Posted on 04/27/2005 10:16:13 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
For all their professional advances, there are still a few things that women simply can’t do as well as men.
One of the more fatuous beliefs that has been foisted off by self-proclaimed feminists and other politically correct lamebrains is that children don’t really need fathers. I used to say that American women, thanks to increased salaries and well-stocked sperm banks, had reached a point where they only needed men to open ketchup bottles and get stuff down from high shelves. Ladies, I was joking!
I had no idea that so many women took the line to heart. Thanks to my good joke and Gloria Steinem’s bad one -- that crack about fish needing bicycles -- women have become increasingly wacky. What is really surprising, considering that thirty years of feminist propaganda has promoted the natural superiority of females, is how masculine, in the worst sense of the word, women have become.
Surely I am not the only person who has noticed that these days young women are just as likely as men to smoke, to get bombed on booze and cuss in public, and perhaps even likelier to drive like maniacs and to flip you off for daring to share the road with them.
In the business world, far too many women salivate at the thought of being regarded as cold and ruthless. They are every bit as likely to torment and humiliate their employees, and to promote an atmosphere of fear and anger, especially among their female underlings. Call these women cut-throat and they think you’re trying to sweet talk them.
Perhaps it’s simply a case of Stockholm syndrome gone amuck. As you probably know, that’s a situation in which hostages come to identify, not with their rescuers, but with their captors. Women, in their own defense, might possibly claim that they’d been powerless for so long that it was inevitable that they’d take on the very characteristics they’ve despised. But that’s a load of hooey. I say, if you’re going to behave like an idiot and a bully, don’t make excuses for your boorishness. God knows men don’t!
Inasmuch as more and more women are eager to hand off their offspring to a nanny, a granny or a nursery school, you have to wonder why most of them even bother giving birth. All they seem to have to show for the experience are stretch marks.
In a society that is determined to accept the nutty notion that two gay men or a pair of lesbians are just as likely -- they really mean likelier -- to raise a normal, healthy child as a married man and woman, how could anybody dare suggest that a single woman isn’t equally capable? Well, she isn’t. This is especially true when the child is a boy. No matter how hard she tries, no matter how much she cares, no matter how many broken nails she’s willing to sacrifice in order to play catch with the kid, the bottom line is she’s a woman. And just because so many of the morons in Hollywood have turned single motherhood into just another fad, sort of like collagen lips and plastic bosoms, doesn’t make it a good idea.
It simply makes sense that a boy needs a man in his life to act as a role model, to show him not only how to curb his temper and to temper his testosterone, but also how to avoid being feminized into something resembling a well-dressed eunuch.
The point I am looking to make I saw made perfectly in a segment of a TV magazine show some years ago. It seems that in Africa, on a game preserve, the rangers were discovering the mutilated carcasses of several rhinos. They couldn’t determine who was responsible for the carnage, and they couldn’t imagine a motive.
After conducting an investigation, they found to their amazement that a band of teenage elephants was killing the rhinos for no other reason than that they felt like it. It was their version of drive-by shootings. Like our own urban gangs, the young rogues even had a leader.
The rangers thought long and hard about the problem. The first thing they realized was that the teenagers were free to make up their own evil rules of behavior because, like the blood-thirsty kids in Lord of the Flies, there were no adults in their world. All the bull elephants had been slaughtered by poachers for their ivory.
Then, because they didn’t have to answer to politicians or social workers, the rangers did two essential things. First, having determined he was incorrigible, they killed the leader of the pack. Next, they flew in several bull elephants. In no time at all, order was restored. The big guys let it be known that if there was any more rhino-stomping, there would be hell to pay. Their message was short and sweet; namely that elephants don’t behave that way.
So, for all their professional advances, there are still a few things that women simply can’t do as well as men. Some of those things, such as throwing a football forty yards in a perfect spiral or crushing a beer can on their forehead, aren’t all that essential. Important, I’ll grant you, but not absolutely essential to society at large.
However, when it comes to rearing male children, we’d all probably be better off if the ladies simply dropped the kids off in the woods for wolves to raise.
Burt Prelutsky has written for Dragnet, McMillan & Wife, MASH, Mary Tyler Moore, Rhoda, Bob Newhart, Family Ties, Dr. Quinn, and Diagnosis Murder. He wrote a humor column for the Los Angeles Times and was the movie critic for Los Angeles magazine. His most recent book is Conservatives Are From Mars, Liberals Are From San Francisco (A Hollywood Rightwinger Comes Out of the Closet).
Fathers are absolutely essential to boys. I spent a summer living at my Grandmother's house when I was 12, because my family was building a new house, and they didn't want I and my sister living in the mess. This was the only time in my life that I got into trouble. Nothing major, of course, but began to get involved with vandalism and the like. When the house was finished, and I came back home, I spent all of the next 6 months right by my dad every minute I was at home. I can't explain exactly why, but dads are so very important to a boy that age.
I'm a single Dad with a son, who is now 15. Been raising pretty much by myself since he was 4, a lot of help from his Grandma. He seems to be turning out good, ethical and street smart; academics are terrible but improving now. Conversely, I worry a lot about him not having a mother's love and influence in his life.
I try to be both mother and father to my little son by taking him fishing and camping, teaching him about guns, encouraging him to take risks instead of being like most timid, worried mothers, putting him on horseback, etc.
You are not trying to be a mother and a father; you are succeeding at being an excellent parent. Your son is blessed to have you!
Children without fathers ---> Fathers who don't know how to be husbands and fathers ---> Children without fathers.
I have never heard a response to this statement that comes close to passing the sniff test.
It's not just the sons. Girls need their fathers too.
I have a staunch environmentalist feminist friend from college that adopted a baby girl from South America. The four year-old is now completely undisciplined, as the mother considers herself above "harsh" methods of discipline. Every other book in the house deals with environmentalism, as the mother is trying to turn the daughter into a clone of herself. It's already clear the daughter's personality is very different, so there are probably going to be some huge fights in a decade or so.
If a father was around, there's a good chance he would say "Dear, our daughter doesn't have to like everything you like." The two-parent system forces compromises and is thus a check on an individual's narcisism.
Let's face it: single moms can be very narcissistic when raising daughters. They often view the daughter as an extension of themselves.
Flame away.
Doesn't mention the most obvious reason a father is important.
When a boy reaches about 15 it is highly educational for him to be knocked clear across the room for lipping off to his mom.
I know it was for me.
Looks like one Hollweird single mother, Liz Hurley, after enjoying the child birth and being reported as "radiant" has has second thoughts. Now she thinks single motherhood "sucks." See: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=4441174
Be careful. Big Brothers and Big Sisters are infested with homosexuals and sexual predators. Think about it, how many adult men (especially married men) have time to spend with someone else's kids?
I think that boys, especially, need a strong male role model. Wife has a number of male friends.....all of them are dysfunctional, liberal, gay, or a combination of the three. In all cases, the father either isn't on the scene, or is a complete limp-handshaking wimp.
Boys need a male role model - or, barring that - a strong female model - in their lives. My hat is off to the single Mom who wasn't afraid to let her kid take chances, shoot guns, etc etc etc. It's the nature of boys to test their limits, and it's much easier to recover from testing them at age 12 or 14, than at 30. :-)
"When a boy reaches about 15 it is highly educational for him to be knocked clear across the room for lipping off to his mom."
Most execellent "fathering" there, LOL! Our son will be 18 next month, and we've had a few of those moments when he was 15 & 16. I especially loved his, "You're not my Mother!" crack when I was hassling him about the losers he was hanging out with. (I'm his StepMom, but adopted him when he was four. Bio-Mom is in the picture to some extent.)
I told him I was greatly RELIEVED that I wasn't his Mother, and from here on out I wasn't going to bother to feed, clothe or shelter him. I got a nice 'Letter of Appology' within a week. I'm framing it, and presenting it to him when he becomes a Father. (Another DECADE from now, please!)
Announcer: In other news, water rolls down hill.
Leftist: That's stereotyping!
Ping to self for later.
"Be careful. Big Brothers and Big Sisters are infested with homosexuals and sexual predators."
I guess having been a "Big" myself, I give BB/BS the benefit of the doubt. The screening process for myself, and a few other women I asked to join was gruelling and endless. It was easily 6 months before we got our "littles."
I've never heard of any problems with the Big Brothers in my local area. Some guys just plain LIKE kids, and are looking forward to being Dads themselves one day. My husband (and I, to a great extent) spend a lot of time with our Godson and nieces and nephews, now that our son is nearly out of the nest. It's do-able for men, depending upon what their family situation is.
But, best to be safe when kids are concerned.
At 14, my daughter forced me out of her life with her mother's encouragement and active participation. I was told at the time that I was the most horrible influence in her life and I should just "do the right thing" and go away. Her mother could barely contain her glee.
Now my daughter is 19, unmarried, unemployed, and pregnant with the father long gone. When my ex called to inform me, she preceeded with "This is all your fault".
Hmmph. Imagine that...
So VERY true! Children of both sexes need parents of both sexes. Period. They learn different and valuable lessons from each. Do you think God a plan? :)
oops...had a plan
I have the opposite problem. Being the father of two children I try to be a mother as well as a father. It is my hardest job. In fact it's impossible! I just have to manage as best I can. They see their mother fairly regularly but it is not enough.
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