Full of fear/anxiety/guilt about my children's futures.

[triggerhappy]

I feel so guilty about the kind of horrible world I have brought my children into.

The news is all doom & gloom, & what with everything getting worse, (terrorism, crime, climate change, AIDS to name a few things)I feel my poor kids don't stand a chance of having a happy, or even normal future.

Does anyone else despair for their little one's future? Have I got this all out of perspective?

Sorry for this thoroughly miserable post, but I needed to get it off my chest.

i feel like that sometimes. in fact i always said i would never even have kids because the world is so vile.

but there are rays of hope... there are nice things that happen... and you can bring your kids up to make the best of everything, and to enjoy themselves and have happy lives

I sometimes think that - but then I chide myself with the thoughts that if pre-Victorians had felt similarly (given the liklihood that some of their children would die of TB, cholera, small pox etc), we would have talked outselves into extinction generations ago

starlover I don't think the world is vile. Sadly it is a vile experience if you are born into the 'wrong' part of it, but here in the West - even given the current terrorism, life is generally pretty good isn't it?

oh yes hmc.. that is just my experience of it.

A work mate told me during september 11th(we had shut the shop and legged it to the electrical shop next door) "Doesn't it make you feel like s**t that you are bringing a child into this hell?" Iwas 4 months preggers at the time. Its normal to feel that everything is evil but you have to remind yourself that there is good in the world too or i'd never leave the house.

Sorry to hear that starlover..

No. One of the boons of being poor is that you never have much time to worry about a wide scope - it's more like, 'How much have we got to eat on till payday?', 'Oh, god, a new landlord! Hope they don't jack the rent too much,' 'Hope Aunt Shiela gets out of hospital soon b/c otherwise we'll won't be able to use the car during the bus strike and I'll have to walk 5 miles/day to work whilst 5 months pregnant.'

That was supportive of your work colleague Spursmum

Nice on, spurmum! Can't believe your work colleague has so little tact. I got, 'Don't you think you're too poor to have kids?'

double expat!

Yes, let's go back to the Victorian era when poor people couldn't marry or have kids.

Honestly, try not to stress too much, trigger. There are rays of light and hope all around - you just gotta look for them and not the gloom and doom!

I get "you need a man to raise your son"!! did have one but he didnt have the balls to take on his responsibilites!! The same work mate then complained that airport security took apart his camcorder when he went to the US after the attacks!!

expatinscotland, I know, I do try, it just seems that the little rays of sunshine are being blocked at the moment by great big thunderbolts.

I find looking for the little things that cheer you up work better. Things like your most hated celebrity looking rough, your worst enemy getting their comeuppance, finding sometihng that lights up your childs face are great coz they are personal. Things that make your life better will usually overcome the general evil of the world.

YES, spurmum! Nothing like a little schadenfreude.