Tuesday, July 15, 2008

A car seat costs that much?!?


I was speaking with the People’s Champion, Sean Sawyer the other day and he began discussing purchasing a baby seat for his car for his new son, little Marcel Jr. He said that he paid around $250 for this item. I was appalled at this price.

One of our co-workers came into the office and the two of them talked about the seat. She has a baby who is around 18 months. I made the suggestion that she should sell her seat to Sean.

Both of them looked at me like I suggested a bad thing. What’s wrong with a used baby car seat?

Both of them explained to me that you shouldn’t go on the cheap when it comes to the safety of your child. To be fair, when I said that you can have a used car seat, I meant a seat that has been used less than a year. The seat should still be functional and pass every test, whatever those are.

However after having this conversation with the two of them, I’ve come to the conclusion once again that I’m not ready to have children.

Whenever Sean mentions anything with Marcel Jr., I think of how expensive that move is. He’ll mention purchasing something like a crib or looking into day cares and my first thought is how much does that cost.

I look at a child like a financial investment, something like a car or TV, not a human life. The weird part is that I actually like children and find them enjoyable. One of, if not the biggest joy of my life has been seeing my nieces and nephews grow up from toddlers to young teenagers today.

I love changing diapers, burping them, teaching them how to walk and all of those things. I hate those macho, asshole guys who won’t change diapers or freak out when they see their child crying or throwing up. That’s what babies do, stop being a pussy.

My favorite baby moment had to be when my niece Jordan was around a year old and I used to talk to her in a normal voice about sports, my girl problems, the daily news events of today and everything in between. She would just sit up and stare at me with an interested look on her face and not say a word. She would tilt her head to the side and just look at me. I loved those moments.

I also taught her hand-to-hand combat at that age. I always told her to always go for the throat, temples on the head or the groin area when confronting guys. She learned well and would unfortunately show her uncle directly the skills that she was working on. Sometimes I would be in pain for hours, especially in the groin area, but that’s the price you pay when you’re helping to raise a kid.

As Dr. Cox on Scrubs said about raising children, it’s like watching a dog learn how to talk. That’s awesome!

I guess the truth is that I’ve never contemplated the concept of having children until recently. I’ve at an acceptable age to be married and have children and it not be an issue. Working at a college campus does make you feel younger, but I’m still 27 and people much younger than me are having successful families.

I live by several major rules in my life. Tip well. Don’t trust anyone, especially dirty girls. Treat others like you would like to be treated. Don’t be an asshole and listen to others.

The main one that I live by however is to not compare my life to anyone else’s. All of us are unique and what’s meant for us in this life will happen to us. If it was meant for me to be married with children at this stage of my life, it would be happening right now.

I wouldn’t be utterly single for my entire life and have first thoughts of money when children are mentioned. Yeah it’s lonely a lot of times and a cuddle buddy would be nice to have, if you know what I’m saying. However, I get to play video games all night, watch as much sports as I want, especially late night WAC college football (War San Jose State and Nevada!) and get to live my life pretty much how I want to, which is nice.

Funny thing is that I’ve had this conversation with Sean and the other married men in my office. I stay up all hours watching sports, surfing the Internet and playing video games and they tell me how they have to limit that if I get married. My current state poses a problem with this.

Not that I won’t be able to enjoy these things if I get married and have kids, but you do have to consider others and not be selfish like I am now. I know I’m selfish because I have to take care of myself and love myself before I can take anyone else on, especially kids.

Maybe I’ll meet that special woman in my life that I can grow with, watch some west-coast college football, mixed martial arts, soap operas, crappy reality TV, reruns, courtroom shows, cartoons with, play video games with, cuddle with and maybe churn out some little mouths. But if that doesn’t happen, I’m cool with it because it wasn’t meant to be.

Plus, if baby car seats are costing that much, I can’t afford that now or for the next few years. I have a career to develop. I would love your prospective on this.

Until then, here’s a lady that I wouldn’t cuddling with and one of Jordan's favorite singers. I would give up the PlayStation 2 if it meant being with Ciara. However, WAC and Mountain West football along with West Coast Conference and Big West basketball, as well as baseball, that’s not ever going away. Oh and mixed martial arts. Yeah, even Ciara will have to understand.





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