I had to pay for my own college (my father couldn’t afford to pay for books for me, let along a private school tuition). Our kids will have the benefit of the French educational system, meaning Sorbonne for free, but should they decide to come to the US, they’re going to know they’re going to be paying their own way.

For those of you who may say, “why would you be so harsh? College is SOOO expensive!” – Earlier today there was a post about free-range kids. You know, if you’re going to be all for letting your kids experience the world on their own terms when they’re 10, you should be willing to do it when they’re 20, as well. I learned a lot of valuable financial lessons by paying my own way.

She found out about natural family planning, and bought a simple device that measured levels of hormones in her saliva. She used this to track her cycle and mapped it to a calendar to track when she ovulated, and we had a very active sex life for 10 years without any “surprises”. We just didn’t have sex around the time she ovulated. When we wanted to have a child (we have 2), we waited till she ovulated, had sex during that time, and both times she was pregnant more or less immediately.

It works.

Grow up and cover up guys. Any “inconvenience” that you may experience ain’t nothing to what an unintended pregnancy will cause your partner, if you give a crap. Of course, googling “non-latex condoms” is just sooooo much of a burden compared to taking your temperature, saliva swabs, watching the calendar, and so on…

Q: What do you call people who use the rhythm method?

A: Parents

Antinous / Moderator “There’s a world of difference between the rhythm method using guesswork and the rhythm method using a thermometer.”
Obviously. One results in an unplanned pregnancy while the other in an unexpected one.

…
It should just have a spinner with two spots: “You got lucky this time” and “Wups”

There are many better methods of contraception, but it is by far the cheapest and simplest way to increase the odds of conception.

http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/sexualhealth/Pages/Naturalfamilyplanning.aspx?WT.srch=1

http://pop.thousandrobots.com/2007/07/illustrations_from_a_sex_manual.php

One of the info-graphics shows a similar approach to the rhythm method.

Antinous, that’s because when you use a thermometer and look at other signs (such as cervical mucus), it’s not really rhythm at all.

For any interested parties, I recommend Taking Charge of Your Fertility. I have a copy even though I don’t use the method myself. It’s just darned cool how the human body works.

Good times! :)

The aim of the contraceptive pill is to prevent pregnancy, not birth. You might as well call it a “Diaper-change control pill”

Were they more educated then? Paid closer attention to little details? If it doesn’t have buttons and a return key, how did people use this? AND worst of all, many women do not have regular periods. No wonder this method failed.

Fascinating, what people used before computers and birth control pills.

For the uninitiated: periods aren’t the only physical ‘symptom’ of a woman’s cycle. Her resting temperature (measured when waking from a full night’s sleep) and several other things less easily described but easily checked vary through the month. A minute or two of checking and charting every morning, will tell you when she is fertile.

For regular women who never travel or get sick, the old-fashioned “counting/rhythm” method works. But for everybody else, charting symptoms warns you when ovulation has been delayed or has decided to come early (very common when traveling or stressed or harboring a cold). In the old days of simple rhythm, that was usually detected on a 9-month lag.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_Family_Planning

Please note: I do not recommend this as a way of preventing disease, nor do I recommend it for people who aren’t married/not ok with the idea of having kids. When we were dating, we used condoms every time. She also she stopped using birth control pills shortly after we started dating, and while a comment thread isn’t a very good way of listing out the reasons why, suffice it to say that she thinks it’s healthier to go without it.

Also please note: Again I’m not saying 16-year-olds should try this. Use condoms, dumbasses.

Life! It just doesn’t give up! ;)