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Joy

What would you say if you could truly converse with your pet? People's answers are so wholesome.

Time for a smile break.

what tail wags mean, different cat purrs, if pets could talk
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"Are you hungry? Do you want outside? WHAT DOES IT MEAN?"

As loving pet owners, we do our best to become highly skilled animal translators. We know that not all meows are created equal. We can sense the difference between a happy tail wag and an anxious one. But still, what if we could just have a conversation with our beloved beasties? What would they say? And what would we ask them?

communicating with pets"Why are they looking at us like that? I know we're cute and all, but..." Photo by Louis-Philippe Poitras on Unsplash

In a since-deleted Reddit post, someone posed this very question. The Reddit user asked:

“You're gifted 24 straight hours where you and your pet are suddenly able to understand each other…What would you want to tell them?”

There were hundreds of responses. Some were lighthearted, like kindly asking to not throw up on the carpet or requesting explanation for [insert odd behavior here]. Others seemed eager to reassure their pets that yes, the vet really is a safe place to be, and no, leaving the house doesn’t mean they’ll be gone forever.

Despite the myriad answers, one theme prevailed: love. For the most part, pet owners have immense fondness for their fur babies, and really do want to provide the best life possible for them. We might not be able to use actual words (doesn’t stop us from using the baby voice though) but we humans will never stop finding different ways to thank our animals for filling our hearts with so much joy.

Enjoy 14 of the funniest, most heartwarming and all around smile-inducing answers:

“I would tell our cat how much we love him and how lovable he is. I would tell him that I value every second with him. I would tell him that we don't let him outside because he has a medical condition not because we choose not to let him outside. I would tell him that we disappear all day, most days, because we have to to earn our keep not because we want to…I would ask him if he is okay and happy, whether he feels well, whether he's in pain at all, what we could do to make him happier. I would stroke and cuddle him the whole time.” -@fishfingerchipbean

“I would reassure my dog that the people walking in the street aren't going to hurt us. Delivery drivers are not evil. The people at the vet are very nice and will never hurt you. They help keep you healthy.” -@FluffySharkBird

“I would profusely apologize for ever stomping on their tails and swear on my mother's life it was always an accident.” -@gudbote

“Talk about dog life and how it’s like…what do they do when left unsupervised, and maybe go on a walk and talk about anything and everything.” -@SecurityCrisis141


“I would love to know what they dream about.” -@Dry-Explanation-9464

what cats think, what dogs think

Dreaming about a utopia of nothing but amazon boxes.

Photo by Aleksandar Cvetanovic on Unsplash

“I think my cat would absolutely ROAST me first for 24 hours.” -@StraberryBob69

“Please let me know how to be a better friend to you because you deserve everything.” -@boywithtwoarms

“I'd ask him about what his life was like before he was picked up by the shelter (he was a stray when they found him). I'd also tell him how proud I am of him learning new things. I'd reassure him that he doesn't need to feel anxious or afraid when he sees other dogs on our walk (he's leash reactive, we're working on it).” -@makuniverse

ask reddit pets

"Will you love me forever?"

Photo by Madeline Bowen on Unsplash

“I'd ask them for their preferences on literally everything. What do they want to eat? What litter do they like? What toys, if any, do they actually enjoy playing with, and how can I make playtime with them more enjoyable? Which nap space is the best? Is the water fountain ever going to get used again, or should I just stick to cups of water laid out on the kitchen floor for them to pick from? Do they enjoy cuddle time at all (or, maybe for my own selfish sake, can i at least get SOME on occasion)?” -@in_the_low_life

“Why do you beg for treats, then sometimes don't even eat them but line them up on your bed in a certain order? And did you really eat that whole chicken, bones and all?” -@Lucinnda

“What’s up with the food thing? Today you love chicken pate and tomorrow it’s poison? WTF?” -Expensive_Ferret-339

if pets could talk

"Hm. No. Ask me again tomorrow."

Photo by Piotr Musioł on Unsplash

“If you need to throw up please get off the bed. Better yet, get on the tile. Love you. Thanks for never scratching the kids when they're being crazy.” -@Likeomgitscrystal

“I love you so much and I would literally die for you, Oh and why do you get zoomies everyday and bite me everytime!!!!!” -@curator_557

“Tbh I would just love to hear her tell stories of her favorite memories from her point of view. Maybe I'd tell her mine too. I really would just like to catch up like old friends lol. Also I would want to tell her that even though we go away on vacation sometimes I hope she knows that we'll always come back because we love her and we miss her lots while we're away.” -@Vanilla_Chinchilla96

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Identity

Study discovers people don't age steadily, but in dramatic bursts at two specific ages

This explains SO much about your 40s.

Photo by Nati/Pexels

If you feel "old" practically overnight, there may be a good reason for that.

Aging is weird. You're trucking along, enjoying your middle-aged life, finally feeling like a real adult, when you look in the mirror one day and gasp.

"Where did those wrinkles come from?"

"Is that skin on my arm…crepey?!?"

"Why am I aching like that?"

Somewhere in your mid-40s, you start noticing obvious signs of aging that seem to arrive overnight. You assume it was a gradual process that you just hadn't noticed, but it sure as heck felt like it happened really fast.

New research indicates that may very well be the case. A study from researchers at Stanford tracked thousands of different molecules in people age 25 to 75 and found that people tend to make two big leaps in aging—one around age 44 and another around age 60. These findings indicate that aging can actually happen in bursts.

“We’re not just changing gradually over time. There are some really dramatic changes,” said senior study author Michael Snyder, Ph.D, geneticist and director of the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford University. “It turns out the mid-40s is a time of dramatic change, as is the early 60s. And that’s true no matter what class of molecules you look at.”

The researchers assumed the mid-40s changes would be attributed to menopausal or perimenopausal changes in women influencing the overall numbers, but when they separated the results by sex they saw similar changes in men in their 40s.

"“This suggests that while menopause or perimenopause may contribute to the changes observed in women in their mid-40s, there are likely other, more significant factors influencing these changes in both men and women. Identifying and studying these factors should be a priority for future research,” said study author Xiaotao Shen, PhD, a former Stanford Medicine postdoctoral scholar who now teaches at Nanyang Technological University Singapore.

older couple smiling togetherAging happens in bursts, scientists find.Photo by Tristan Le/Pexels

The study included 108 participants who submitted blood and other samples every few months for several years. The scientists tracked age-related changes in 135,000 different molecules—nearly 250 billion distinct data points—to see how aging occurs.

The study may shed light on the reasons for jumps in certain diseases and maladies at certain ages. For the 40-somethings, scientists found significant changes in molecules related to alcohol, caffeine and lipid metabolism; cardiovascular disease; and skin and muscle. For those in their 60s, changes related to carbohydrate and caffeine metabolism, immune regulation, kidney function, cardiovascular disease, and skin and muscle were found.

The study authors did note that lifestyle might play a role in some of these changes. For instance, alcohol metabolism may be influenced by people drinking more heavily in their 40s, which tends to be a period of higher stress for many people. However, the researchers added that these bursts of aging in the mid-40s and early 60s indicate that people may want to pay closer attention to their health around those ages and make lifestyle changes that support greater overall health, such as increasing exercise or limiting alcohol.

The research team plans to study the drivers of these aging bursts to find out why they happen at these ages, but whatever the reasons, it's nice to know that the seemingly sudden onset of age-related woes isn't just in our imaginations.

It's understandable that worry about aging, as physical signs of aging remind us of our own mortality. We also have all kinds of social messaging that tells us youth is ideal and beautiful and old is bad and ugly, so of course we give aging the side-eye. But none of us can avoid aging altogether, so the more positive and healthy we are in our approach to aging is, the better off we'll be, no matter when and to what degree aging hits us.

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Joy

Life hacks that sound fake but are actually super effective

"If you're having trouble staying awake in class/at a meeting, see how long you can keep one of your feet lifted slightly off the ground."

Image by mac231 from Pixabay

Who knew changing your socks could change your whole day?

It's been two decades since tech writer Danny O'Brien coined the term“life hack” to describe a simple action or habit that solves a problem or makes our lives easier.

Some life hacks are super helpful in a "Duh, why didn't I think of that before?" way. Some so-called life hacks are just dubious attempts to get people to click on things, either by offering silly ideas that mock the life hack genre or things that are basically just common sense. And then there are the tricky ones that sound dumb or fake but are actually really useful.

Here are some "seems fake but is actually effective" life hacks, courtesy of AskReddit.

(Keep in mind that none of these things are meant to be medical advice—just people sharing things that have worked for them.)

How can you quickly turn around a bad day?

"Change your socks to salvage a bad day. I laughed with derision the first time I read this. Then I tried it.

It works. It's like a reset button. Fresh start sorta thing.

If you're having a bad day, change your socks."

"Taking a shower helps a ton in dealing with a bad day."

"I would second this but with a cold shower if possible or a clean wipe when outside. Feeling down and refreshed with a quick rinse and fresh clothes is a godsend."

"Also, brushing your teeth. If I'm feeling sh_tty or exhausted, a nice tooth brushing makes me feel like a new woman!"

"Army knew that stuff decades ago. Want a soldier to go longer but no sleep? Get them to shave, brush teeth, do hair. Feel better and off you go. Sounds ridiculous but it does work. For me I love brushing my hair for a pick me up."


Someone holding their lower backBack pain sometimes isn't actually about your back.Photo by Kindel Media/Pexels

How do you ease lower back pain?

"Try stretching your quads for lower back pain, just a simple grab your shoe/point knee down stretch. I'm a personal trainer and this always amazes my clients when they try it lol.

"Most lower back pain in our modern society is caused by prolonged sitting. When sitting on a chair, your quads are shortened and become tight. Remember, your entire body is connected, and your quads go all the way up to connect to your hip bone. Imagine your hip bone is a bucket of water, and you want that bucket to stay straight up to keep the water from spilling. When your quads are tight, that 'bucket' is being pulled and tilted forward. You get what I call the 'Booty Pop' stance, which puts a lot of pressure on your lower back. In stretching your quads, you're not pulling that hip forward anymore, correcting that stance and helping that 'bucket of water' stay upright."

"Tightness in one area creates tension in another. The human body is a meaty pulley system. I can tell I didn’t stretch or warm up enough based on how tight my ankles feel, but it doesn’t mean I do ankle stretches. I try to stretch my hamstrings, hips, and QL area."

"YES. I hurt my lower back two years ago and my doctor told me to stretch my hamstrings and I was amazed at how much it worked. I do it every day now multiple times a day as well as other stretches. I used to only be able to bend over and barely reach my shins because I was so stiff and now I can easily touch the ground. I also use a lacrosse ball and roll it around on each of my glutes (I found this from Joe DeFrancos limber 11) for a couple mins each and that was also massive for improving my back pains because my glutes were also very tight."

How do you ease anxiousness or nervousness?

"If you’re feeling anxious or nervous, chew gum. It sounds weird, but it actually tricks your brain into thinking you’re safe and calm, because your body associates eating with being relaxed. Plus, it helps you focus and stay in the moment, which can really take the edge off in stressful situations."

"I had a teacher in my nursing school who would pass out gum before our exams for this reason."

"My freshman year of college one of my professors told us to have snacks handy while we study for this same reason, in addition to giving our body and brains little treats for concentrating.

Then a week before finals, he told us to write down our favorite study snack, and when we came in for our final, we all had our “study snack” sitting on our desk, ready to go for our test.

Which was great for me because I wrote down that I liked to get togo containers of queso, guac, and tortillas from this little Mexican restaurant in town, and I had warm tortillas and queso and cold fresh guac waiting for me at my desk. My friend had ihop pancakes sitting on her desk because this was back in the day when they had bottomless pancakes and she’d just go sit at ihop at 2am when it was dead and quiet and eat pancakes and study.

Aced that final."

"Unless you are having a bad panic attack. I tried chewing gum and it didn't work. That was a particularly bad panic attack it lasted an hour where I thought I was dying the entire time."

How do you stop a panic attack in its tracks?

"If you are having a panic attack, sucking on an ice cube or dunking your face in ice water can stop it. I thought this was bs, but was shocked that sucking an ice cube calmed the physical symptoms of the panic attack."

"The ice water face thing requires your face to be fully in it, with some water a little up your nose. It triggers a reflex known as the 'mammalian diving response.' It will drop your heart rate by like 30 bpm in seconds."

"Similar note - eating something extremely sour helps too. A lemon wedge works really well if you’re at home, and you can carry warheads or something similar for when you’re on the go."

"If you don't have access to ice cubes or a bucket of water, touching anything cold helps. Windows on public transportation (just line your arm up against the window, no one will notice), metal shelves in stores, metal bars on the side of the stairs... there is always an option. Then ask yourself: what do I see, hear, taste, smell, feel. It grounds you. Humming or singing also works if your breathing is off."

"Can confirm. I suffered from the occasional attack for about 2 years (better now), but grabbing one of those ice pack thingies from the freezer and holding it against my wrists/forearms would help to make it go away quicker than just riding it out."

How do you stop beating yourself up?

"Stop talking shit about yourself during your inner dialogue and start saying nice things. Whether you mean what your saying or not doesn't matter, your unconscious mind absorbs that and it becomes the de facto way you see yourself. Eventually your positive self reinforcement will start to take root and you'll see yourself in the positive light that you should.

If you'd have told me this info 10 years ago I would have said its woo-woo bullshit. It is not. It actually works."

"Yes, talk to yourself like you would talk to your best friend. It doesn’t come natural, but it’s something you can work on."

"My buddy fixed his anger issues with therapy like this. Any time he got angry about something he did, he was supposed to pull himself out of the situation and pretend he was talking to a best friend about something they did. Changed his outlook on things."

"Absolute truth! I totally changed my outlook on life by putting a stop to the internal 'You dummy,' 'Why are you such an idiot' type of dialogue. Instead, I mentally say, 'UGH! Need to find a better way of doing that' or something to that effect. I also began mentally praising my accomplishments the way you would praise your young child whenever I accomplish something. It is truly a life changer!"


someone asleep on their laptopGotta stay awake. Gotta stay awake. Gotta stay…zzzzz.Photo by Ketut Subiyanto/Pexels

How do you stay awake in a meeting or class when you're sleepy?

"If you're having trouble staying awake in class/at a meeting, see how long you can keep one of your feet lifted slightly off the ground."

"We did this is basic training. If you fell asleep you would get smoked but we were all so damned tired. It really is impossible to fall asleep while your foot is off the ground.

"This is actually what I used to do driving home after working night shift as a nurse. Windows down and left foot lifted off the floor board."

"Rub your ears as well."

"And look up. Like, look upwards with only your eyes for a few seconds, don't tilt your head. I use this all the time and it's like minimum effort maximum reward."

How do you remove a ring that's stuck on your finger?

"If your ring gets stuck on your finger windex will slide it right off. Worked at a jewelry store for five plus years."

"I also worked at a jewelry store for a while, and customers never believed me initially when I told them this."

"This is because classic Windex contains a little ammonia, which like any alkaline (basic) chemical causes fats to form soaps (aka saponification) which makes your skin (which contains the fats) to feel slippery.

For this reason it’s not great to leave Windex or similar chemicals on your skin for too long. It is actually reacting with your skin oils which can cause damage if left to sit."

"The floss trick also works and I really thought it wouldn't."

"My ring size is 7, my knuckle is at least an 8. I was trying to remove my wedding ring for surgery and was shown the dental floss trick. I've used it since then a few times."

Here's the dental floss trick:


- YouTubewww.youtube.com


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Family

Psychologist shares 15-second trick to make kids of any age less rude and more cooperative

All it takes is a single question.

via Hunter Johnson/Unsplash

A child being rude.

Sometimes, it can feel like half of parenting is repeating yourself over and over again, asking your child to brush their teeth or take a dish from the living room to the sink. It’s exhausting and makes you feel like a nag. Don't you wish there was a simple way to make your kids listen the first time?

Dr. Rebecca Kennedy, aka “Dr. Becky,” is a clinical psychologist and founder and CEO of Good Inside who says she has a quick way to make your kids more cooperative and less rude. Talk about killing two soul-crushing birds with one parenting stone.

Dr. Beckly got into psychology after growing up with anorexia as a teenager.

“Okay, no matter how old your kid is, you can use this 15-second tip to decrease rudeness and increase cooperation,” she says in a TikTok video with over 32,000 views. “Find your child today and ask them this question. 'Hey, I was just wondering, what could I do better as your parent?'”

The psychologist says that even if the child has a random or impractical answer such as “Let me stay up ‘til midnight” or “I’d like to eat macaroni and cheese for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” just to listen. Simply by listening, you can change your child’s behavior.

She says we should also ask more questions to further the conversation: “Tell me more. What would that be like?”

Want to improve your relationship with your kid in less than 15 seconds? Watch this reel for a quick-win strategy. 

@drbeckyatgoodinside

Want to improve your relationship with your kid in less than 15 seconds? Watch this reel for a quick-win strategy. The best part: When we use strategies like this in calm moments, we reduce the frequency of difficult moments with our kids. Of course, I’m a realist… I know you need in-the-moment strategies too! Cue: My Conquering Problem Behaviors Workshop. You’ll get an entire toolbox of in-the-moment and outside-the-moment strategies for reducing outbursts and strengthening your bond with your kid. Learn more in the link in bio!

“I mean, imagine your boss coming to you randomly and asking how they could be a better manager to you. Just by asking the question and listening,” she continued. Dr. Becky says that asking our kids how we’re doing as parents communicates three essential ideas: “I care about you. I respect you. I'm invested in this relationship.”

This type of questioning builds a connection with a child that can spill over into other behaviors. “You're building connection. And with more connection always comes more cooperation,” she ends the video.

The big takeaway from the video is that when we enhance our connection with our kids, they will be less likely to disobey or be rude because they feel heard and respected, so there’s no need to act out. They will also return that respect by listening to you when you have a request, such as taking out the trash or putting down their phone and coming to dinner.

Some people in the comments got funny responses when they asked their kids what they could improve. “I asked my 5yr old. I got a mildly scathing look and she said ‘erm, maybe try and burn dinner less next time?’” Collette wrote. “My 5 yo told me to look better and get a haircut,” Mark Amend added.

Dr. Becky’s quick question is a great way for parents to strengthen their relationships when things are going well instead of trying to forge connections during conflict. It’s a great reminder that even when parenting, an ounce of prevention is a pound of cure.

Dr. Becky sums up the importance of prevention in her TikTok caption: “When we use strategies like this in calm moments, we reduce the frequency of difficult moments with our kids,” she wrote.


This article originally appeared on 6.6.24

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Education

Ever heard of 'The Tiffany Problem'? Why people think historically accurate things are wrong.

It's a strange but real dilemma for storytellers.

Ali Shaker/VOA, Tylwyth Eldar/Wikimedia Commons

The name Tiffany goes way back to Tiphaine Raguenel, who lived in Mont Saint Michel in the 1300s.

Depending on what generation you belong to, when you hear the name Tiffany, you might think of the famous jewelry store, the teen singer from the 80s or the less-in-the-spotlight daughter of the former president. Most likely, you don't think of a woman who lived in the Middle Ages.

In fact, if you were listening to an audiobook set in medieval times and the narrator introduced a character named Tiffany, you'd probably get yanked right out of the story as your brain would say, "Wait, why is there a Tiffany in this story? Isn't that a much more modern name?"

It's actually not, which is exactly why The Tiffany Problem is called The Tiffany Problem.

The Tiffany Problem refers to the fact that people in modern times will sometimes see something as anachronistic when it's not. It's something writers, filmmakers and other storytellers have to be aware of, as it can feel like there's a historical problem even if there isn't an actual historical problem.

Abraham Piper explains the dilemma and how it was coined:

As Piper shares, fantasy author Jo Walton coined the term "The Tiffany Problem" and explained it:

"Your readers are modern people and know what they know, which is fine except when what they know isn’t actually right. For instance, the name Tiffany sounds extremely modern to us. It feels jarring when we read it as a character name in a historical setting, where we’d be quite happy with names like Anna and Jane. But our instinct is wrong, because Tiffany is a form of Theophania, and it was fairly common in medieval England and France. It went out of fashion later, and it’s because we don’t have seventeenth to nineteenth century examples that it feels modern. But you still can’t use it in a fantasy novel set in the exact time and place when the name would have been historically accurate, because it will jerk the reader out of their reading trance. They know it’s wrong and you can’t tell them that what they know is wrong."

Piper had also shared that "ha ha," which seems like a casual, modern colloquialism, is actually very old, with the first known use coming from a monk 1,000 years ago. He also mentions "OMG," which was used by a World War I admiral in a letter to Winston Churchill in 1917. And "hubby" as a slang term for husband? That goes way back to the 1680s. Who knew?

It's a bit ironic that writers who strive to ensure their historical fiction works are historically accurate can find themselves stymied by people being just flat-out wrong about what's accurate and what's not. Humans are interesting creatures, aren't we?

For more info about the name Tiffany than you ever thought you wanted to know but will be delighted to learn, CGP Grey created a whole video about the name that has 4.7 million views. Tiffany exploded the 1980s, but CGP Grey goes all the way back to the year 300 to uncover the origins of the name. It's genuinely entertaining. Watch:

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

If you're still here and want to take an even deeper dive into the history of Tiffany, this other video from CGP Grey is an incredible rabbit hole that will make you appreciate the work historians do and marvel at how much digging Grey actually did to provide the original Tiffany history video. We're talking trips to the deep dark corners of The British Library, the largest library in the world, and hours and hours of paging through books just to find the original source of this one poem that includes the name "Tiffany." It's a journey, but a fascinating one.

Enjoy "Someone Dead Ruined My Life… Again":

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

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Modern Families

People are loving this 29-year-old's hot take on why millennials aren't having kids

A bit of catharsis for al the childless cat people out there.

Photo credit: Canva

Many millennials can't afford a house, let alone starting a family.

Despite a short-lived pandemic baby boom, birth rates are at an all time low in the US. There are, of course, myriad factors contributing to this complex issue, but when those factors are flattened down into bite-sized conservative talking points, it is the generational selfishness and disrespect to traditional American values of millennials that’s really to blame.

However, one heated millennial is countering that for many folks in their age group, having kids is simply not financially possible.

Twenty-nine-year-old Charlie Fitzgerald (she/they/he) didn’t hold back as they declared "it absolutely baffles me that the government is pretending like they don't know why we're not having kids because, frankly, it is glaringly obvious.”

In the now-viral clip, Fitzgerald noted how heavily inflation has affected basic necessities for families like groceries, baby formula, diapers, childcare. Giving birth in the United States, they noted “averages at around $14000.” According to the Peterson-Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) Health System Tracker, that average is more like just a few bucks shy of $19,000.

As Fitzgerald pointed out, for the 73% of millennials already living paycheck to paycheck from mostly entry level work, likely also paying off college debt which in no way, shape or form guaranteed them gainful employment…this is pretty much impossible.

And since poverty traps do exist, those who are born into struggling families often have a much harder time getting access to education and other resources that can actually help them escape poverty. Or, as Fitzgerald put it, “when you're born poor in this country, you're probably gonna die poor, and your kids are gonna be in the same boat. I don't want that for my kid."

Viewer, be warned. There are a few f-bombs dropped here and there.


@jimmyego Why aren't millennials having kids? #millennial #4B ♬ original sound - Definitely Not Charlie


Fitzgerald also went into the lack of maternity leave offered for new parents, saying that many jobs don’t offer adequate leave time, or parents can’t afford to take the time off. "Then you've got to pay for childcare, which is outrageous. In the state that I live in, the average cost of just daycare is $15.77 an hour," they said. "When you are making as little money as millennials are, childcare is literally inaccessible."

And sadly, not being able to afford to take care of a kid gets labeled as “neglect”, resulting in severe consequences, including families getting separated. "Say baby formula wasn't available in your area, so you couldn't afford to feed your kids, so you get slapped with neglect charges. That company that couldn't provide the baby formula faces absolutely no repercussions."

One of Fitzgerald’s final points is a fairly basic one: the housing crisis. "How many millennials do you know who own their own house?" they asked, saying that most folks of their age group "are renters or live with our parents or live with a pile of roommates." And with no real certainty that things will change, their stance is "I don't wanna bring a child into a situation where I'm not sure I'm gonna have somewhere to live in a year." Fair, fair.

In conclusion, Fitzgerald said, "It's not that we don't wanna have kids. A lot of us do. In fact, I would love to have a kid with my wife, but I'm not gonna have a kid in this country right now. I'm not."

And they are certainly not alone in that sentiment. Tons of comments came rolling in from people who shared similar thoughts and experiences. Below is just a small snippet.

“People ask me whether I want kids and I’m like ‘that’s irrelevant because I can’t afford to make that choice. It’s been made for me.’”

“I had a coworker come back to work 3 days after she gave birth. She couldn’t afford the time off.”

“The only millennial I know with a house AND kids? They have a supporting family and generational wealth. Most of us don’t get that.”

“My parents always screamed ‘if you can’t feed em, don’t breed em’ my entire childhood. Ok, bet.”

“When people say ‘money doesn’t solve your problems’ I’m gonna show them this video.”

Of course, there are plenty of folks who have chosen to go childfree because they are happier that way. But, as Fitzgerald and many other millennials can attest, many simply don’t have the choice to anymore.

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