Young Readers Challenge, Back Writer’s Views

I love hearing from the next generation and it pleases me to know my column is occasionally the subject of a school current events assignment. Here are three of the most recent batch of letters, edited for space.

Dear Jennifer: I’m responding to your article, “Views differ on issues of work and child care.” I don’t agree with you when you say women have always worked. You are implying that women have always been in business, whether it’s the farm or the office.

Well, I think we need to define what work is. It is work to stay home and raise your children, giving them morals, love and time. Do you really think all women were farmers?

If the women were farmers, what were the men? Women stayed home, fed the kids, helped with schoolwork, kept house, etc. Is that farming?

You also said, “Parenting is not always the hardest job in the world … it is not for all parents the most fulfilling, satisfying job they could imagine.” So what is? Who or what determines parents as having their own lives now that they have brought another human into the world? - Tiffany, age 17

Dear Jennifer: I’m writing in response to your column on work and child care. I agree with your stance on this issue. I don’t mind watching my tax dollars go to those who can’t work or don’t make enough money to support their families. But to see my tax dollars go to pay for the support of children whose parents are able to work but justify staying home by saying they are caring for children is wrong.

There is one problem I have with your articles and it is true of this one as well. You state that raising children is the most important job in the world, but then you don’t show how to raise healthy children. You’re what we say in my current events class, “Great at blowing smoke.”

My mother worked to support us. Never once did I hear her complain. I respect her because she made the choice to work hard. The sight of my mother getting up early, taking me to school, going to work and then facing chores at home is something I will never forget. - Peter, age 17

Dear Jennifer: I agree with what you said. That’s a first for me. I mean agreeing with you. It is not my responsibility to provide for people who are too lazy to work, even if they think they are using a good excuse. I believe you can be a great parent and still work outside the house. My mom passed away on Christmas in 1994.

My dad did not say to my brothers and me, “OK guys, time to become leeches off of the government.” He worked his butt off, continuing to support us and beyond. Not only did he give me more than enough to live off of, but he was also one of my best friends.

In one of your previous columns you agreed with the idea of limiting families to two children. This is absolutely ludicrous. You know who is enforcing that idea nowadays?

Communist China is. If you want to have something to do with communism then fine, get out of this great capitalist, democratic country of ours and go live on your own little communist island of death. - Jason, age 17

Dear students: Jason, don’t banish me again. I am a happy capitalist and always have been. I have never written that we should enforce population controls. I do believe, as do many patriotic and loyal Americans, that population is an issue to be considered thoughtfully. I think most Americans will make good family-size decisions on their own. All I advocate is public discussion, which is the very foundation of a democracy. When you say “love it or leave it,” you become a dictator and that is even worse than communism.

Tiffany, there is no reason to argue over worker labels. Both child care and farming are labor. Read the diaries of the pioneer women, or study any hunting-and-gathering or farming community in the world, and you will find women worked in the fields and with the animals.

You have bought an idealized picture of some happy woman in a farmhouse kitchen that cannot be backed up by any historical records.

Women have always worked inside and outside the home. The only exception were the few wealthy women who had slaves or servants.

Many people prefer to be artists, writers, researchers, adventurers.

Why isn’t it reasonable to make other choices? What would be wrong if a male or female chose not to have a child? I think there are many harder jobs than parenting: police work, emergency room staff, soldiers in war, air traffic controllers, teaching physically challenged children, assisting the dying, children’s protective services. Parenting may be the most accountable work but not the hardest.

Peter, this column is about “blowing smoke.” It’s about ideas. If we can think clearly, we can solve problems. You can decide how to raise healthy children. I wouldn’t dare tell you what to do, but I will always ask you to think about it.

Keep thinking and writing. - Jennifer

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Jennifer James The Spokesman-Review