First Comes Junior In a Baby Carriage (4 in 10 Births by Single Moms)

MSNBC Newsweak ^ | 6 Dece,ber 2--6 | Debra Rosenberg and Pat Wingert

[Cogadh na Sith]

I'd hope that both parents (or the single parent) would cut back on work and perhaps move closer to their jobs (less of a commute).

Oho! So it's a good and necessary thing to cut back on your career and feminist corporate life for the good of your kids.

Like your parents did for you....

Why wouldn't you do that for your kids?

[Cogadh na Sith]

Some couples I know waited an extra year or so to start kids so they could afford for the wife to stay at home.

That's what we did....

[RochesterFan]

There is nothing wrong with aspiring to be "the best," whether top ten MBA, Ph. D., or sports programs. As I'm sure we both agree, the key is the balance between hard work and attention to family, one's physical fitness, and being a responsible citizen in the community.

I still remember a time in grad school when a rather mediocre professor who had a couple too many drinks at lunch berated all the grad students for not working hard enough. He felt we should all be in the lab to at least 1 a.m. About a week later, several of us were there at 2 a.m. and wanted to take a photo and post it on his door with the words, "we are here, where the (expletive deleted) are you?" That said, we really felt sorry for him - his daughter got married and he didn't realize she had a boyfriend. The prof was both arrogant and clueless about much of what truly mattered.

[Cogadh na Sith]

There's a wide range in between, believe it or not.

I believe it, but I was addressing the false choices our young and naive poster was championing.

Stay with the tour bus.

[Cogadh na Sith]

I just haven't met many who have been able to articulate how it actually works. Absence of evidence, evidence of absence, and all that jazz.

Precisely my point.

[HitmanLV]

I call 'em like they are! ;-)

[Accygirl]

Google... There's more than enough papers and stats out there. For instance, there were definitely no laws protecting women from discrimination in the workplace. These were part of the Civil Rights Act which was enacted in 1965. The 1950s represented a major step back for women who had made strides in the three decades before (i.e. winning the right to vote, working outside the home during the Depression and WWII).

[Accygirl]

Working a forty hour work week is different from becoming a PTA mommy and baking cookies.

[Accygirl]

I'm a big fan of the Lean Cuisine T.V. dinners myself.

[Accygirl]

"You are putting waaaaay too much emphasis on MBA programs. You seem consumed by the prospect of getting into an elite b-school."

Many women my age are consumed with getting graduate degrees. I don't see why this is bad.

"I bet you still live at home and the parents are footing the bill for your school (am I right?). "

Some yes... But some is from my grandma who left me some money for the express purpose of getting a graduate degree when she died. The rest is student loans, grants, and money that I've actually saved up. Frankly, I consider it to be an investment that's going to pay for itself in a couple of years.

My parents did foot the bill for my college tuition. (I went to a state school, which meant I was incredibly cheap).

"Before you start throwing fast food employees, soldiers, and mechanics under the bus, take a walk in their shoes."

Women find guys in dead end jobs like burger flipping unsexy, and most gals with college degrees want to date guys with college degrees. Why the hell is that so hard to understand?

[Accygirl]

At a department store in an entry level job for probably less than her male counterparts made... I very much doubt that there were many women executives, managers, doctors, and lawyers back in the 50s.

[Big Horn]

And, it all leads to the decline of a nation!

Things are going to hell in a hand basket.

[Accygirl]

"Do you enjoy wine tasting, art museums, concerts and political lectures because they appeal to you personally, or because you were taught to do so in college?"

Nope, that's just my personal likes; however, I did develop some of them in college. Frankly, I cannot stand hanging out in bars and found by the end of my freshman year of college that whole scene was really old. There was much more interesting things to do on campus.

"Do you believe that "Army guys" are taught to enjoy camping and football during basic training, or maybe at the burger-flipping academy? "

Probably class difference... A guy (or gal) from a working class background probably has different interests than I do. It isn't right or wrong (I'm sure that they think I'm an idiot because I don't like football); it's just the way the wind blows. People generally flock to people with similar backgrounds.
"And finally, what do you think makes you "intellectual"?" I enjoy intellectual pursuits, i.e. reading, foreign films, lectures, etc. This is different than saying I'm a Harvard professor.

[Cogadh na Sith]

Working a forty hour work week is different from becoming a PTA mommy and baking cookies.

'Cuz y'know working a forty hour week and letting the illegal alien nanny raise your kids = GOOD

And becoming a PTA mommy and baking cookies = BAD

S'matter with you?!

Get your degree; kick ass at your profession; be a professional and make a squillion dollars, but please don't have kids.

The poor little buggers would suffer.

You're about 22-23 aren't you?

22 y/o girls.... The smartest creatures on the face of the earth. Man's laws; The laws of physics and even God's Laws don't apply to them--they know it all.

Just ask them....

[durasell]

This thread is just painful to read...

[1L]

Still a wide race gap here. According to the CDC, from 2004, White out of wedlock birth rates were 24%. Blacks were 69%. Hispanics were 46%. Asians were the lowest at 15%.

[Dianna]

My grandmother worked when her kids were grown. She worked at a department store. That was in the 50s.

Both of my grandmothers worked as well. My dad's family was quite poor; both grandma and grandpa worked as cleaning people. The older children looked after the younger ones.

I have no idea what my mom's mother did. I'll have to ask. But, as a family, they were middle class.

[durasell]

As a young woman you've realized that life is pretty darned tough. That money is important. And that you have certain standards for a man, a career and a lifestyle below which you are loathe to go willingly.

On this thread you've learned another important lesson. Smile prettily, be positive (cause boys like that in their gals!) and never, ever mention all that foolish stuff about careers and lifesyle again.

[Dianna]

When it comes to sports, ANY sport, the kids who make the team normally have been playing in organized leagues from age 7 or 8.

My 8 year old played football in one of these leagues. Well, he did until we yanked him out!

The amount of time the coaches insisted we devote to the team was ridiculous given the children's ages. Then, half of the kids didn't get to play. Once I saw that they planned to keep the kids to 2 1/2 hour practices every day, plus games on Saturday during the school year, I took my son out.

That was more football practice than my middle schooler had! Which, of course, was why my younger one wanted to play.

[Cogadh na Sith]

"And finally, what do you think makes you "intellectual"?"

I enjoy intellectual pursuits, i.e. reading, foreign films, lectures, etc. This is different than saying I'm a Harvard professor.

So consuming other peoples' works makes you an intellectual?

No... That makes you a pseudo-intellectual.

Creating new things makes you an intellectual.
Thinking new things makes you an intellectual.
Becoming a new thing makes you an intellectual.

You haven't even paid the entrance fee to Intellectual-land....

In spite of it's trappings, an MBA is merely a high-level vocational degree. It is all concerned with the worries and narrow-mind of the shopkeeper.

It is the concrete world; not the abstract ideas of Science; Math; Medicine; Art; Politics or War.

You may become a highly successful businesswoman without ever having had an original idea....

At least the 'PTA Mom', the 'burger flipper', and the soldier you denigrate all create something new and they all make life better for other people.

In such they are Noble.

You spurn nobility for the narrow-mind of the bottom-line--for the worries of the shopkeeper.

and you consider yourself an intellectual.