Children - Priceless or Overpriced?

My thoughts today are not directed to any single person, or even a small group of people, rather, I am addressing America as a society or a culture. One of the defining features of a culture, (or society), is its’ values. So today I am questioning the cultural value that we place upon children.

Briefly: How do we feel about them? This may come as shocking to many, but let’s consider a few things.

On the one hand we can all recall some spending bill and the debate surrounding it, when somebody invariably will arise and loudly justify the cost saying: “If we can save the life of just one child…”

Or, at other times perhaps “Our children are the future of our country…” or even “The life of a single child is priceless,,,”.  Such sanctimonious proclamations are meant to end all discussion and get the spending bill passed. After all, who would dare challenge such emotionally charged slogans?

Well, maybe not in the halls of Congress, but out in our everyday culture, it would seem that the notion of priceless children is not only under assault, but is in full retreat!

But, Professor Beer Barrel, How can You say That?

Easily.

If children are so valuable, then why is it that whenever a family of, say, four or more children comes into a store or restaurant, they get looked at as if they’re retarded neanderthals? The public looks at them thinking: “Didn’t they get the message”? Or: “You just don’t do that nowadays”.  “They must be medieval Catholics”!

Or consider this: If I were to ask a typical newlywed couple how many bars of gold they would like, do you think that most would want just one or two, with a growing number wanting none? No, they would want all that they could get! But…if children are even more valuable, actually priceless… do you follow me now?

I do understand that unlike bars of gold, children must be fed and clothed and so on. Yet, increasingly I find more and more news items about the cost of raising children with little or no mention of the rewards of parenthood.  How many young couples are having one child, or maybe even none, so that they can buy the big, beautiful home with five bedrooms, three or four of which will remain empty?  And since when does every offspring need a room of its’ own? When I was young, there were three of us in one room.

Sometimes I actually wonder if one seldom hears about children being kidnapped because the parents aren’t willing to pay to get them back! Something like; “ That’s Ok, you can keep them”.

Before I go, I would like to add one more confusing thing.  I saw an interview with college girls who had a mildly “liberated woman” air about them, and, as their boyfriends were with them, it was a bit of light-hearted fun. What struck me, however, was that when questioned if women were more important than men, they seemed to respond in unison that women were indeed more important than men because women can have babies and men can’t!

I couldn’t agree more! If we are talking about the survival of the species, women are far more valuable than men. If you don’t understand why I say that, just consider the difference between working, say, 60 seconds and nine months!

So why then do women, who obsess about the things that men are doing and they aren’t or can’t, not embrace child bearing? Why aren’t they having children left and right going: ha-ha, we can create life and you can’t ha-ha-ha? No, they tend to look down on child bearing and motherhood, and emphasize careers (sometimes to the exclusion of any children).

So, back to where this started. How do we, as a society, feel about children?

What do we think of them?

Is anybody thinking?

It’s something to think about.