Good Tuesday Morning!

1. Question – Is one of the reasons why everything is so upside down because our gender roles have morphed into one?

2. Thought – Fathers, of earlier generations – no less loving, no less devoted, different circumstances, different criteria: they were the sole breadwinners. They hammered away at the office. Mothers stayed home, ran things there. Mothers, like mine, did 99% of what was then widely understood to be mothering. So, more or less, had it always been, with their parents, and theirs before them, all the way back to, one presumes, a quiet watering hole somewhere in the Rift Valley.

At home fathers shared tales of their forays in the wider world. They imparted wisdom and authority from on high. Father, after all, knew best. Often today’s mothers – Janice, for example – work outside the home, too, and brings home with them much of the steam and managerial style of a day at the office. Often they win as much bread as, or more than, their husbands. This changes the equation in both fact and perception – the very concept of gender roles seems less relevant today, even archaic – which changes parenting, which of course changes children. Confronted by this new parental full-court press, contemporary children will often respond with a shrugging compliance, even passivity. This is the new normal. They go along to get along, as a teacher friend observed sympathetically, because it’s too much trouble not to. (You Are Not Special by David McCullough, Jr.)

“Government is really a crappy dad.” (John Stossell)