Category think

Apr 2 2013

The Stay-at-Home Mom: Doing her kids a disservice?

ImageOn my way into school this morning, I was listening to a radio show, the name and channel of which escapes me — but while I disagree with the heart of it, it did get me to thinking.

This particular caller stated that stay-at-home mothers, who raise their children with a working father, do their children a disservice (apparently, particularly their daughters…) because it is not teaching them to be self-sufficient.  Even if the husband is comfortably bringing home enough of the bacon to support the family comfortably, this particular caller stated that a mother staying at home to raise her children and to run the household does not teach children that this is a possibility in the future, with the way the economy works today.

I found this interesting, because I think it’s more a matter of teaching children to be self-sufficient in fact, versus by example.  For instance, when I was 16, I was *told* I had to have a summer job.  “No loafing for you, this summer!”  I believe was the key-term.  Granted, I had had an academically lame year and didn’t perform well at all — this could have been as much a punishment as it was a lesson.  A stay-at-home mother, in my opinion, can induce the same lesson in working in the same manner it was done to me, as both-working parents can.   Further, if both parents work, and make $100,000 a year — and don’t require their children to work, and live comfortably enough to give their 19-year old children allowances versus requiring them to move out and work — is this conducive to learning how to be self sufficient?  Sure, the old adage of “teach by example,” is a powerful force — but if this is what the children were exposed and used to from birth, would this really matter?

Related articles
Apr 1 2013

Kim Jong-un is talking to his citizens, not the USA.

This post contains mostly commentary and speculation.

More and more, I’m becoming convinced that North Korean supreme leader Kim Jong-un is not talking to the United States or to South Korea.  He’s speaking to his own people.

One thing Kim Jong-un lacked was the cult of personality his father had.  Indeed, for a number of years after the death of the “Eternal President” Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-Il was absent from the media for several years, making no appearances his first years in office as the dictator of North Korea.

However, almost  immediately after his “coming out party” in North Korea, no doubt to get him cemented into the North Korean People‘s ethos of acceptable leaders — Kim Jong-un has been all over the media.  Was this a panicked attempt to cement his image into the minds of North Koreans, knowing their ailing Supreme Leader‘s time on Earth was borrowed time?  Or was this part of a plan already in motion to get him in the public eye, and the elder Kim’s demise shortly after was just coincidence?

Because he has both a lack of military experience, save his rank of Wonsu (Marshal or “Generalissimo” ) in the [North] Korean People’s Army that he was gifted by his father the year before his demise, and a lack of time in an actual government position, his acceptability by the people I think is a major concern.

Back to the original point, I’m thinking more and more this is the younger Kim’s attempt to call a “Rally Around The Flag.”  While I’ve always compared the nation of North Korea to the state-equivalent of a paranoid-schizophrenic; and while Kim Jong-un’s lack of experience with the United States and the outside world first-hand that his Father and Father before him had concerns me — the more I hear, the more I’m convinced he isn’t talking to South Korea…  or the USA.  He’s talking to his people.  He’s trying to get North Korea to not only accept him, but be “with” him.

Does he, in his ignorance, know the level of “most dangerous game” he’s playing?

Related articles