A message to parents, loosely taken from the wisdom of Bill Hicks:

If you have children there tonight and I assume some of you do, I am sorry to tell you this: they are not special. No, wait hold on, don't misunderstand me. I know you think they're special. I know that. I'm just here to tell you they're not....Childbirth is not a miracle, no more a miracle than you eating a hamburger and a turd coming out of your ass...You want to bring a miracle into this world, have a kid that won't talk in a fucking movie theatre....You're not a human till you're in my phone book. There, I have thrown my hat in the political arena....


Alas, another addition from little ole me. Parenting and the residual effect it has upon society has increased in its visibility over the last, say, 50 years in America, a drop in the bucket of time for most countries, but what America lacks in age in makes up for in overzealous evolution. Most of this issue with the public having to deal with the awkwardness parenting provides is due in part to the direction we've taken to ensure economic growth and survival. As mothers became less and less able to tend to their children at home and with minimal parental support from the father outside of traditional role of breadwinner and protector, the more children became visible. Children were at large kept out of public functions until such a time came that families could no longer afford to do so. Instead of simply not having children based on economic inability, parents have been forced to compromise the environments they enjoy generally because there are no children present and bring them along anyway.

Am I saying that parents should simply stay away from public spaces until their kids are at an age when they can be presentable? No. Children started out being in their own class, with their own set of rights and limitations, and I believe those limits are for their own good and for the good of society, not because children are merely annoying when rowdy in a crowded upscale restaurant, but because it does little for educational integration of children and adults. By asking a parent why (s)he thought bringing a 5 year old to Commander's Palace, you are asking about many decisions that parent has had to make.

The problem is anchored more about being overcommitted than anything else. I understand that the desire of parents to not let too much stand in their way, which includes their young children, but because of how much more of a struggle it is to be a suitable parent today, you need to think about and consider that much more what it means and what will change when you have children. Parenting means that you will miss out on a lot, but you're supposed to. If there isn't some sort of sacrifice on the parents' parts then that child isn't going to learn a thing from them. I don't know the economics of parenting these days, but I assume if you can afford to go out on a glitzy dinner together, you can throw in some cash for a baby sitter (my examples are limited ones on purpose, so turn your flame throwers on toast upon your first perusal of my opinion). If the kid is far too young to be left with a sitter or you don't feel comfortable leaving your kid with someone else, then stay home. I know that you want to go out and do things and that kids are often complicate things, but they're supposed to.

In my opinion, a mother should be able to stay at home during most of the child's life as a child, and that if she cannot or will not due to financial struggles or desire for a career, then she should not have children. Even if our society has evolved so much that children may not need (in modern suburban circles I've eavesdropped into, you'd think this was gospel) a stay at home mom, but I tend to think some traditional reconstruction is due on many areas of soceity. That is just me and my opinion on the matter, and I am well aware that choices like those are not easy to make and that we should not curse those who have made the hardest choice, that of bringing more people into the world.