[elli1]

Good article.

[FormerNavyBrat]

Less time with Mom and Dad has contributed to more problems for more kids over the last few decades.

Shocking! /sarcasm

I took a graduate class with another teacher who didn't see anything wrong with "latchkey kids." He didn't deny that they existed, but didn't feel that grade-school kids being home alone for hours after school was a problem.

[k2blader]

It is very difficult for me to understand why all this isn't common sense to parents. If love and commitment for their children were truly in their minds, they'd have considered the consequences of all their actions before even having them.

[Jenya]

Good article. I grew up in the 60s and 70s. My parents decided early on that my mother would be a stay-at-home Mom. Fortunately, my father made a good living and they were able to pull it off with ease. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for all couples. Two paychecks are often needed.

I'm 47 now and my parents are deceased. As I got older I appreciated the fact that my mother was home when I came home from school. Hot dinners every night. I thanked my parents often for giving me such a wonderful childhood. I loved having a non-working mother. My parents were quite a team.

[Millicent_Hornswaggle]

Very good article. My husband and I decided I would be a stay at home mom and what a difference we see in our kids versus the kids from a two income family. The Lord has provided for us and our children are well grounded, secure kids. My father-in-law keeps telling us how proud of us he is because the boys are so good. My husbands parents were divorced and he was home alone alot. Faith in God, raise you kids as the good book directs, and a lot of prayer.

[Chiapet]

Frankly, I think the article's take on daycare is a load of crap. According to this article, the fact that I have my daughter in daycare while I work means that she will be more aggressive and sickly in the long term. I'm calling bull on that one. She's been in daycare since she was 8 months old, and is now almost 5. Not only is she MUCH healthier than her pampered stay-at-home cousins, but she gets along better with other children, and is infinitely more polite.

[Republicanprofessor]

Read later.

[redheadtoo]

My mother was a stay home mom who didn't work outside of the house. She was there almost everyday when my sister and I came home from school. But occasionally she was out when we got home. Mom said my sister and I reacted very differently to this.

If I found the house empty when I got home I would read a book or watch some TV until Mom got home. In other words I wasn't badly affected by her temporary absence. But it was different for my sister.

My sister would sit on the front porch waiting for Mom to get home. And, as she waited, she would work herself up into an emotional froth that would spill over when my mother finally arrived home. She would cry and dump a load of guilt on our mother. If Mom had worked outside of the house my sister would have probably become a basket case.

Not all kids with working mothers end up traumatized but there are enough sensitive kids out there to make working outside the house for a mother a questionable activity at best.

[joesnuffy]

Great article

[joesnuffy]

After all, another paycheck makes fathers' lives easier, too. Similarly, divorce is easier, and men are freer to walk away from their children when Mom is already working and won't be left entirely destitute as she might have been if she depended on her husband's paycheck.

Another way to look at it might be that mom is freer because of making a decent living and sympathetic femanized judges, social services, family courts, and DAs to simply replace dad with anyone mom feels might be 'better' in any number of ways..

Tdays dad's basically have velcro on their backs and like paper dolls are quite easily exchanged

As one femanist professor of wymon's studies put it...Men are like real estate...you get into what you can afford with an eye to trade up...

The effect on chidren and family and ultimately the nation is devastating...

But then that was the plan from the git go...and it's straight from the pit of hell...

imo

[pabianice]

Howard Dean has already proposed a new cabinet member, Secretary of Babysitting.

[Miss Behave]

Aside from being endlessly thankful that my mom was a stay at home mommy, it made all the WORLD to me and my siblings knowing that she was just a few blocks away from our grade school...at home. Today's mega grade schools bus the little kids clear across creation to the new, bright, shiny, bigger, *better* schools. Gone are most neighborhood schools. I'm sorry, but it's a crime. I felt such security knowing mommy was just a quick run home, or a short, five minute wait to pick me or my siblings up, should we fall ill. These things are SO important to children. When the skies turned black and the thunder and lightning and wind came, I knew that me and my siblings (all under ONE roof in an also now defunct K-6 grade school) were near MOMMY.

It takes getting into a child's mind for adults to understand just how important it is to be with, or very near their parents, in feeling love and security.

What kind of loveless, clueless adult came up with the mega GRADE school idea?

Was it Hillary, by chance?

[EdReform]

Ping

[EGPWS]

Is there a common theme that connects the numerous problems of American children today?

Yes, a nanny state.

When I was 5 years old I was left alone at home and with blessings from my parents and me.

When I was in first grade I walked to school through "the woods" and my teacher chastised me for not walking home for lunch when my Mom and Dad gave me lunch money to eat at school.

The problem is a fervor for lack of individual responsibility and a zest by some to insist that an individual can not survive on his own without the care of the state.

[jjames001]

I could go either way on this...

I find my friends, those who have stay at home mothers, to be more spoiled and from my point of view, less polite. Kids need to learn to solve their own problems. They can't always depend on their parents to fix their issues.

I'm turning 15 in a few months. Sadly, we rarely have any good family dinners that was aren't on holidays or other special occasions. I have never experienced that even before my parents got divorced. My brother and I have been alone the majority of our lives. We were brought up as Christians, have good social lives, have had girlfriends, aren't intrested in having sex or oral sex, don't drink alcohol unless with parents (state law in wisconsin allows it), we don't do drugs or smoke, don't suffer from depression or have psychiatric problems, not obece(sp?) don't get in fights at school, we participate in many sports, get decent grades, and in fact, my older brother, 17, is enlisting in the Marines to be a UAV pilot. I will be enlisting in the Marines once i graduate from highschool too. (Not sure what MOS appeals most to me...)

My brother and I have turned out to be good teens who know how to live on our own. Most of what we have isn't from our parents love or caring about us, it is because they pray to God. Our loving relatives (especially my wonderful grandmother) pray and pray to Him for the best for us too.

IMHO

[sharktrager]

I was a latchkey kid from the age of 5 on.

Trust me, it is not something that is good for kids.

[andysandmikesmom]

I was born in the mid 1940s, my brother a few years later...fortunately dad made enough money for mom to stay home, and he worked lots of overtime, so that we had a little extra money, for vacations, and a few extras...

What I remember most happily about mom staying home, to be with us kids, was the feeling I had when I came into the house after school, especially on a cold winters nite...I would come in, and the windows would all be steamed on the inside, from moms cooking all day long...baking bread or cookies, making homemade soups or stew...there was nothing as pleasant to walk into a warm, sweet smelling home, after a day at school, and the long cold walk home...

After I got married and had my first baby, I had to go back to work, as the hubby was still in college...seemed to be no other way...but my parents took care of my son...they were like a second set of parents to him...if I had to put him into daycare at 5months of age, I dont know how well I would have coped with that...but as he was with my parents during the day, I knew he would receive all the love, and attention he needed...he loved his grandparents so much,they loved him so much, so altho I greatly missed him, while I was at work, I was confident that he was being cared for and loved as much as could be..that made my working outside the home easier...

But when I had my second boy 4 years later, I did not go work...by that time, my husband was making more money, and we made do with my staying home....when the second boy turned 2, I got a part time job in the evening...my husband would come home from work, we would all have dinner together, and have an hour or so with the whole family together...then I would go to my part time evening job, for 5 hours a nite, and the boys would have an evening alone with their dad ...actually, the boys often said, they really enjoyed having their evenings alone with dad...he was not as strict as I was, so they said, and he let them get away with more..he had the chore of bathing them and putting them to bed, but I must say, they were always thrilled with being along with their dad...

Its difficult often for young couple trying to juggle family, children, careers, and whatever else life throws at you...I would never condemn anyone for their choices, because I do truly believe that most parents do what they think is best for their children...

For the most part, I tried to stay at home as much as I could with my children, and I am glad I did it that way...they are little, for such a short time, and I am thankful I was able to share that time with them...

[Calpernia]

"Home-Alone America: The Hidden Toll of Day Care, Behavioral Drugs, and Other Parent Substitutes"

MAJOR BUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!