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From: ellis@FLAIRMAX.UUCP (Michael Ellis)
Newsgroups: net.women
Subject: Re: a balanced life
Message-ID: <212@FLAIRMAX.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 8-Sep-83 04:23:01 EDT
Article-I.D.: FLAIRMAX.212
Posted: Thu Sep  8 04:23:01 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 8-Sep-83 07:26:29 EDT
Organization: Fairchild AI Lab, Palo Alto, CA
Lines: 47

Yes! Yes! This society needs to offer much more paternity & maternity
leave than the current 0 for men and several weeks for women!

Children who spend their 1st 6 years at day care centers instead of
with their parents (both - equally!) are getting a bum deal. My first
six years at home with my mother were the most wonderful time in my
life! Too bad my father wasn't there, though (he was at work).

So what's an enlightened woman to do these days? To stay at home scrubbing
floors is to be discarded at age 50. To take up a career is to either
raise maladjusted children or forego child rearing entirely - leaving
the creation of the next generation to traditionally-minded women.

With child rearing getting such bad press from hardcore libbers, it's not
surprising so many men continue the uninvolved ways of their fathers - yet
it seems clear that men's lagging attitudes are at the center of the
problem.

No wonder the women's movement is failing so badly, what with so many men
who consider the role of househusband to be degrading.  Women's lib is
dying from it's exclusivity by concentrating on women acquiring the worst
aspects of traditional masculinity rather than encouraging men to acquire
the best qualities of traditional womanhood.

What's needed is simply:

1. The recognition by all that child nurturing is the highest achievment
   of a man's or woman's life, and not a boring, despicable burden, which
   attitude results in malformed children, and lack of paternal involvement.
 
2. Women who make enough money to support their families when it is the
   man's turn to stay at home. Too much disparity in income will cause
   pressure on one or the other to keep working, resulting in a less
   balanced life for both. Dammit, why aren't more women studying math?

3. Equal and extensive (3 years) job leave for new parents. Without pay is
   fine, since the salary of one engineer is easily enough to support a
   family of 4 - provided they're not hung up on expensive TV-inspired crap
   like BMW's and impressive gadget-laden houses in dull, pretentious
   neighborhoods. After all, what 3-year old child cares about these things?

In Patricia Collin's words:

>   Are there any organizations working toward The Enlightenment
>   of The Establishment in this area?  Where do I sign up?

-michael `remember John Lennon' ellis