Rachael Ray, The TV Cooking Viva is featured on the cover of the May 14, 2007 People Magazine issue with an article on her fast paced life. Here's an excerpt:

Ray: "I don't think young men or women should feel pressured into marriage. You shouldn't marry anyone, in my opinion, who you have to try hard for."

She is equally frank about her views on kids--something she says she has pretty much ruled out. "I don't have time," she says. "I work too much to be an appropriate parent. I feel like a bad mom to my dog [Isaboo] some days because I'm just not here enough. I just feel I would do a bad job if I took the time to literally give birth to a kid right now and try and juggle everything I'm doing."
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Rachael Ray makes $10 Million a year. Is Ray making the right choice being 38 years old?

I have no opinion on this matter, but I am curious what you are thinking Craig, since you brought it up.

My thinking on this is, she's a smart person to decided she couldn't be a good mom. I bring this hole thing up because I see to many people taking on a family and not having the time to be a good parent.

It does seem as if she has given it some good thought, and I agree that her decision is a sound one.

Someone is going to say, she'll be sorry! She makes $10 Million a year. Have the kids and then put them in day care or get a governess. You've got the dough! Who will take care of You, when You get old!

Well, with the number of bad parents having kids these days, I'm thinking that anyone expressing doubt about having kids probably shouldn't have any.

Never let anyone else raise your kids.

Our neighborhood has several couples who don't have kids, Dual Income No Kids (DINKS as they are known). Some can't have kids others choose not too. I respect those who choose not too. There are some couples who should never have kids.

We are good friends with a couple who live in Seattle who chose not to have kids and now the woman has some regrets. They would have been great parents but chose careers and the freedom to travel over raising kids. I think some who chose not to have kids will feel some twinge of regret as they draw closer to the end of their lives.

We have a Manx.
Our friends have great kids.

My wife and I never had kids (neither of us, in different earlier marriages) and so it was a conscious decision made early-on. We've decided that we make "good aunts & uncles" but -if the stark truth be known- we're probably too selfish to make good parents.

Regrets? Every now and again in a wistful manner, but reality sets in and there's no way (a). it's gonna happen or (b). we'd really want it to happen.

We have 12 cats and 2 alpacas and that's plenty, thankew.

Good for Rachel!

Besides, thanks to the miracles of modern medicine, she still has at least 10 years to change her mind!

Her phrase that pays is "I work too much to be an appropriate parent."

To me that shows she cares about doing it right, and she knows she really can't right now, or maybe ever. I wish many other parents had realized that before they had kids.

Warner: Ditto! All around she's one smart lady. Here's another quote from the article I though was great:

Ray: "When men I have dated over the years whined about, 'Oh, you make no time for me' -- see ya! I just dumped them. I don't need that pressure in my life."

Obviously it's her life and her choice.....having said that, I think it's very wise for her to decide not to have children, given her lifestyle and her ambitions. Not that a person couldn't 'have it all', but then again, how many parents and children suffer from lack of time, lack of commitment, etc.

There is no guarantee that children will take care of elderly parents. Yes, often they do, but not in all cases.

If RR knows what she wants and knows what her limitations are, I say good for her.

Before I had kids, I tried to figure out if having kids was a completely selfish act. I asked other people who didn't have kids yet, why would they have kids. Almost all said so that they wouldn't be alone when they got old.

So I went ahead and did the selfish thing and added to the population explosion. However, any selfishness I had turned into selflessness. I gladly give up everything to enhance my kids' live. Enhancing my kids' lives includes working for a better world for them.