Smells Like Humans
Top 5% global podcast! Smells Like Humans is a seasonal podcast dedicated to bringing a humorous perspective to quirky and curious aspects of human behavior. Each show, the SLH crew will focus on a different topic, and share personal stories and observations in a way that sounds like you’re hanging out with your funny friends. The stories and commentary are presented with humor and warmth, since let’s face it: we all smell like humans. (Contact us: contactSLH19581980@gmail.com)
Smells Like Humans
WE ARE RUNNING OUT OF BABIES!
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Jaimee joins Ross to discuss why no one wants to have kids anymore.
Contact us: contactSLH19581980@gmail.com
That's it. That's the best you can do. Come on, Morris. Let's go collect some goose feathers. Why? What are we making pillows? Yeah, what are we doing, Mom? Welcome to another episode of Smells Like Humans. This is the podcast where we explore the curious things that people do, the very human things that grab our attention and cause us to wonder what and why. I'm Rod, your host, and my guest today is a stunning example of a human and someone who will answer a text at 4 30 a.m. It's Jamie.
SPEAKER_03Good morning, Rod.
SPEAKER_01Welcome, Jamie, and welcome everyone. It's nice to have you, Jamie. Thank you for um doing so many shows this season.
SPEAKER_03It's my pleasure.
SPEAKER_01You're killing it. Now, Jamie, we know we've talked about this many times in many different ways on this show. There's many episodes dealing with this. Raising kids is hard. And we've discussed this every which way. But now, I don't know if you knew this, we are in a crisis. So when I say we, I don't mean you and me. I mean the collective we.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01Do you know what this crisis is? Of course you do.
SPEAKER_00We don't have enough kids.
SPEAKER_01Who needs a we we are in the middle of a baby bust. Now here's a fun fact for you. In 70% of the world, which is a very large group, the birth rate is below the replacement rate. Have you heard about the replacement rate? No. That's the rate at which kids have to be born to replace the croakers. Okay. And if you don't have enough kids to replace the croakers, then you your population starts to decline. Okay. And people worry about population decline for various reasons, but one of the more practical reasons is because if you don't have any suckers out there being born, who's going to pay for Social Security? Who's going to pay taxes? Who is going to buy junk?
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That makes the world go and creates every beautiful thing that we have right now. Now, we're going to talk about this and we're going to talk about some of the reasons for this. But the first thing I want to know is I do know, but I want to know why. Jamie, you don't have kids. I do not. And I want to know why you don't have them. I don't know. And I don't, let me just first say, let me just first say, I don't mean that question that I expect that you should have them. Sure. I am actually curious, what the hell are you doing? No. What are the reasons?
SPEAKER_03There are a myriad of reasons why I don't have kids. I I don't not like them, but I don't like them for very long.
SPEAKER_00And what's the time? How much time would you tolerate?
SPEAKER_03I can be a good 30 minutes, you know. Go to a birthday party or something, a quick dip in and out.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_03Plus, they're just like smelly and sticky, and I I couldn't change a diaper, I'll tell you that much. You couldn't. No, I could not. Have you ever tried to? So, well, when you're Mormon, when you're raised Mormon, I'm not Mormon anymore, but I was raised Mormon. And it's like you are, if you're a woman, you are required to be a babysitter. When you're a kid, when you're a small child. Yeah. I was a nanny for like a whole summer for these two kids. And so yes, I did have to change diapers. But at my advanced age now, I am much more of like a barfer if something smells bad.
SPEAKER_01You're a barfer.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Like if somebody barfs in my vicinity, I will also barf. Oh. Yeah. So changing a diaper, I could never, I simply could never do. Plus, I like to do whatever I want whenever I want, and I like money.
SPEAKER_01Okay. This is very, very useful. So the reasons though you give are pretty, pretty.
SPEAKER_03Like I don't want to watch a kid eat. It's disgusting. Food falls out, it's all over their mouths, and they keep talking, you know.
SPEAKER_01It's a freaking train wreck. We don't want to see it.
SPEAKER_03We don't want to see it.
SPEAKER_01You don't like them.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01At least not very much. Right. You can handle them for a few minutes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01That's a good reason not to have them. Maybe that's the most important reason. Second reason is time, money. Yeah. Right? A lot of time, a lot of money in raising a kid. And they just continue to hang around. I hear parents say, Oh, I'm gonna miss them when they go away. Well, guess what? They're not going away. No, they're always in your life forever and ever and ever.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01They don't go away.
SPEAKER_02They don't go away. No. Why won't they go away? Just leave me alone.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, well, they don't go away. And then finally, a lot of people just like doing their own thing. They're into their job, their hobbies, their friends, their relationships, their travel, whatever it is, and they just don't want to do it. They don't want, they want to enjoy their life. And sometimes those people are called selfish because they won't How dare you? They won't they won't engage in the act of procreation. They won't engage in procreation. Come on, procreate. Forget about your own cares and woes. Just get out there and do it. So those are the three main reasons.
SPEAKER_03So I guess that's another reason. I don't want my body to go through that whole rig and roll and the rigmarole.
SPEAKER_01That is another good reason.
SPEAKER_03I don't want that.
SPEAKER_01That is another good reason. I've heard people. I one person I was talking to recently said, that ain't coming out of me. No, I want my holes to stay separate.
SPEAKER_03I don't want it to tear into one big hole.
SPEAKER_01Oh no.
SPEAKER_03You can cut that out.
SPEAKER_01No, no. Oh, nice pun. Cut it out is exactly what they do.
SPEAKER_03It sounds horrible.
SPEAKER_01You went in for hole reduction. Can I have just a few less holes? Please. That is a question that is on everyone's mind at least once in their lifetime. But I think one of the main reasons is time and money. You know, there's so much cost associated today with doing anything with kids and raising them. But also there's these expectations today for parents that are so different. So different than they were even for my parents. So I was reading this article. This is what got me, this is what got me going about this woman, Carrie Ann Parkinson, in Virginia. So she's got a kid who's five. And they took a little bike ride. She and she and her son, who goes unnamed in this article. Let's call him Calvin or Morris.
SPEAKER_03Perfectly common kids' name.
SPEAKER_01So she's taken Morris or Calvin down to this pond and they're gated community. So we're not talking about freeway kids. And they're collecting goose feathers in the grass. Goose feathers. Well, first of all, to me, this is the problem right here. But this apparently is not the issue in this article. But when I heard that, I'm like, that's it. That's the best you can do. Come on, Morris. Let's go collect some goose feathers. Why? What are we making pillows? Yeah, what are we doing, mom? Freak. So anyway, she's she says it's time to go. And Morris or Calvin or whatever his name is, his moniker, his handle, says, Can I walk back home by myself? It's a five-minute walk. And it's a walk he's done before several times. He wanted to fetch a few more feathers. He was not satisfied with his feather quotient. He had a quota for feathers. May I meet my quota. Dear mother, may I meet my goose feather quota today? I don't mind staying by myself. Well, of course, Calvin Morris. You can stay longer. She's eight months pregnant, by the way. Carrie Ann. She's like, fine, I gotta get, I gotta, I gotta get a load off. I gotta go home, have a kid or something. She's also studying for the bar exam. So she's got a lot on her plate, and it's time to make lunch. So she went home. So the kid, it's five minutes, gated community. He walks home. He's walking the sidewalks, doing everything he's supposed to do. And a concerned passerby, and let me just stop right there. When I hear that phrase, concerned passerby, I already want to strangle. Right. Like, don't be concerned. Mind your business. Stop being concerned, passerbys. Yeah. Seriously, just eyes straight, go where you're going.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Don't look at me. Anyway, concerned passerby. No sees the kid by himself walking on the sidewalk and finds a community security guard who, in turn, of course, doing their duty, notified the police. Oh, God. We've got a kid loose on a sidewalk. Yeah. So the police come. And next thing you know, Carrie Ann, the mom who's pregnant, is convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and placed on Virginia's child abuse and neglect registry where she will remain for seven years. Wow. To me, this is one of the things that if I were trying to choose, think about choosing to be a parent today, the expectations on parents are so high that you can't even choose to decide. I want my kid to learn a little independence. Right. Just a little freedom. Yeah. Teeny bit.
SPEAKER_03Back in my day at five years old, we were walking to our part-time jobs by ourselves.
SPEAKER_01We were loose. You know that I was gonna say that. While we didn't have jobs that I remember, well, around the house we didn't. Right. I mean, that's why they had us. They needed to free labor. Free labor was really important to my dad. Yep. My parents did not would have no problem with us walking around by ourselves and doing it. I didn't see my parents till I was 12. Yes.
SPEAKER_00I was out in the streets. And it was only for 30 minutes. For 30 minutes.
SPEAKER_01Because that's all they could handle. You can't make that choice for your kid. If you decide to let your kid have an independent experience, you could be arrested. Yeah. And I just think that is not only mind-boggling that somebody can see your kid on the street and say, Arrest that mom. Right. And what about the dad, by the way? Yeah. Why isn't he in the picture? Yeah. That's who they're collecting the goose feathers, probably for. He had a goose feather fetish. He's sitting at home with a down pillowcase on his head, totally nude. And the mom gets arrested. Anyway, I think for a lot of people, that is one of the reasons they don't have kids, because it's just like, wow, they look around and they see modern parents and how much they're involved in every aspect of the kids' life. And the planning and the scheduling and the activities.
SPEAKER_03An another thing, kind of same vein of why I don't want to have kids, is if, say, you let Morris walk home by himself and something bad happened to him. Like if he got kidnapped or murdered or something like that, like I don't I don't know how you could ever recover from something like that. So I would rather just not, you know, risk it, right? If you don't have kids, they can't get kidnapped.
SPEAKER_01So the way that used to be the way that you used to be handled in the old days is people had bigger families.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And then if the couple of kids went missing, it didn't really matter.
SPEAKER_03And we got other ones.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the backup kids.
SPEAKER_03Right.
SPEAKER_01Backup kids. Yeah. I had two kids and I s explicitly told the second kid that she was a backup kid.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Do you still have two kids?
SPEAKER_01I still have them. Okay. And the backup kid is still ready to take over at any moment. You know, we had all these changes in parenting styles. We had the boomers. Like, I'm not really a boomer, but I'm close. I mean, I'm in the very end of the boomers. I didn't get any of the good stuff that the boomers had. I didn't get any of the good stuff. Right. I didn't get any of the sex, love, drugs. I didn't get any of the hippie stuff. Yeah. I didn't get any of the good music. I just got to watch it. Right. I watched those people.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I watched them get the best jobs. I watched them in the 80s when they had, you know, two incomes and fancy cars. I was still sucking on a melon and a corn patch. And what kind of melon is in a corn patch, that's a subject for another show. But but we that cohort grew up with in an economic boom period. They weren't strictly seen as laborers for the household, but they didn't they didn't get a lot of the love they wanted. Right. So when they got to be parents, they started loving their kids so hard. And then there was this confluence, and we've talked a little bit about this before. There was this confluence at the same time with 24-hour news, and 24-hour news figured out the only way you can get people to watch news for 24 hours is to tell them scary things. And one of the scary things they told them is that your kids are going to get snatched, they're going to be in a satanic cult. They probably, in that, in that little kindergarten they go to, it's probably a satanic cult. And your kids are going to be turned into a devil worshiper and eaten by the subway sandwich guy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01What was that guy's name? Howard?
SPEAKER_03I don't remember the subway sandwich guy, but I remember Wasn't he Subway? Do you remember the Oh Jared? Oh, that guy. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So the boomers were the helicopter people, right? The helicopter people. They were like constantly involved and their nannies and taking their kids. They were the baby on board people. Man, that I hate those signs. Yeah. Every once in a while you still see them. Come on, get over that. Right. Here's another thing I'm seeing a lot of, and I want to get to the bottom of it.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01There's bumper stickers now or whatever, little signs on a million cars that say, the student driver, please be patient. Yeah. And then you look at the person driving and they're like a bust or a busted hump. Yeah. It's like you're not learning to drive. You never learn. Yeah. You suck at driving. So who what is this? Right.
SPEAKER_03I feel like it's one of those cars in my neighborhood always. Like, why?
SPEAKER_01Is this a psych though? I mean, is it a joke? The student driver, please be patient. Because too many of them.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. People just put them on their car so they don't get pulled over or something.
SPEAKER_01Anyway, the baby on board. You know, sort of like, oh, okay. So I'll I won't rear-end you now. Right. Now I know. I was going to before, but now I was gonna shove you over an embankment with my semi, but now, because I know there's a baby.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_01And then on and on. And then we have the Gen X people with the lighthouse approach, which is to kind of step back a little bit, you know, and and and give kids a little space, let them experience a little independence, a little failure. They scrape a knee. We don't take them to the hospital, we don't file a lawsuit. Right. You know, it's like, you know, be there to kind of guide them, but not overdo it. So and and now apparently millennials are parents, and they have this gentle parenting model.
SPEAKER_03Have you heard about gentle parenting? I have heard of that.
SPEAKER_01Don't punish or suppress tantrums. Yeah. Sit with the child, validate their feelings. I see that you're angry right now, and help them co-regulate. If my parents had said that to me, I would have assumed that they'd been body snatched.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I just see you're angry right now. And I want to validate that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01First and foremost, I would just start running. I would be running on my little broccoli legs as fast as I could to get out of that family. So I was in this like taco place the other day, and there's a kid in there with the family, and the kid is doing the random screams. You know, it's not like one long scream, one long crying. It's just all of a sudden, you know, like a raptor, you know, falling off a jet ski. It would be so loud, and it would just like it would shock your system. It was behind me, so I had no warning. And it just kept happening. And here's what I didn't hear. Used to hear this. I didn't hear, now, Morris, Calvin, we don't, we're gonna use our inside voice. Yeah. We don't do that here. Be quiet or we're gonna leave. You have to not scream. There was nothing, everybody just carried on and they would not leave. Like they were there when I got there, they were there when I left. They were never gonna go, they were just gonna sit there forever.
SPEAKER_03That's crazy.
SPEAKER_01And the kids screamed the whole time, but it was all just random. So you never knew when it was coming. And I just like, oh, so they're just this is gentle parenting. Like you're you're a human being, you're allowed to take up space. So you're allowed to vocalize here. And there was no real consideration for what that might mean for everyone else there who was being, I'm sure, startled every time this kid would let loose with this rapture scream.
SPEAKER_03If my dog even if my dog like whines or barks for no good reason, I make fun of him. I roast him so hard because I'm like, you sound dumb right now. Like you should not do that again. You're roasting. Do you feel better about yourself? Because you sound dumb.
SPEAKER_00You're roasting your dog because you think he has no reason to bark. But how do you know?
unknownHow do you?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, maybe he's protecting the family, but I like, you know, I like to make him feel dumb when he when he is annoying. Well, I didn't.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I know.
SPEAKER_03It works. He looks embarrassed. You go, oh my god, I can't believe I did that. You know what? Honestly, that was dumb.
SPEAKER_01I so so I don't know why. I cannot believe I'm a dog. I'm such a dog right now. I'm being such a dog.
SPEAKER_03Such a dog. I'm being such a dog right now. So maybe these parents should start roasting their kids.
SPEAKER_01I get it that people are always reacting to what their parents did. So my here's how my parents screwed up. Okay, fill in the blank. Okay, they didn't love me enough. They overmanaged me. They they didn't get, they didn't, they weren't patient enough with me. They gave me too much freedom. They didn't give me enough freedom. So H generation thinks, okay, well, the way to fix that is do this. But you know, these screamer kids are growing up with this gentle approach, they're gonna grow up to be idiots. They're gonna be out in the world and they're gonna start screaming, and someone's gonna just strangle them and they'll be like, wow. Yeah, I did not expect that. I didn't see that coming. I just did mom did not prepare me for that. The bad news for parents, even if this is working, let's say this is a great strategy, and all these little geniuses are gonna grow up to be just world beaters in every way they can possibly be. And I hope that's true. But what it does to parents is it says, this is your job. If you're gonna have a kid, you've got to bring this kid everywhere, you've got to be totally patient with them, you've got to act as sort of a, you know, an involved but distant counselor and you know, guided guidance counselor for them. You're not doing too much, you're not doing too little. And it's like overwhelming, I think, for some people to think about like, how much time of my life am I gonna have to give up to do just one kid? How about two or three, where you have to re keep repeating this intense parenting, call it what you will, gentle parenting, that's a lot of work. Sounds like a lot of work to me. It's more work than I would want to do. Yeah, I would not want to do that much work, and I don't blame people for looking at that and saying, I I looking around at my friends, I don't want to do what they're doing because it means giving up your life. Yeah, and it didn't used to mean that. It didn't mean used to mean that. And I know I would imagine there would be not you, but I would imagine that there would be somebody listening to saying, it's not giving up my life, it's enriching my life. It's the best thing I ever did is have a kid. And I say those things too, but not because I gave up my life to have a kid. One constraint, I think, on parents or would be parents today, younger people today who could have kids, one constraint is this takes too much time.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Another constraint is it's really expensive. Do you know what it costs to do childcare these days? Thousands. It's crazy. Thousands. Because most people have to work. Like if there are two parents in the home, they both have to work.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. It almost, though, sometimes to me seems more affordable to have somebody stay home because childcare is so expensive. Like your job just basically cancels it out. Right.
SPEAKER_01You know? Right. And so the reason some people continue to do that, even though it doesn't always make sense, they look to the future and say, I want to be a working person and I want to keep my hat in the ring, so to speak. I want to keep my hand in so that I'm eligible as I go along. I'm still whatever I'm doing, I'm getting more experience. I have promotion opportunities, it's chances to make more money, whatever it is, right? They don't want to just disappear from the workforce. That's that's one reason. And another reason is they like, hey, I've got a life too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01The other thing about going these days, is course is a lot of people, at least in this country, are separated from their nuclear families. So there's no grandparents around to stick the kids with.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I know I know people who are willing to do that. Like they're willing to like, I'm gonna move to wherever my kids are living. I don't even care if I like it. I'm just gonna move there and I'm just gonna be the babysitter. So my kids don't have to spend money on childcare. And that's gonna be my life. And they are happy, they are so happy to do it.
SPEAKER_03That's insane too.
SPEAKER_01And I just it's crazy town. I just don't want to do it.
SPEAKER_03No, it's like you worked your whole life and you raised your own kids, right? You finally get to a spot where you can retire. You don't have to work a job anymore. You can retire and enjoy your life and have fun, and you want to start back over at the beginning where you're raising a kid again.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I and I I do understand that for them, I think, for I'll say for some people who decide to do that, they've kind of looked at what retired life is and they're like, I'm not getting anything out of it. You're bored, you're bored, yeah, you're missing the kids, you you you really like the kids, and you really like your own kids, you really like their kids, and you really want to be when you want to be helpful and useful, and sitting around playing mahjong or pulling weeds out of your garden.
SPEAKER_03That sounds great to me.
SPEAKER_01Or dressing up in an astronaut suit and watching Wheel of Fortune. Uh-huh. It's not doing it for you. You tried it, it's no fun. Playing golf every day, ping-pong, whatever you do. Yeah, it's like, couldn't wouldn't it what else? I want to feel useful, I want to feel important, I want to feel love. Those are ways that's what that's a great way to get it, right? Sure. So, you know, for s I don't I think it makes sense for people who really feel that way. But it doesn't make sense for everybody. There are a lot of people who they don't have those grandparents who are willing to come and relieve them of those duties. Babysitters are expensive. Babysitters, you can't just grab a kid off the block anymore. I guess they're just not doing that.
SPEAKER_03Unless you're Mormon.
SPEAKER_01We do unless you're Mormon, which is another strategy. We we did a show called the Who Killed the 10-year-old babysitter, all about you know how you used to be able to just grab any kid. Right. And you can't do that. You get in trouble today. So another thing that used to happen with me is that whatever kid was older, didn't matter how old. No, if they're older, the parents would just leave you with that kid. They could be 10 years old, nine years old. You're in charge. Yep. You're in charge. And of course, no cell phones back then. So you're on your own, Jimmy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So good luck. And that that literally would be the babysitter.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And today you can get arrested for leaving a your younger children with another child. I think they have to be over a certain age. I don't know what the age is in every state, but they can't be 10 or 11, even if there's a really responsible 10 or 11 year old. Which, you know, in my family, my oldest sister was very responsible because they just my parents basically said, Hey, you're gonna be the backup mom now.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that was me.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so you were the backup mom. I was the backup mom. How'd that feel being the backup mom?
SPEAKER_03It was wild. I was just thinking, I remember one time my when I was babysitting, and I was probably like nine, so my brother would have been like six or seven, but he was climbing a tree and he got attacked by a bunch of bees. There's like a hornet's nest or something in the tree, and I was the only one home. So I was like standing under the tree and I was like, just let go, just drop down, because all these bees were stinging him, you know. Yeah. He fell into my arms and I ran him inside, and like, thank God he wasn't allergic. Like, what would I have done if he had been allergic to these bees?
SPEAKER_01Push him down a well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like it just worked out, you know?
SPEAKER_01Man, but you're kind of a hero kid.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And those are the experiences kids don't have anymore. They don't have any more experience. And there, I know for a fact that anyone, you know, under 40, maybe under 50, listening to what I'm saying and listening to that kind of story is like, oh, how how horrible. How horrible to leave kids alone, you know, with each other and expect them to survive. Oh, we had a blast.
SPEAKER_00Well, I mean, and you know, just we did.
SPEAKER_01And then leaving us in cars and parking lot. Yeah. You get arrested for that now. Right. We always said, I'll be back.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Don't screw around. Uh-huh. We'd be sitting in a car for an hour in a parking lot.
SPEAKER_03In 100 degrees.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, whatever it was, it didn't matter. It didn't matter.
SPEAKER_03The windows cracked, you're fine.
SPEAKER_01And you know, back then, I tell you what, we didn't have is concerned passerbys. We had unconcerned passerbys. They didn't care. No. You see a bunch of kids starving to death and boiling and melting in a car. It's like, I'm a problem. Yeah. I got my own stuff.
SPEAKER_03But being such a baby.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Go ahead and burn.
SPEAKER_03Burn in hell.
SPEAKER_01I just first want to say, I get for people who decide not to have kids, they want to live their life their own way. I don't think they're selfish. I actually think it makes a lot of sense. Why shouldn't they do whatever they want to do? And if what you want to do is have kids, do that. But if it's what you want to do is explore your life and keep your options open for all the different things you types of people you can be and the experiences you can have, go for that. That's okay. Part two is I don't care. I think the world is better with less people. So I don't care if the population shrinks.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, initially there'll be some problems. Like, uh-oh, we got no more patsies to pay for Social Security. So oops. There will be problems. Like in Italy, they don't all the young people left. So now they have robots taking care of the old people. Sounds great. Once we get through the difficult times of dealing with declining population, I think every single problem that we have in the world will get better. Because I believe just about every problem that we have in the world is caused by overpopulation. Too many people crowding too many other people, using too many resources, creating too many toxic events for other people. Just think about how great it will be to drive on the freeway. Right. If there's no more people. Yes. It'd be groovy. Gotta lean to yourself. Yes. You can text without worrying about crashing. This continued belief that if we just keep creating more people, and you know what? It's 2.1 babies per month. That's what we need. That's what the replacement rate is.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01If you want to be able to replace the croakers, yeah. And don't lose any ground, you got to have 2.1 births. And the US right now, I think it's around 1.6. Okay.
SPEAKER_03So we're losing. That's close enough.
SPEAKER_01We're losing people. We're losing people. I believe and I agree with those people who say parenting is just not something I can do. Even if I want to do it, I can't do it. I support them and I understand it. But what I will say is that having kids for me was the best thing that I've ever done. And my kids, from the moment they were hatched, have enriched my life and helped me be a better person. And to this day, they're still inspiring me because I think everybody knows I'm a little rough around the edges. No. I've got work I'm still trying to do on this. But my kids are like helping me even today, just by what? Not by not, they're not spending any time working on me. They're just there in the world. And I watch them. I'm inspired by them. So this whole time, this whole journey with them, you know, when I was involved with them, when they were little, and now that are independent, living in different cities, doing their own thing, I still really enjoy being part of their world. It's just been totally enriching. So I still think, despite all the problems and challenges, it's still worth it. But I also, there are people that take the attitude that if you're not out there producing your 2.1, and by the way, what's a point one kid look like? Yeah, very small. It's a pinhead. What are we talking about? So if you know, if you're not doing that, you're a bad person and you're selfish, and you should be making more sacrifices to keep the world going exactly as it is. And let's keep let's keep propping up late stage capitalism, people. Come on. Right. I don't I don't think that's fair. I don't think it's reasonable. I don't think it's intellectually honest. Yeah. Do you think that I talk you into having a kid?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I don't think you changed my mind today. How about I'm gonna help decrease the surplus population?
SPEAKER_00Oh, well, you are the scrooge of the week. That's very good.
SPEAKER_01Thank you, Jamie, for talking about your hatred of children. No. Thank you, Jamie, for being here for this episode, and thank you to all of you for joining us. Please share the show with someone you think would enjoy it as much as you do. You can help us that way. You can also send us a note. We do love to hear from you. Instagram, email, those are ways to contact us. And we hope you will tune in to another episode. Because whether you are a 30-minute mom or just someone who smells barps, it's important to remember that we all smell like humans. Yeah, goodbye, everybody.
SPEAKER_03This is a side note, but when you said this episode was the baby bust, I thought you meant like a wee little statue, like a baby's head, like a bust, you know?
SPEAKER_01Well, give it time, Jamie.
SPEAKER_03Give it time.
SPEAKER_01It could be that. Where's my pen?