Reply #67: The only times I wanted kids was when I think of the slave labor

[csziggy]

I could have gotten from them here on the farm! Otherwise I listened to my friends with children complain and agonize about their problem children (one friend had two very troubled boys) and felt so very lucky to NOT have to deal with that.

Mom is a very smart and extraordinary woman. She had a career as a RN and Navy Nurse before meeting my Dad at the end of WWII. I know there were times she may have wanted to leave him - he is a very difficult person to live with and to love. And I know that she had the choice of working if she did leave which many women of her generation really didn't. They are now 90 and 88 and will celebrate their 66th anniversary in February.

She always told us to never have to rely on a man to survive - that if we could make our own way, we would have more choices. They put us all through college and none of us married young. Dad always respects Mom and their example of being respectful to each other even when the relationship is difficult has been a wonderful example for all of us.