k members who all log into to bitch about how much they regret their mansion, jewelry, or luxury vehicles.

Just because people have a gaggle of brats and a people mover to store them in doesn't mean they can afford those things.

I kind of wish kids were status symbols because then maybe people wouldn't be able to have them due to their prohibitive cost. If you had to buy a child like you would a piece of artwork or a luxury vehicle, a LOT fewer people would have them. I mean, you can buy them via adoption, but most people won't adopt for a few reasons: they just caaaaan't love a child that's not theirs, it costs too much, or their application was rejected.

But you can just make your own kids regardless of your financial state and nobody will stop you. Kids are the only "status symbol" that can be acquired by absolutely anyone. You could be a broke, homeless junkie and go out and either get knocked up or knock someone up.

Of course their financial freedom slips away when they breed. This should be common fucking knowledge! Who the fuck has a kid thinking they won't cost anything?? You'll spend five figures (maybe more) alone just getting the pregnant heifer to her pre-natal appointments and then having her crap out the kid in the ER. That's if everything goes textbook perfect too. If a loaf is born super premature, it will have to live in the NICU for several months. If it's born with a deformity, it might need multiple surgeries. None of these idiots think this will happen to them - they're high on baby fumes and think their little precious will come out absolutely flawless.

Kids aren't even that good of an investment. You could sink thousands upon thousands of dollars into them and they may very well end up criminals, deadbeats who never move out of the basement, or severely autistic and require lifelong care. It's not like their value increases with age like a painting and you can sell them when they reach peak value.

Hahahaha. Dream on moo. Dream on.

According to Oxford Dictionary the definition of status symbol is:

"A possession that is taken to indicate a person's wealth or high social or professional status."

First of all kids aren't possessions. That's the first instance to show the moo that she should've cracked a dictionary to check what this term really means before writing this silly article.

She needs to go check out the local welfare office to see how many of the people in there have a gaggle of brats.

Minivans don't symbolize wealth to most people. They're a vehicle used to bus around a lot of people at the same time. I don't think I've ever seen someone driving a minivan and thought to myself, "Oh wow. That person has GOT to be rich and famous!" Lol. They can often be purchased for next to nothing second hand. There's nothing luxurious about them. They're a vehicle which serves a purpose and has little to do with showing the world that the person driving it has climbed the social ladder.

Also, don't moos realize that almost anyone can breed? It's far too commonplace for it to be considered anything close to a status symbol. She's an idiot through and through.

From the article:

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So long as Nelson and her husband live in LA, she’s uncertain if they can afford to buy a house or even have a second child. When a mortgage for an LA starter home costs at least $7,000 a month and she pays half her salary, or $6,400 a month, in rent and child care already, the math doesn’t add up.

Second child? Someone needs to tell me how the math added up for the first child, because let's assume a 50/50 split and say she's paying $3200 for rent and $3200 for chyldcare. That almost adds up to $7,000. Bye-bye house.

A house is a way better investment than a chyld. Houses appreciate and build equity. Brats are never-ending money sucks.

If this woman is pulling down $12,800 per month, she's making bank. However if she wants to buy a house in L.A. and have a brat, she is still looking at having a spouse with similar income before she can do that.

The one thing that could topple this house of cards is divorce, death of the spouse (and insufficient insurance), or disability and inability to work.

Not having a spouse/roomate and someone to help her pay for this little luxury she birthed means her lifestyle would rapidly degrade and she would be looking at poverty.

The divorce rate for first marriages is 50%. Seems pretty risky.

This woman is a dimbulb who isn't looking past herself.

+++++++++++++

Passive Aggressive
Master Of Anti-brat
Excuses!

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bell_flower

The one thing that could topple this house of cards is divorce, death of the spouse (and insufficient insurance), or disability and inability to work.

Not having a spouse/roomate and someone to help her pay for this little luxury she birthed means her lifestyle would rapidly degrade and she would be looking at poverty.

I don't know why she has to have another. I'd bet she doesn't have a short-term disability policy, a life insurance policy for both her and her spouse, or adequate savings in case there is a divorce. From what I understand a divorce with any brats starts at around $30k unless it can be mediated without the courts. Since most divorces with brats tend to be acrimonious it is unlikely.

Just for the record, my divorce (no brats, no drama) was $250.

Or, maybe she can throw caution to the wind and hope a GFM will help her out if anything goes wrong.

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freya

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bell_flower

The one thing that could topple this house of cards is divorce, death of the spouse (and insufficient insurance), or disability and inability to work.

Not having a spouse/roomate and someone to help her pay for this little luxury she birthed means her lifestyle would rapidly degrade and she would be looking at poverty.

I don't know why she has to have another. I'd bet she doesn't have a short-term disability policy, a life insurance policy for both her and her spouse, or adequate savings in case there is a divorce. From what I understand a divorce with any brats starts at around $30k unless it can be mediated without the courts. Since most divorces with brats tend to be acrimonious it is unlikely.

Just for the record, my divorce (no brats, no drama) was $250.

Or, maybe she can throw caution to the wind and hope a GFM will help her out if anything goes wrong.

My mother had a divorce that cost just $99 in the late 80s despite having two brats. She handled the paperwork and there wasn't even a law student involved. My parents had an extremely civilized divorce and they tag teamed their parenting.

+++++++++++++

Passive Aggressive
Master Of Anti-brat
Excuses!

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My parents had an extremely civilized divorce and they tag teamed their parenting.

Clearly the exception to the rule and a rarity.

One look at Reddit will tell you what a shitshow divorce with kids is.

Sometimes you don't have to be married. I know a guy who knocked someone up two times and didn't marry her. He says the woman was batshit crazy. (They all say that, don't they?) I worked with this guy.

Anyway, this was circa 2000. He ended up taking his ex to court and they fought over custody. (He had two girls.) They went all the way to the state supreme court for him to get more than one weekend of visitation. (I live in what used to be a conservative state and many states would not give father's 50/50 custody.) It ended up they got 50/50 and the mother actually let him have them most of the time.

He told me it cost him $60k in lawyer's fees, which is approximately $101,000 in today's dollars. To his credit he did not remarry or get in a relationship and he was focused on those kids and he seemed to be a good father.

But shit.

I don't know...they could be a status symbol. You notice how luxury brands produce a "quiet" version of their product, with an understated logo and only someone really into the brand knows the purse or whatever cost like $10,000? Then they produce loud versions, with their logo splashed all over, still expensive to the average person, say $1,000 for a purse, and people looking to show off lap it up?

The status symbol version of parenting is having a whole nursery staff to take care of that shit. The aspirational middle-class version is a minivan, signing the kid up for a million "enriching" activities, and the mortgaged-to-the-hilt McMansion "in a good school district".

I outgrew the need to follow fashion and care what other people thought of me when I was about 13. These people haven't emotionally matured beyond that, and are just raising another generation of materialistic consumers like themselves, who will always want more than they can have.

So, in that sense, a lot of parenting does look like the low-rent version of what they are aspiring to.

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yurble
I don't know...they could be a status symbol. You notice how luxury brands produce a "quiet" version of their product, with an understated logo and only someone really into the brand knows the purse or whatever cost like $10,000? Then they produce loud versions, with their logo splashed all over, still expensive to the average person, say $1,000 for a purse, and people looking to show off lap it up?

The status symbol version of parenting is having a whole nursery staff to take care of that shit. The aspirational middle-class version is a minivan, signing the kid up for a million "enriching" activities, and the mortgaged-to-the-hilt McMansion "in a good school district".

I outgrew the need to follow fashion and care what other people thought of me when I was about 13. These people haven't emotionally matured beyond that, and are just raising another generation of materialistic consumers like themselves, who will always want more than they can have.

So, in that sense, a lot of parenting does look like the low-rent version of what they are aspiring to.

I think you're on to something here. They outgrew fashion (well some of them didn't) and went for the next status symbol: parenting.

And parents all compare themselves to each other (social media) and make themselves miserable because they didn't learn as a teen that there will always be someone better looking, more talented, wealthier, more "fill in the blank" than you and it is better to just learn to accept it.

I'm not saying to settle for being lazy and never making any kind of effort on anything, just that there isn't a point of being jealous or mean to someone else because they have something you lack. It isn't a zero-sum game.

I understand it more with teens because they are young and it might be the first time they're going through it. It doesn't make sense for adults to keep acting this way and teaching this to their kids.

I guess to me, having kids is like having debt. The more you have, the more burdensome and miserable your life becomes. Oh, sure, you can show off your kids all over social media about how great your life is, what a good moo you are, yadda yadda, but the reality is you probably should've not had them in the first place.

Check out what's happening with the mootube channel 8 p a s s e n g e r s. (spaced to avoid being spammed by nuts) Bitch pretended to be such a wonderful parent, even spouting crappy parenting advice online, has now been arrested, denied bail and is facing a possibility of 15 years in jail for starving and torturing her kids. Her partner in crime (co-moo) has also been arrested.

I'm sure a lot of her subscribers looked at her channel and believed that she had the perfect life with the perfect family. I also imagine a lot of stupid parents took her advice on how to raise their kids because of how she presented things online with her vlog. I'm sure it gave her a lot of status but now that's been thankfully taken away from her. I despite people who exploit others for profit and show.

She treated them like objects, which what turning humans (or animals) into status symbols really does. They are no longer living things. They're only there to serve a purpose and to show off wealth or power. There's a couple of moos who really overestimated both of those.