My mother was born in Dayton, Ohio
just weeks before World War I came to an end--you know the one-- "the war that
was to end all wars"?
Her
family, which consisted of her mother, father and an
older brother moved to NYC when she was only two, so
it is be a fair statement to say she was a
"big-city" girl who grew up during the
roaring twenties.
Somehow it isn't as easy to write about my Mother as
it was to write about "Daddy". My mother
and I had a strained relationship, right from the
start. I suppose many girls and their mothers have
such an ambivilant relationship. I have heard many of
my friends say the same things that I do, in that
they got along better with their Father, than with
their Mother.
Remember now, I was born before the "fanatic
feminists" took over and decided that
"equality" means "it's get even
time", and tried to convince everyone that all
men are apes. Since Jesus Christ was a man, they must
also consider him an ape, and I suspect that is why
he gets so little respect from them. Forget about
worship, I don't think it is even in their
vocabulary.
Doesn't is seem strange that for 6000 years with the
government in the hands of Adam, we trained up armies
to go out and kill our neighbors children, and today
after just 30 years of government in the hands of Eve
the feminists teach our daughter's to kill their own
children?
I am sorry if that seems a harsh statement,
but as I look around at this country today and read
the newspapers it is hard to escape that opinion.
The way some of these women carry on one would think
that Adam invented child-bearing, just to keep Eve in
her place. If one reads the Bible, it is plain that
it was NOT Adam who invented child-bearing, or who
made the rules, it was God. I don't see that God
meant motherhood as a punishment at all. I would have
been quite happy to skip the labor pains, but as they
say, "no gain without pain" (or something
stupid like that).
I can honestly say that I like the motherhood
thingie. The rewards of motherhood far out-weigh any
of the draw-backs. Of course that is only my opinion,
and not all share that view, but I had the advantage
of seeing the issue or motherhood versus career from
both sides. I have been a stay-at-home mom, and a
working girl.
I don't think that any woman should be forced to
raise a family, or to have a child just so that
society will find her contributions to society
worthwhile. If a woman is comfortable with a career
instead of motherhood, I say, go for it, but be sure
to turn off that old biological clock, unless one is
fortunate enough to find a stay-at-home dad to care
for them.
Society has changed much with respect to
"primary care-givers". (Don't you just love
to be called that Mom?) Not all of the changes are
bad, but some of them are ridiculous.
When I was a young girl, it was not really
fashionable to yearn for a career, but in my mother's
day, seeking a career instead of a family was
scandalous. Today, I think the pendulum has swung too
far to the left, and those of us who are happy with
the arrangement and like to be stay-at-home moms, and
raise a family, are looked down upon, but maybe it
will swing back to the right, and it can't happen
soon enough as far as I'm concerned.
Hopefully people will wake up and realize that the
government makes lousy parents. This
"entitlement" generation they are raising
has made the tax burden so huge that a woman can't
easily stay home, as two salaries are necessary--for
necessities!
As I said I was more fortunate then some, (or maybe just born at
the right time) and I got to stay home and raise my
family, and only went to work when they were well
into their teens. The reason I bring this up is not
to complain or to put anyone down, (even though I am
doing a lot of complaining), it is because I found
raising a family a lot more rewarding that a career.
After my husband died, I had no choice but to go into
the workforce. Unhappily I learned how much
frustration and aggravation he had to put up with. If
I had known, I might have been more sympathetic when
he had a bad day.
Even though I had a great job, a great boss, and a
great salary, I am now a very happy retiree. There is
another plus to being a mother also, and that is my
boss never sent me a birthday card, and my children
always do.*smile*
Why did I get on this kick? Oh yes, I remember, I was
explaining why my mother and I never got along well.
When W.W. II broke out, my mother, like many other
young women went to work to keep the home fires
burning. My grandfather became too ill to work just
at that time, and it was very hard for my grandmother and he to make
ends meet, so they moved in with us to pool resources
and talents.
Things were different then. The family
was your safety net, not DC alphabet soup. As a
result, it was my grandmother who raised me during my
formative years and it was she I bonded with. When my
mother quit work, after the war was over, and had
another baby things got bad.
One thing was, that my mother really liked working,
and found raising a daughter a drag. Then my brother
came along, and knocked my nose out of joint.
Yuck!
It is strange, how no two women think exactly alike
where child rearing is concerned, even a mother and
daughter, and when my mother tried to re-train me to
her way, it was too late. I was used to my
grandmother's ways, and candidly I resented her
interference in my life.
It wasn't until I married and had children of my own,
that our relationship became at all friendly.
