photo #1510644

Warning...this is going to turn into a longer read than most. So many are trying to figure out how to fix the divisions in our country, me included. The disintegration of the nuclear family units seem to be a major part of the equation. Many commentators blame women, I hear it. The truth is, women have ALWAYS worked in order to help the family. Originally, it was mostly done at home, she would grow and preserve the harvest, take in outside laundry, sew etc. All of this in addition to raising and educating the children, cooking, cleaning, laundry etc. After the industrial revolution, the poorer women went to the factories in order to earn CASH, after all that would make life easier. Time marched on. Middle and upper class women began attending college. In many cases, it was a means of being groomed in order to advance a future husband's career. Many more women entered the workforce during WWII. Women went into the factories and offices in numbers never seen before. When the men returned many of the married women returned home. They had experienced a sense of independence that they had never experienced before but were still constrained by convention. Single women worked, even some married women worked, but once children were born many women stayed home until the children went to school. Even then, they took jobs where they were home when the children were home. There have ALWAYS been single mothers. Society was not kind to the women, they were treated as pariahs if they were able to keep the child. Families might allow the woman and child to stay, might have forced the woman to give up the child, or might have just turned them out. As more women entered the workforce the care of the children was turned over to others. At one time the nuclear family was the center of our life. Today, it has just turned into another drain on the individual.Today, we have become so consumed with "everything" that we have forgotten about what is important. We have allowed our children to be consumed by the media machine because we are too busy doing "whatever". Our children lack basic verbal communication skills! In some ways they remind me of the children coming out of many eastern European orphanages in the 80's and 90's. The children couldn't speak, or make eye contact, but were/are quick to fight!So where do we go from here? It is time we face the truth, it is OUR job as parents and grandparents to teach OUR children and grandchildren. NOTHING is more important! We must all learn how to communicate verbally, looking one another in the eye, putting aside ALL outside influences (telephones, computers, tvs). The family DESERVES our undivided attention!