Loudoun's Mini Baby Boom

Why did you feel the need to have children after getting a four on your first roll of the dice? I mean, at that point you were surely aware that you're predisposed to a multiple pregnancy, did you really want to risk having more than one again, or did it matter? Do you not think that there will be problems and animosity down the road when you and your husband die and there's (at least) a six-way power struggle for control of the estate? How about when you have four kids needing cars at the same time, and hitting college age...then a couple more in the same predicament just down the road? To me, the financial repercussions of more than two, let alone six, children is mind boggling.

I'm not judging, I'm curious as to why people want/need more than two children.

 

Why is it assumed that parents must provide their children with not only a car, but an "estate"? Brim, your response indicates a sense of entitlement that sheds some light on some of your previous posts.

 

I'm not assuming anything...I've yet to see a deceased parent not leave anything to their children. I'm not saying you set each child up with an estate when they hit 18, but eventually it's a problem that will need to be dealt with and usually brings with it some infighting and sibling animosity.

As far as sense of entitlement, ha! Perhaps my previous posts advocating 'do it yourself' and 'thats a rip off, you can have the same thing done cheaper' and 'quit throwing money away' gave me away as being entitled. Dad is a aretired aluminum worker and mom is a house wife...my family is poor compared to to the money that gets thrown around in Ashburn and NOVA in general. As a matter of fact, the main reason I moved back to Tennessee is because I couldn't afford a home in the area, I lived in an apartment. How's that for entitled?

 

Maybe it was something you ate

 

Want or need? Like a nice car? Are you serious? You may not realize this, but there are some people out there who actually believe children are a gift from God. And not just the first two, but all of those they are fortunate enough to receive. Tough concept for the socially responsible who have all the answers, I know, but not an altogether crazy notion to the rest of us dolts just trying to survive until your next bit of sage advice.

 

WOW, This is one politaiclly charged forum - and quite interesting - to boot!
I read the WP article this Sunday and told my hubby how funny it was that the South Riding dad named the households by what sports their kids were involved in, whereas we personally label our neighborhood by what religion they practice. Only because we are heavily loaded with muslims and mormons( So they keep having babies to spread the word, well I thought that they only had 144,000 of their flock would actually make it to the other side), an agnostic and us as episcopal. What does this mean? Well it means that the two main groups tend to only associate with their like kind. So there are no kids available to play with mine and never do you see anyone outside - even in the summer. How about that! While my kids are 13 and 17 it is still very wierd. We had more friends when in Ashburn Farm than I can count on one hand here. Where are the neighborhood barbecues? What happened to dinner parties and other gatherings? Have we all become so selfish with our time that we cannot even say hi to another as we walk by without receiving a look?

Personally, I was happy to get a boy and a girl. that was enough for me. We chose to not have our kids lives overthrow ours and so there is more balance in our daily lives. My sisters have 1 and 2 respectively. My hubby was an only child as well as my dad. I had three sisters and it was ok, but my mom always seemed to be so stressed out. I do not know how people with more than 2 kids manage life - not to mention the expenses. What I don't get is how one would move into a larger house and look at 2 extra rooms and say to themselves,"Gee, we should have 2 more kids!" Personally I thought," Great! Now I have 2 guestrooms for my sisters when they come to visit! I would rather have them close by than stuck in a motel.

Another thing...I cannot tell you how many people I hear - whether a recent move brought them here or they've been here awhile-who talk of how unfriendly this area is, how hard it is to get to know someone ,etc. Who want to move to the south. well my sister moved to Charlotte, NC 3 years ago. She has a great book club going, when somebody has a baby or gets sick, neighbors bring meals for 2-3 weeks. They are involved in another group that meets at different houses each time and they focus on a different countries food group. All she can talk about his how nice the people are. Of course, they are not as discourteous when driving, either.

Some of us say we ant to go to a place where it is not so crowded, but at this rate, the whole east coast will be one long development so I guess we should all head to the midwest.


Well, enough of my rant. Chew on this for awhile!

 

Wow, Brassy@39, I have had the opposite impression of people since moving here about a year ago. I have found my neighbors in Broadlands to be very friendly. I live in the townhouses, and have been meeting people all around here - both in TH's and SFH's. Maybe it is just the street you live on, so don't give up yet. I have been really amazed at the friendliness here - it has actually taken me quite a few months to get used to it. I sometimes welcome the rude drivers - it lets me know that things are "normal" here after all.

 

I agree that we will not give our kids every thing. They will earn their own way like my husband and I did. I received my business degrees with full tuition reimbursement from Georgia Pacific. I started working for them when I turned 17 and finished both business degrees by 25. My husband paid his own through school. You earn your own way--better than giving your kids all the "toys". Currently, I am pursuing my post grad work in Food Science with a focus on Consumer Education and Nutrition--after already obtaining my other Bachelor and Master degrees with concentrations in Food Science/Consumer Education & Nutrition. Also, I am pursuing my certification as a Registered Dietitian.

To each their own! We used to live in Broadlands where we rented a townhome while our new farmhome was being built on our farm land. We loved it and being from the South in Georgia--people were just as courteous. Depends on your view I suppose. Anyway if anyone is interested in a new job--forward resume to me or post; and my husband will review for Grumman. He is a VP-Electrical Engineer at TASC. Proper clearances are helpful also.

No power struggle necessary--we have our financial house in order!
That's all for now!

 

Sounds like you're describing my street. We have the neighborhood party in the fall, I've made meals for 11 of the 13 families on the block when they had babies, we have book clubs and many other events. My kids babysit when alot of the neighbors get together. I guess we all see Broadlands as different things.

 

Here is some food thought; we invade countries for various reasons but lets look at Iraq. Our government especially Georgie and his boys and girls say we are doing this for the good of the world and to protect us and the people of Iraq and on and on and on. But collateral damage (killing of many innocent people by us) is necessary to achieve this.

OK lets go back to our country and Loudoun with this mini baby boom.

Couldn't our government use this logic someday to kill innocent babies maybe even the mother when they have too many children by our government standards. Hey it could be called collateral damage necessary for the future of the well being of our country. Far fetched??? maybe not! we have limited resources and just so much room already there is not enough room in some of our colleges and the cost of college is going through the roof because of too many kids. Less education and jobs and decent places to live for future generations all that leads to is more crime and poor etc. Then like china there becomes incentives to have less children and if that’s does not work well collateral damage may be the answer of last resort just because the generations before didn't think about the big picture the limited resources which include jobs and education.

The trades are all going to the immigrants even the skilled ones which paid substantially so they could afford to live in the broadlands etc. Not any more now only a few of the immigrant construction owners can afford it and actually some of them are getting fabulously wealthy. I just designed a 25,000 sq ft home and a 10 million dollar restaurant for a side business he could not speak English that many years ago and is only in his mid thirties right now. The majority of his almost 400 man workforce still don't speak English and are paid almost nothing yet he lives like a king and just one of his cars in a fleet of cars he owns cost almost a half a million dollars. Most of you will be eating at his restaurant in a year or two as it is being built not to far away and is a stand alone building with a outdoor roof garden 4 stories up with a beautiful view. My point is most of his underpaid people are having kids like crazy and I bet many in this group would be horrified by this fact. Hmmmm ok for the comfortable burb people to have a ton of kids but is it ok for our newest poor residents to do the same????????????? What is going to happen in a few years when all these kids grow up on both sides of the spectrum?????????? These poorer residents are not far away in Manassas Woodbridge Herndon and their parents right now are building your homes cleaning your homes landscaping working at the local restaurant etc they are very very close to all of us and the population boom they are creating is going to affect all of us very very soon.

I know the answer the burb people can see if they can have even more kids then the new immigrants and we can just escalate all this. The problems you don't see here as of yet are already in Texas and California etc and growing by the minute and it is not a pretty picture. This is not doom and gloom but real issues that need to be addressed from both sides. All these new kids are certainly going to have to deal with the problems left by us including social security.

Lee J Buividas

Lee J Buividas

 

Wow Lee, you're right! Better not even have any kids in the first place! That'll save them!

You are WAY too funny in your pointed and provocative pessimist alarmism.

I know some of the folks in article. Funny too how reporters pick and choose what to quote. My husband read it, and said, "What is the purpose of this article?"

*******************************************************

(we have two too. Girl and boy, and done. That is enough for me, but enough is different things for different people. Ever read Barbara Curtis' column in LTM? She has something like 10, several with special needs. Sounds like they roll right along with a life they love. I've also known people overwhelmed by just one. Chacun a son gout, oui?)

 

You are missing the point here my dear friend Barbara! I was first alarmed by the pictures of kids playing in the street with virtually no supervision and some kids that look to be under 5 years old. All these puds have been designed to be kid friendly with parks and greenbelts and paths and yards and playgrounds etc. yet here they are right in the street what’s up with that????. The next part was social responsibility for all of us in the US not the fortunate few that get to live in Loudoun but also include the immigrants that are servicing and building these communities which are mostly excluded from them and are exiled to Manassas parts of Herndon and Woodbridge and many other areas. Don't forget I work with these people everyday on a very personal basis. Most of you go to your ivory towers and work and communicate with people just like yourselves and have very little interaction with the people that actually make your life easier including stay at home moms. you all want more of the same along the rt 50 corridor that has not been totally successful in the big picture in the rest of the county you all want to exclude the very people that service your lives by not building true affordable housing as you say will happen if these developers get there way. That is a snow job!! There should be as much true affordable housing built as the so called regular housing yet the so called regular housing is approaching the million dollar mark. That is not caused by the lack of building it is caused by the control of building in the fact not enough true affordable housing will be included in new development and proposed development. The people that serviced the old Loudoun county actually lived on the farms and ranches and were well taken care of. The new Loudoun does nor allow for much of that in these new developments just token places and you all would much rather not see how the people that build and service your lives too close up to you, perhaps that might be a tad too painful to build in some equal reality representation of the real world into these proposed developments. You want utopia yet you don’t want the people that actually build and service utopia part of your lives. Interesting my cool friend Barbara!!!!! As I said earlier I was at a way cool party last Sunday with some of the movers and shakers in our community but also the people that helped build the community to the lawn person were also at this party and invited too at this builders very large home I designed. My point again this was some of the old money in Loudoun not these new carpetbaggers coming in such as toll and many others that don’t give a rat’s a**s except how much can they rape out of this community to put into their own pockets. You know the developers and business leaders that want to do the least for maximum profit who expect the lowest paid people to drive the longest for their own self interest and really don’t care how these people live or afford to even get to work. That is why these companies have many layers as the goverment does the people that call the shots just don't want to be too close to their underlings it might just spoil their party a tadd too much and even give them a reality check as to what is really happening around them.

 

Lee honey, please don't put words in my mouth, especially if you're going to spew that many in a long long row without even saying "excuse me!" after you're done!

Sorry if you didn't like me teasing you that it is better not to reproduce than have children to face your future--but I'm not the first poster to comment on your perennial doom and gloom.

As for the people that cut the lawns etc in ye ole Loudoune, Oatlands doesn't really have any info on the hundreds of slaves who lived there and made it pretty, other than that they were treated very very well and were all very very happy.

As for their descendants, check out the Windy Hill Foundation in Middleburg--the traditional neighborhood of those who make the estates purr along, yet had no pavement, sidewalks or plumbing of their own--beatiful new stucco and tin roof duplexes, that fit in perfectly with the traditional plantation architechture, with only one problem: the folks who were moved out for the renovations to occur couldn't afford to move back in when they were done. But it was such a beautiful success! And they look simply marvelous.

Lee, do you really think that businesses are going to put affordable cottages on limited unaffordable land? And do you actually believe that an apartment on the Greenway is the honorable choice for everyone who can't afford what Loudoun is being forced to become? Criminy, why not use some of your Dubai profits to buy 60 acres zoned R-1 and show us what you mean? Sell the parcels individually, with individual custom designs, and let them all go for under $200K.

In the meantime, I hold to my thought: thank you for warning us against having any children at all, since infanticide will surely be mandated soon!

 

Me put words in your mouth Miss Barbara??????? wow I really did that!!!!

I don't think there is a person on the planet that could get away with that my dear friend!!!! ;-) ha ha too funny.

There is not a person in the world that can offend me except my kids and Dalyns family???? They have even kept my sister-in-outlaw's new tough new FBI boyfriend and now possible future husband of the last eight months from me. They actually think I might offend him and ruin their potential lifetime of happiness together. Even my kids have said he does not understand why my outlaws have kept him from meeting me. Go figure couldn't possibly be the fact I looked him up on the internet and made a few jokes about one of his cases. ;-) Hey I was just kidding just like I tease you Barbara and then you take it personal. ha ha ha

These are serious future problems in store for Loudoun if some of todays vision is carried out. oh by the way Barbara my wife feels just like you that I should of never been allowed to reproduce especially what she knows about me many years later. ha ha

Lee

 

Excellent attention to detail Mr. Linux and you remind me of some of my past teachers and my engineers. ;-)

I will keep those points in mind for future posts!!! I do have a tendency to express myself from my heart and the moment and from experience and do jump around a bit. Must be that right brain left brain stuff. Strange as it might seem I do see my posts making a coherent big picture in the end, though a might disjointed as they may be to many that learned their story telling in a more formal pattern. Funny thing about design and I guess to some extent expressing yourself in words. I know in design most people only care about the pretty picture and then the final built product. All the hell we go through to get from that pretty picture to living or working in the finished home or building is really meaningless to most unless a problem shows up after it is built. I guess the same may be true in trying to express ones self in writing it is the final outcome of thought that stays with us.

Lee

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lee
There is not a person in the world that can offend me except my kids and Dalyns family???? They have even kept my sister-in-outlaw's new tough new FBI boyfriend and now possible future husband of the last eight months from me. They actually think I might offend him and ruin their potential lifetime of happiness together. Even my kids have said he does not understand why my outlaws have kept him from meeting me. Go figure couldn't possibly be the fact I looked him up on the internet and made a few jokes about one of his cases. ;-) Hey I was just kidding just like I tease you Barbara and then you take it personal. ha ha ha

Huh???
__________________
.
Mr. Linux


Mr Linux Mr Linux you must lighten up a tad here my friend. Oh brother why do I get a picture of you Mr. Linux of my Jr high vice principle who also taught
one of my geography classes he always wore a white shirt and was very big on disciplining the students. He meant well but well you get the picture??? ha ha ha

Lee

 

I don't see preview post anywhere mr Linux!!!
Sometimes the human touch about oneself adds to who we are and adds to the discussion and gives insight to how and why we express ourselves.

I am one of the few that uses my real name and people actually know where I live which also adds to the realness of who I am.

I still stand behind my thoughts of how Loudoun can be better place and the bigger picture of who the people are that make Loudoun the place it is and are forgotten most of the time in these discusions and most of them can not afford to live here and that is very very sad.