I guess they just figure it wouldn't be funny if they were even consistent, let alone mature and well-balanced.

@Knixon said:

I guess they just figure it wouldn't be funny if they were even consistent, let alone mature and well-balanced.

Don't need "mature and well-balanced"—would be totally opposite the “true” definition of nerd; but, ‘consistent’ would be nice.

Wonder:

--Anyone with any “in-show” that could account for Howard’s flip-flop (ha ha).

The kids are going to be raised by Raj and Stewart anyways.

@FormerlyKnownAs said:

My great grandparents had 13. If my great grandfather "suffered" as much as Howard, then I haven't been visiting his grave nearly enough.

I'll venture a guess and say that they loved sex and dependable birth control wasn't available back then?

I, too, have taken issue with Howard's reversal from wanting to be a dad so badly, to being scared to death of it/not seeming to want it. It makes about as little sense to me as him freaking out about money. About the only thing that we can now say is consistent is that Howard freaks out about many things. Poor anxious Howie.

@Lemons said:

I, too, have taken issue with Howard's reversal from wanting to be a dad so badly, to being scared to death of it/not seeming to want it. It makes about as little sense to me as him freaking out about money. About the only thing that we can now say is consistent is that Howard freaks out about many things. Poor anxious Howie.

I don't watch the show on a regular basis but I'm thinking that he's afraid of being a 'dirtbag' like his father?

@bratface said:

@Lemons said:

I, too, have taken issue with Howard's reversal from wanting to be a dad so badly, to being scared to death of it/not seeming to want it. It makes about as little sense to me as him freaking out about money. About the only thing that we can now say is consistent is that Howard freaks out about many things. Poor anxious Howie.

I don't watch the show on a regular basis but I'm thinking that he's afraid of being a 'dirtbag' like his father?

Yes, that thought had occurred to me, too, except why wasn't he afraid of that all along? Before he was hot to trot to reproduce.

And a big part of his parenthood pitch to Bernadette was that he wouldn't be like his own father, or like hers for that matter.

Well as much as we like to say that we will not turn out like them, most of us do turn out like our parents, maybe a bit watered down but still...

@FormerlyKnownAs said:

I can see him—maybe—being a little unsure of himself “parent-wise” with the first one; but isn’t he a tad too twitchy for a second-time-arounder?

What gives?

---

The writers must feel that a weak and neurotic Howard is funny. To me at least, he's not. It's just a re-run of last season and it's particularly weak writing. However, seeing as they have a new showrunner, and his hands were forced with this due to Melissa's real life pregnancy, and we unfortunately have to go through this story AGAIN because Lorre and company pushed the pregnancy story last year when they didn't need to, I'll cut them some slack. But this is a example of why you don't play the pregnancy card on TV until you have to. Because invariably it's likely to happen anyway. If you wait for that, the stories and dialog seems fresh. But alas....

Makes damn sense now why they decided to make Bernadette pregnant again. I didn't know Melissa was pregnant.

@znexyish said:

The kids are going to be raised by Raj and Stewart anyways.

Between bouts over every woman they meet.

Although, now that they'll have one kid each, maybe there will, at least, be less competition in that area.

So now they fight over which baby each of them raises?

A local station reruns 2 episodes a night (first one is from season 1 & the second has been from season 8), anyway this week there were the 2 (?) episodes about Stuart & Penny dating. I had forgotten how Stuart was in the beginning, he was self-assured, not pathetic but still a bit clueless, when Penny asked him in for 'coffee' after the first date he remarked that it was a bit late for coffee (doofus) and when he understood what she meant he still let Sheldon distract him and Penny fell asleep while they were discussing whatever. But he had the 'stones' to ask Penny out twice! What happened to that guy?

He had to get out of the way so Leonard could have Penny as God intended. Or as foretold by prophecy, take your pick.