Sacajawea - little know it all that won't shut her maize hole

Turned in my dissertation to the committee today. I think that deserves a gallon of ice cream and some sweet mermaid sex.

I was having a debate today about parenthood. Apparently, I'm appallingly awful on the question of "family values". So here is my argument:

America, particularly the governmental, media, and religious aspects, love to discuss how the breakdown of families is happening at an alarming rate and what we can do to stop it. I'm referring specifically to parents raising children and spending time with them. I guess that is the great goal of man - get married, pump out a few babies, then die before you become a drain on social services. Why is this the almighty American dream? Because some douche bag with a big pointy hat said so.

Back to the point. We don't really believe in child rearing. The economic and social system in this country is not structured to nurture parental care of children. A family of four cannot easily survive on one paycheck, especially for lower income families. So both parents have to work. Next, corporate life is not arranged around time for baseball games, school plays, and homework. It's about maximizing employee work with the lowest expenses. Time off for family doesn't jive well with that. On top of all that, some psychologist with a degree from Internet Tech decided that only a child's parents should be responsible for that child. Children and families are not viewed as a responsibility or an asset of society. So parents have no helpful social support network. Sure, grandparents help out and siblings help out. But that's not the same as having a social system geared toward children. It's just extending the idea that families have to make it on their own. I can't think of anyone that would be comfortable with their child being punished by a neighbor for doing something unacceptable. You know, lighting cats on fire or masturbating in public. Kid things.

But history has shown us that families generally don't raise kids on their own. It's a recent phenomenon. We no longer send kids to boarding school. We trust our televisions but not our neighbors to teach kids. We don't give them meaningful work that adds to the family or community. Instead, we tell them they're too young to do things, we coddle them from reality, and we teach them to distrust everyone. Then they go all Menendez.

The crux of the matter is this: America professes to believe in child rearing but we don't respect parents or families. We scoff at people who would rather spend time with their family than earn money. We disrespect the women and men that work so hard to balance their expected family roles with full time jobs. We look down on women that work hard to provide their family with money and on men that would like to be fathers.

Anybody that believes the current economic and social system is family friendly and people "just aren't trying hard enough" can walk in front of a bus. If we want people to be more involved with their families (and by extension communities) we really need to rethink our priorities. Personally, I'd rather be with my family than some fat slob at the office who wants to discuss the latest world shattering development on American Idol.

And for the last time, those weren't mermaids, they were salmon!