Katherine

I am all for people receiving government aid who truly need it, but I get a little ticked off when someone takes it who has other options. My sister just had a baby with her (loser) boyfriend. He signed himself up for health insurance at her urging, but decided not to put the baby on it. Instead, they are using medicaid for the baby. I understand my sister being on medicaid because, since she is not married to the guy, she can't get on his insurance. But it makes me very angry that they chose to put the baby on medicaid when they could have gotten him private insurance. I know private insurance in more widely accepted and it's easier to get quick appointments, so why would you put your baby on medicaid if you had other options? She said it would have upped his premiums by about $110 a month, but he had no problem buying her expensive diamond earrings for Christmas. Her boyfriend brings home about $4000 a month, pays little rent, and drives an expensive car. My sister does not work and depends mostly on my mom financially. My sister is 34. When we had my son, my now husband and I were not married. I was on medicaid, but my husband insisted he put the baby on his insurance. He felt it was the right thing to do, and he brings home about $1800 a month. I told my sister this, and she could not understand why on earth we would choose to put our son on his father's insurance when we easily could have gotten him medicaid for free. This makes me so angry. I guess some people have very little ethics. I might also add that this baby was totally planned. Why would you plan on having a child when you aren't even willing to pay for their health insurance? Makes me sick!

My sister is 34 years old, and having her first(and hopefully only) baby in about a month. She was diagnosed as being bipoalr about 13 years ago, and has experienced about 5 or 6 major manic episodes in that time. She is convinced that drugs trigger her mania, and if she does not use drugs, she will not become manic. She also thinks that having a child will make her stop doing drugs. I have had a strained relationship with my sister for my entire life(I am 28). Even as a child, I can remember her treating me very badly, and it seems that after she became ill, it got much worse. I feel as if she resents me for the fact that she is sick and I am not. I have not seen her pregnancy and impending motherhood as a good thing. She became pregnant less than a year after her last manic episode, for which she refused treatment and had to be involuntarily committed, just like every other time. In this last episode, she broke my mother's windshield with a mag light and accused my father of sexual abuse, which never happened. She has not told her obgyn that she is bipolar because she is ashamed and in denial. She is the most selfsih person I know, and I am terrified for the well being of her child. The father of her baby supposedly agreed to having a child with her, which just astounds me, seeing as he witnessed firsthand what her manic episodes are like. She has never taken medication, except when she has been forcibly hospitalized, she does not have a license or a car because she has had 4 or 5 DUIs(and still will not admit how horrible drinking and driving is). Her last DUI actually wrecked someone else's car on the highway. She chose to get pregnant while my father was in the hospital battling ALS(a battle which he lost in July), and has since quit her job and is relying on my mother to support her financially. This fact does not seem to bother my sister, and my mom will not talk to me about how she really feels. However, she must realize that if my sister has a manic episode, she will be left to care for the child, as I doubt the baby's father would be willing or able to do it. I am very scared about the postpartum period especially, and the effect that lack of sleep can have on a bipolar person. She is very unaware of herself, and totally in denial, so if she starts to have symptoms,I do not think she will reach out to anyone for help, and by the time we see them, she could be to far gone to accept it. I know that postpartum psychosis is quite common in bipolar women, and I am so scared of the what ifs. My mother is acting like everything is just peachy, which makes me feel like I am the crazy one for being so concerned. Please don't assume that I don't think bipolar peopel can be good parents. I am just fearful for my sister because she has never accepted her illness or done anything about it, in over 13 years. Should I just relax and try not to worry about things I have no control over? I am sort of preparing myself for a time when I may have to care for her child, seeing as I am young and have two children of my own, I may be a more suitable candidate than my mother to do so.

My son is 27 months and is starting to really make me miserable. He cries and complains constantly about everything. Whenever we have to leave somewhere that he wants to be, I have to pick him up, and then he hits me. He does not play with toys, he just throws them around. Even when he is not crying, he talks in the whiniest voice. He screams when he has to ride in a shopping cart, but my husband is never home, so I always have to take him shopping when I go. This has made me hate shopping so much. I feel like everyone is staring at me and judging me. We can't go out to eat because he will not stay seated and he refuses to sit in a high chair. He very rarely seems happy, and this is in sharp contrast to how my six year old daughter was when she was two. She was so well behaved, never complained, and rarely cried. My son goes in timeout, but I don't know what else to do. I just want to scream. I am with him 24/7, and I have a feeling he will be giving up naps soon, as they have been getting shorter and shorter. I feel like my husband has no appreciation for all I do, even though he gets super stressed himself on the rare occasions that he has to take care of our son. I have no friends that have children, and I don't have anyone to talk to about this. I'm afraid people will think I'm a bad mother for feeling this was, but they have no idea what I go through day in and day out. I used to be a morning person, but now I feel sad in the morning, knowing what is in store for the rest of the day.

Why is it that whenever your beliefs are challenged in a way that makes you uncomfortable, or atheists bring up all the bad things that the bible condones, you say we can't possibly understand god's will, but you all claim to understand a whole lot about what god thinks, feels, and wants? You seem to know all about how to get into heaven, how god feels about the sexual practices of humans, and even what god wants us to eat. How can you know so much about some things, and so little about others? Or is it just us atheists who don't know what god wants?

I assume that most atheists instill in their children their own beliefs. I am an atheist and I have a six year old and a two year old. I have told my six year old that I do not believe in god, heaven, hell, or souls. She has been talking lately about being afraid of dying, which is normal, but for atheist parents it can be tough because we can't just say "You never really die. You go to heaven and live forever." While this thought is comforting to people of all ages, I refuse to lie to my child, and I want her to grow up and think rationally and be skeptical. But then I started wondering what I would do if I had a young child who was very sick and who I knew was going to die. Would I be willing to lie to them and tell them they would go to heaven, knowing that they will never grow up and I don't have to worry about how they will think in the future? I don't know what I would do, but my husband said he would not lie to her. What would you all do?

What do atheists think about people who claim they were once atheists, but then became Christian? Were they ever really atheists, or just too lazy to put thought into what they truly believed all along?

I don't think a true atheist can become religious until real evidence becomes available for the existence of god. After all, lack of evidence is why we don't believe.

I am curious as to why Christians, and people of other faiths, are so eager to thank god for the good things that happen, but when something bad happens, they rarely lay blame on him(or her or it). Say your brother was saved by medical providers after being in a horrible accident. You would thank god openly for sparing your brother. But if your brother died in that accident, you probably would not say "This is all god's fault, I can't believe he killed my brother." Why is it like this?

I never would because I am so put off by all religions. I am so thankful that my husband became an atheist shortly after we met.

I just don't understand why people pray. I have asked them why they think prayer will work for them when it does not work for most people.It has actually been proven in studies not to work. I say "If God answers prayers, why does he let babies die when their parents have prayed relentlessly for them to be saved?" They say that it's all part of God's big plan, but if that is the case, then aren't you asking God to go against his plan by praying? If God has a plan for everyone and everything, then his plan will be followed, and your prayers will not matter. Doesn't this make sense?

Why do mormons drink soda, but not tea or coffee?

How do you feel about all of the sex abuse taking place in your churches? Did it do anything to turn you off of your religion? How can you still hold the Pope in such high esteem when we know that he was very involved in covering it up, and therefor, allowing it to continue? How do you justify God allowing priests to molest children under the guise of holy man to be respected and obeyed? Do you just deny that it happened, because I don't see how you could continue to have respect for the Pope and all the other higher ups in Catholicism after hearing about what's been going on.

I love "Religion allows people to believe in masse what only a lunatic can believe in isolation."

Not sure who it's by

I don't get how mormons can tell themselves that it is good to baptize dead people. If they wanted to be mormon, wouldn't they have been baptized while alive?

Catholic missionaries going to the poorest, least educated, most AIDS infested areas of the world and telling the citizens that condoms are either evil or don't work?

My dad used to always talk about how people who have "lived in sin" are more likely to get divorced. I guess this may be true, but have come up with a few reasons as to why this is the case. Tell me what you think.

1) People who refuse to cohabitate before marriage likely do so because of religious convictions, and they also refuse divorce for religious reasons as well.

2) People who are religious are obviously able to believe what they want, regardless of having good reason, so when they are in a troubled marriage, they are in denial about that as well.

Since becoming a mother, I feel so much more for other children. When I hear about something bad happening to babies or children, I feel complete and total empathy for the parents, not just sympathy. I guess I see my children in every single child, and I can comprehend the pain of something bad happening to them. I love my kids so much, and because of them, I love all children. Is this super corny, or do you get what I'm saying?

when he says that a truly intelligent person cannot be truly religious? I think he is 100% correct, but I want to know how you feel.

I just want to know if most christians are of the mindset that believing in god is the only way to get into heaven. Do you all agree that a child molester can repent for his sins and accept god and be saved, but an atheist who has done wonderful things for people all their life will still go to hell?

For all you Christians who believe that prayer works, without giving the old "god works in mysterious ways" response, why would god answer your prayers and not the prayers of so many others who pray to him? Isn't it quite narcicistic to think he wants to help you, but not that poor baby dying of(insert horrible illness here)?

I have decided, after a lot of thought, to get breast augmentation surgery. My reasons are personal. and I do not feel I should have to justify them to anyone. I have been getting a good bit of negative feedback about my decision, but I know it's what's right for me, and I could not be happier. Anyway, I am currently taking a medicine(suboxone for heroin addiction). I have been clean for 6 and a half years, and am pretty close to coming off of this medicine. I get suboxone from my psychiatrist, and my plastic surgeon, not really knowing anything about the drug, wanted me to have my psychiatrist call him so that they could discuss my pain management for after the surgery. Well, I tried calling and faxing my shrink to ask him to call my surgeon, to no avail. So yesterday, I went to his office to be sure that I got to talk to him. He told me some B.S. about how he called the surgeon's office and talked to someone and left a message. I think that was a lie. Then, he told me that he does not know how suboxone will interact with the post surgery pain meds. and that he cannot be of any assistance. I was really taken aback by the fact that he prescribes this drug, but does not know how it will interact with other opiates. Then, he questioned me even having the surgery, told me I should do something else with the money(our tax refund), and tried to make me feel bad by saying I should spend the money on my kids. My kids are not in need or want of anything. They have a lot. I just couldn't believe that my psychiatrist, who is supposed to be objective and non judgemental. was standing there talking to me like he was my unsupportive father. He told me I don't need the surgery, and that I'm beautiful. I'm sorry, but you can't tell me I don't need it when you haven't even seen my bare breasts. I think he just doesn't want to have to deal with it, and does not want to be held responsible for actually knowing about a narcotic that he is allowed to prescribe. I was thinking about filing some kind of complaint and letting who ever is in charge of this sort of thing know that this doctor is giving this stuff out while not even knowing how to handle this kind of situation. What if I had to have an appendectomy, or other necessary surgery? At the very least I am not seeing him anymore. Am I right to be angry about this?