People Weigh In On If People Under 25 Should Have To Pass A Test To Have Children

Pencils down... you failed!

People Weigh In On If People Under 25 Should Have To Pass A Test To Have Children
pngimg.com

When we think about people or certain groups of people I truly believe that everyday, EVERYDAY one of our main private thoughts in all of our inner dialogues has got to be... "Why in the world are these people allowed to breed?!" And this new generation of selfie obsessed, Kardashian addicted youngins just gives me the shivers. You have to get a license to just about anything, to fish even... why not be tested for approval for child rearing?! I want to that initiative on the ballot box.

Redditor u/EvisGamer posed an important question to us all... How would you feel about a law that requires anyone under the age of 25 to pass a specialized test in order to have children?


Teach the basics... 

Instead of a specialized test, I'd rather have mandatory education on child development and unencumbered sex ed for everyone. And maybe once you're pregnant there's a refresher course.

Ignorance a lot easier to fight than biology. katieisalady

Absolutely! As someone who does parental fitness evaluations as a career, I can attest that plain old ignorance is at the heart of the majority of abuse and neglect cases. Parents of all ages tend to fall back on the strategies they learned from their own parents, whether that's helicoptering or beatings. It's no surprise, really - where else would they learn?

Without some education in child development, how are parents to know what expectations are reasonable? I have many parents fully expecting children less than a year old to be ready for potty training. They don't think eight-year-olds should be testing boundaries.

Ideally, everyone would complete basic parenting classes before they take their baby home. Wrendictive

The new Home Ec...

How about we just add this to the high school curriculum? Basic child care and basic financial planning. tyotya_grizelda

Agreed, we're not given any life skills in high school. Business training would-be great too. manicmidori

An idea I had kind of goes off that. You have a lot of seniors who have maybe a class or two a semester since they already have there credits. So how about a program were you take a few useful life courses in your last year of high school. Once completed you receive a small grant/scholarship for college for incentive.

Classes would be something along the lines of:

  • Child Care and Development
  • Finance and Taxes
  • Culinary Arts
  • Psychology
  • Car and Home Repair/Improvements*

*Basic Plumbing/Wiring/Insulation/Etc. and how to fix basic issues in vehicles that might pop up.

Budgeting for it might be a nightmare, but you could look at having colleges pay for a chunk of it. Like 80% and the parents pay the other 20%. Then you get a grant with that college for a years worth of tuition once you pass the classes. mineymonkey

Like for real... 

Or just have free courses for soon the be parents, and in school learn about parenting, like for real... NGoransson

Parent here. Hospitals offer tons of free classes on every single aspect of childcare. My wife and I took all of them, and they were a huge help. Not only did we learn a ton, but it really helped build our confidence up as parents.

Unfortunately, each class consisted of only about three or four couples.

Instead of a required to test to have a child, we should offer tax incentives to those that take parenting classes. It would mostly accomplish the same goal, and it would be voluntary and easily enforceable. SuggestAPhotoProject

LISTEN UP!!! 

GUYS LISTEN TO ME PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!

This is still a class! Schools DO TEACH THIS. I TEACH THIS. It's not called home economics anymore- it's called Family and Consumer Science or FCS. I am certified to teach all of the following: Parenting Child development Human development Fashion and interior design All culinary from basic food prep to culinary arts Personal finance from check writing to investment Hospitality Relationships and counseling

It's an elective course. Over half our student population takes three or more classes with me of their own free will. I rock obviously. But in other schools, where there's a larger population or whatever, kids don't take it because it's seen as a fluff class. In most states, THIS IS ALREADY PART OF THEIR ACCOUNTABILITY AND THEY MUST OFFER IT!!!!!!!!!!! Parents just don't want their kids to sign up!!!!

Now, here's the thing, in my parenting class I'm not sitting around teaching kids to change diapers and pick cute outfits like they did back in the 50s. We spend about 1 class on that the entire year. The rest of the time I'm teaching child birth, nutrition for children, best educational practices for little ones, developmental psychology, medical terminology. The list goes on and on. It's a rigorous course and hard to pass. Because parenting is hard. And they need to know how to do more than wipe a kids butt.

PLEASE, call your local high school and ask what classes they offer in their FCS department. It'll blow your mind. I currently offer Life skills (covers personal development, sex Ed, basic nutrition, basic finances, basic relationships skills and professionalism). Then I have human psych and dev, which covers psychology, sociology and the study of the human body. Then I have dietetics, which is a nursing level course on human nutrition. There's culinary 1 & 2 where kids run their own cafe in the school and they earn a culinary business license while in high school (like a real one. Not something I made up. It certifies them in Serv safe and allows them to open a business the moment they graduate), and I have relationships and marriage counseling, which covers everything from friendships to how to navigate a divorce. Oh and money skills too. Which the other FCS teacher does.

Please please please SIGN YOUR KIDS UP. Avamouse

Not doable...

Well-intentioned, but unenforceable. Because even if you punish the people who break the law, what do you do with the kids? Sticking it to their parents doesn't make their lives easier, which seems to be the point of the law in the first place. RSwordsman

Sooooo many questions...

Who would decide on the contents of the test and would it be set in stone, or could it be changed according to the prevailing political and scientific opinions of the day? If a political party takes power, can it change the conditions? On what basis?

It's obviously a complete non-starter. Imagine the millions of court cases that would arise as soon as the merest condition of that test was changed. Imagine the forced abortions from failed contraceptives. Imagine the financial and moral weight it would place upon the State, and how rapidly protest would grow as soon as the first person with one child was suddenly prohibited from having a second.

This is a subject that comes up all the time, for some bizarre reason. It is what it always has been, i.e. a ridiculous fantasy. matty80

Fair is fair.

I don't see how this could be an unbiased and fair test. Unlike a test you take for a class, or for a driving exam, a test to have a child would have only subjective questions and answers. When you do that, it will favor anyone with morals and a similar life to the test makers and graders. This will be discriminatory against large groups of people who are not similar. Morals are not universal. Neither are parenting techniques. Actinglead

Who is who?

Not good. Who decides on the regulations on having a child? Stupid people can be caring, smart people can be c**ts, so there isn't really any way to enforce it. Haradois

Extremely open to abuse, also. Suppose some legislature decides believing in Climate Change is a prerequisite for children. Maybe that seems reasonable, but take it to an extreme: suppose another legislature decides that believing in God is a prerequisite for children (which would run directly counter to many God- Centered religions, but...) Or not believing in God? Afalstein

What else is new?

I feel like the government would be overstepping its bounds. jagodown

I can't believe how many people in this thread are down with the government telling them whether or no they can procreate. Someone mentioned an opt out birth control program? Wtf? What happened to us deciding what to do with our own bodies and the feds staying the hell out of it? This is some communist hoopla right here. erogbass

Age is merely a number... 

I think the premise, that people under 25 make worse parents, is a flawed one. Crappy parenting is more personality than age. I've seen good and bad parents of all ages. Maleficus1234

I am pleasantly surprised to find the reddit community rejecting this idea. This site usually leans in favor of technocratic totalitarianism. TBSchemer

REDDIT

under 25

People Share Unspoken First Date Rules Everyone Should Follow

Reddit user Quotedkarma asked: 'What's an unspoken rule on a first date?'

Two people having coffee
Photo by Chewy on Unsplash

Countless emotions arise when going on a first date.

Making this all the more difficult is that a first date is one of the few things that absolutely must be done solo, so bringing friends as backup simply isn't an option.

Leaving one to wish there was a handbook for navigating a first date successfully.

Of course, while there is no official guide, everyone has rules and beliefs about what to do and what to avoid on a first date.

From how to effortlessly bring out your best qualities, to a foolproof escape plan if your date is anything but the one you've dreamed your whole life of meeting.

Keep reading...Show less
first dates

People Divulge Things Their Coworkers Have Done That Should've Gotten Them Fired But Didn't

woman in white t-shirt looking at the window during daytime
Photo by Dan Burton on Unsplash

My second college internship led me to a small content creation company. It was so small that the two editors were the only paid employees. Everyone else was an intern.

I was excited to start so I could add more to my portfolio only to realize that one of the editors replaced my name with hers every time she edited one of my articles. Not much of the content was changed, but I was too shy to question it.

I eventually found out that she did this to all the interns, and most of the interns had learned to private message their draft articles to the other editor, who did not take the bylines.

I asked one of my fellow interns if the founder of the company knew the editor took bylines. Turns out, the founder knew, but for some reason no one else could figure out, the editor never got fired.

It turns out this story isn't unique. There are lots of instances when someone does something at work that should get them fired, but they manage to hold on to their job. Redditors have plenty of stories like that and are eager to share.

Keep reading...Show less
fired

People Share Simple Mistakes That Have Actually Ended Lives

A black and white picture of a cemetery
davide ragusa on Unsplash

Not to startle any of you, but death stalks us.

We all have nightmares about diseases and murderers.

But what if, in the end, we just choke on a pickle we inhaled too fast?

Maybe instead of a pickle, a little coleslaw would have been the wiser choice.

We'll never know.

The most minute things can send us packing.

Redditor SuffocatedByThighs wanted to discuss the things that can extinguish our lives in the most basic ways, so they asked:

"What simple mistake has ended lives?"

Tripping over untied shoelaces.

It can break your neck.

TIE YOUR SHOES!!!

Off the Rocks

On No Falling GIF by Outside TVGiphy

"There have been too many instances of rock climbers rappelling off of the ends of their ropes, which could have been easily avoided by tying stopper knots at the ends of their ropes."

LZRDLZRD

Seconds

"I worked at a tire place for a summer and the first thing they told me was 'See that torque wrench? One mistake with this and you can kill a whole family in a matter of seconds.' I thought well, better take this thing seriously."

FrenchMicrowave

"Man for a second I was thinking 'F**k you'd have to swing that thing around fast to take out an entire family' and just bluescreened on the idea of changing a tire."

lurking_my_a**_off

How Vexing...

"THERAC-25. The world’s deadliest software error. Cost several radiation patients their lives by administering lethal amounts of radiation, and for a while, the doctors didn’t even know."

Longjumping_Event_59

"THERAC-25 suffered a particularly vexing sort of error known as a race condition. Essentially, the circuit required multiple inputs in a particular sequence, but sometimes the timing of that sequence could get thrown out of whack and it would lead to all sorts of nonsensical output."

"This is less than ideal when all you're doing is manipulating pixels, but when your software is handling radiation beams you really don't want this to happen."

"Even more vexing is that race conditions are frequently heisenbugs, which can vanish altogether when one attempts to study them. If you don't have a good idea of what's causing the error, you may never cotton on to what sort of bad input is required to test it. Under those circumstances, it's easy to write them off as imaginary, only to then find."

dancingmadkoschei

Heavy Drifting

"Leaving the stranded vehicle on the road in winter and trying to walk to get help. It happens in rural parts of our province once or twice a year and they find the body a few days later. They get disoriented and freeze."

Regina_Runner

"I got blown off a road in high winds. Heavy drifting. Less than a mile from a friend's house after I had turned around. Drifts made it impossible to complete the trip. Trying to run a mile in full blizzard conditions was a fight for my life as an in-shape 24-year-old male athlete.

"rotyag

Simple Slips

Uh Oh Omg GIF by BounceGiphy

"Almost any simple mistake can end a life if you're an anesthesiologist, that's how my grandpa died in his early 60s."

dwserps

Any second. Any moment.

Stay vigilant people.

Celibacy could be better...

Oh My Wow GIFGiphy

"Not being honest with doctors about Viagra. It has many dangerous drug interactions and can cause a lot of problems from what I’ve heard. Trust me the doctor ain’t gonna judge you guys, they have seen many more embarrassing things. And it would suck to die because you wanted to hide something just for it to be later stated in your death certificate."

The_upsetti_spagetti

Check the Numbers

"As a healthcare worker, giving the wrong amount of insulin."

UzumakiHorror

"During the first shift of my first clinical rotation in nursing school, I watched a nurse draw up insulin out of an auto-injector pen that was CLEARLY marked to specifically not do that AND she was drastically wrong about the dosage and almost killed a guy by giving him essentially like a hundred times the intended dose."

someguynamedg

Stay In

"Pulling the knife out of someone."

rcadephantom

"Yeah, I did that but it was a broken tree branch that had impaled my leg. Without even thinking I pulled it out. Blood started gushing so I pulled off my shirt and tied it into a pressure bandage. I was lucky I didn’t bleed to death."

Olddog_Newtricks2001

"Shock is an IQ reducer. I once sliced a bit off the side of my hand with a broken glass, and sort of dazedly picked off the piece of me and tried to stick it back on. It did not work."

UncannyTarotSpread

Stay Dirty

"Mixing cleaning ingredients."

Jonnysource

"My dad was trying to unclog his kitchen drain and mixed drain cleaners by adding one then adding another a few minutes later. It started bubbling and he began coughing intensely. I heard him coughing from the other room, saw what happened, and opened the nearby window to get rid of the chlorine gas he just produced."

"I forgot there was a large hive of wasps that had moved into that window and they did not appreciate this unexpected interruption. I took him to the emergency room for the gas exposure and it was tough explaining that the wasp stings were not why we were there."

CharmingTuber

Dear God

Jeff Goldblum What GIF by The Late Late Show with James CordenGiphy

"A friend’s husband locked himself out of their home. He tried to get in through a window that had security bars. While squeezing through his foot slipped and he essentially hung himself on the window sill."

Cokej01

Life is fleeting. Here is proof.

LIVE!! But live smart.

death

Expensive Foods People Genuinely Do Not Understand How Anyone Enjoys

Gourmet meal at high-end restaurant
Photo by Jay Wennington on Unsplash

We all have foods that we like or don't like, and depending on how passionately we feel, it may be pretty hard to understand why someone likes a food that otherwise grosses us out.

But if that food is also expensive, we'll also be left wondering why they'd spend so much money on that dish.

Keep reading...Show less
expensive dinner