• EvilCartyen@feddit.dk
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      22 hours ago

      Taking care of a kid is not exactly grueling work for 18 years, it’s a lot easier after the first 3-4, and is also very fulfilling even when it’s tough. Assuming you have normal human caregiving feelings and so on.

      I don’t know why the internet is so anti-kids, it’s pretty baffling.

      • dingus@lemmy.world
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        14 hours ago

        I know people with kids and they always seem like they are perpetually exhausted and barely hanging on. They talk about not sleeping and conflicts and issues and it just honestly makes it sound horrendous and really looks like they are all suffering from an outsider’s perspective. But then they tell me that it’s worth it because it’s “fulfilling” like you said. I don’t know. From an outsider’s perspective, parents’ words don’t seem to correlate with what I see and hear.

        I have a feeling that when people talk about things being “fulfilling” or “worth it” despite seeming to objectively be suffering must be some combination of strange hormones with coping mechanisms.

        Idk. That’s just my thoughts as a confused outsider. I’m happy that people are able to raise children. Someone has to. But I don’t think I could make myself suffer to that extreme for a being that will never truly understand what you’re doing for them until decades later.

        • EvilCartyen@feddit.dk
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          13 hours ago

          Obviously babies are demanding, especially in countries with shitty parenting support and daycare, no parental leave, and a work environment which is hostile to normal family life. But kids are fine, funny, and a joy to be around, most of the time, at least. It’s a bit like work, many people bitch about it but they still find it fulfilling.

          Also, I know people my age with no kids and they a constantly complain that they’re tired 😂 probably they’re just getting old.

      • Sibshops@lemm.ee
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        1 day ago

        Okay, so maybe she’s on to something. It’s not actually that boring, after all.

        Animal husbandry, being one of the oldest and most fundamental practices within the broader field of agriculture, refers to the art and science of breeding, rearing, and caring for livestock animals in a manner that optimizes both their health and productivity while meeting human needs for resources such as meat, milk, fiber, leather, labor, and companionship, and this discipline, which has evolved slowly and steadily over the course of several millennia since the Neolithic Revolution, involves an impressively large and often tedious array of tasks that must be performed on a daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, and annual basis with a degree of consistency and attention to minute detail that many might find repetitive and unremarkable, such as the precise formulation of animal diets based on detailed nutritional analyses to ensure balanced intake of macronutrients like proteins, carbohydrates, and fats, as well as essential micronutrients like vitamins and minerals, all of which must be tailored to the specific physiological needs of the animal based on factors such as age, sex, weight, reproductive status, lactation stage, and intended market use, combined with strict management of water supply quality and quantity to avoid issues related to dehydration or waterborne diseases, in addition to the regular cleaning and maintenance of animal housing facilities to manage waste buildup, control ammonia levels, prevent disease outbreaks, and provide adequate bedding and ventilation, which are critical yet thankless tasks that contribute directly to the long-term sustainability of operations, and further complicated by the constant need to monitor animal health through visual inspection, behavioral observation, and, increasingly, the collection of biometric data via digital technologies, a development that, while technologically advanced, has in no way reduced the fundamentally monotonous nature of physically walking among herds and flocks to assess for subtle signs of illness, injury, or distress, all of which must be recorded meticulously in farm management software or paper logs to satisfy not only internal quality assurance but also external audits by regulatory bodies concerned with animal welfare standards, environmental impact, and food safety, all while dealing with the additional mental load of planning breeding programs, selecting sires and dams based on genetic merit determined through increasingly complex indices that weigh traits such as feed efficiency, disease resistance, growth rates, carcass quality, and reproductive performance, and implementing mating decisions either naturally or via artificial insemination, which itself demands storage, handling, and application of semen under sterile and highly specific conditions, not to mention the planning for parturition seasons, where supervision of calving, lambing, kidding, or farrowing must occur frequently throughout day and night, often in less-than-ideal weather conditions, requiring a level of patience and endurance that is rarely recognized outside agricultural circles, and following successful births, careful colostrum management, early weaning strategies, and vaccination schedules must be rigorously followed to ensure maximal early-life survival rates and long-term productivity, all while navigating fluctuating market conditions, adjusting herd or flock size accordingly, ensuring compliance with evolving local, national, and international regulations regarding traceability, animal movement, antibiotic stewardship, and waste management, and participating in industry programs aimed at verifying sustainable practices, such as carbon footprint reduction initiatives, ethical certification schemes, and environmental stewardship programs, which, although important for the long-term viability of the sector and planet alike, add another layer of administrative burden and paperwork to an already tedious daily workload that requires an unwavering dedication to routines that, despite small innovations here and there, have remained fundamentally unchanged in their essence for thousands of years, making animal husbandry a life pursuit not for those seeking constant excitement, but rather for individuals uniquely suited to find satisfaction in the slow, steady rhythms of feeding, cleaning, observing, recording, breeding, birthing, treating, marketing, and planning, over and over, season after season, year after year, in a cycle so long and repetitive that it almost imperceptibly becomes the very fabric of a practitioner’s life.