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Politics : The Left Wing Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Poet who wrote (4913)	6/30/2001 10:43:06 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6089

I've never thought of the adage that childrearing is the world's most difficult job as "right-wing claptrap". I think Cohen's dead wrong. What's your opinion of his view? Right wing and claptrap. I'll try claptrap first. I don't know how qualified I am to opine on whether or not parenting is hard or easy, never having done it. I never did it, in part, because I was not well suited for it. I would have found the job impossibly mind-numbing and suffocating. I think, though, that there are people who are very well suited for it. Whether or not we find our jobs hard or easy is very much a function of how suited we are to them and how good we are at them. I'd bet that Shaq finds his job relatively easy, but I sure wouldn't. It seems to me that the job of parenting should not be taken on by those who aren't suited any more than a right-brained twinkie should become an accountant or an introvert should be a salesman. Now for right wing. In whose interest is it that parenting be regarded by society as hard? Well, parents, for one. We all want our jobs to be respected. I think that Cohen's right in that it's also in the interests of the right wing. More tax breaks for parents, moms staying home, a pedestal for family living. It might also be in the interest of those on the left who want the government to help support the kids of single mothers and more government and employer services for parents. I wouldn't call that a draw--I'd give the self-interest edge to the right--but I think Cohen goes too far to attribute the whole thing to the agenda-enhancement of the right wing. He may have overstepped in reaction to the interpretation of that study in the last couple of weeks about how kids who use day care are more violent--the one the right wing has been trumpeting it as a mandate for moms to stay home. Karen

To: Poet who wrote (4913)	7/1/2001 12:03:45 AM
From: Dayuhan	Respond to of 6089

A very strange article. Also a fairly transparent attempt - on both sides - to adjust history to serve a partisan aim. I am no more capable of time travel than anyone else, but I have a fair bit of experience with tribal communities that live very primitive lives, and I don't think they are any less attached to their children than middle-class Americans. I also don't see that the question has any relevance at all to the question of whether homosexuals should be allowed to marry.

To: Poet who wrote (4913)	7/3/2001 3:08:14 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6089

I've never thought of the adage that childrearing is the world's most difficult job as "right-wing claptrap". I think Cohen's dead wrong. Well, doesn't it depend on your definition of "difficult" in terms of jobs? What are the factors which make a job "difficult"? Is it physical ardor (construction, logging)? High cost to others of failure (doctors, criminal defense lawyers, long haul truck drivers)? High levels of physical skill and/or training (professional athletes)? Long hours of high stress work (emergency room doctors, some lawyers)? High risk of danger to self (Combat soldier, inner city cop, open hearth steelworkers)? High risk of financial ruin to self (day trading, commodities trading)? Continuous high levels of intense mental focus and concentration (chess grandmasters, who expend more energy during a match than a football player does during a football game)? High degree of responsibility with inadequate resources (first grade teacher)? Until we have some agreement on what constitutes difficulty in the job context, it will be just opinion. Which is good to start an argument, but not good for moving a discussion forward.