Parenting - The Lost Art

[Thom]

I am a parent of 2 very young school aged girls. There are times I wonder if I am being the best parent for them. My spouse and I both work, just like other parents. We went through the years (and expense) of daycare. We have gone through the abuse at daycare.

We have done everything that other parents in the U.S. are doing now. But, I wonder if we have lost, or never knew the art of parenting. We can both remember our mothers being home to greet us from school; being chaperones on field trips; picking us up from school when we were sick.

Now, we cannot do these things. Our children's school is constantly asking for help from the parents; but it is very hard to take off from work whenever the school needs help. Thus the school needs to hire more people to help in the schools. In turn, our taxes go up because the schools had to hire the help.

We know that we don't like our taxes to go up. We know the schools need help. But is this helping our children? More and More I keep wondering if we as parents are neglecting our children because of the economic pressure?

Personally, I found myself working 8 hours a day; then brought work home and continue for another 3 to 4 hours. When did my children get to play with me?

Now I teach high school and still have the same issue. No matter what I do to change the situation, I always find myself back into it.

What can we do to find the art of parenting?

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[-=RaOuL=-]

You're absolutely correct - the pressures of modern economics dictate a two
paycheck family just to stay afloat. Now, imagine what you could do if you
weren't so heavily taxed. Just how much of what you supposedly earn do you
actually see? My guess is about half. After the Federal Government, State
Government, Local government, Social Security, ect., all get their piece of
your paycheck (almost all of them get their cut before you get yours) there
is only a pittance for you to use on what is important to you. Meanwhile,
the government uses the money which they extract from your paycheck to fund
various and sundry "programs" designed to help everyone but you, and to
support "interests" and "groups" which may be in opposition to your beliefs.
Too often, these "programs," "interests" and "groups" actually produce
measurable harm to society at large.

Now, imagine what it would be like to live in a world where taxes are only
extracted at the minimum level necessary to support government's original
objectives as spelled out in the Preamble of The Constitution of The United
States; to "provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare..."
In such a structure you would not be taxed to provide welfare, only to
promote it. Let locally based, privately funded groups do the bulk of the
welfare and charity work with the donations they receive. (I should add that
more Americans would have money to give to charity if allowed to keep more
of what they actually earn.) Those privately funded charities would then
promote parenting and any other worthy initiatives with the money they
receive. And if they didn't receive money, it would just be a sign that the
community doesn't support their objectives. We would get a society more in
line with the values of the communities, and less in the vision of
bureaucrats and fringe groups who can influence the national agenda with a
few well placed campaign contributions.

-=RaOuL=-


"Thom" > wrote in message
ink.net...
> I am a parent of 2 very young school aged girls. There are times I wonder
if I am being the best parent for them. My spouse and I both work, just like
other parents. We went through the years (and expense) of daycare. We have
gone through the abuse at daycare.
>
> We have done everything that other parents in the U.S. are doing now.
But, I wonder if we have lost, or never knew the art of parenting. We can
both remember our mothers being home to greet us from school; being
chaperones on field trips; picking us up from school when we were sick.
>
> Now, we cannot do these things. Our children's school is constantly asking
for help from the parents; but it is very hard to take off from work
whenever the school needs help. Thus the school needs to hire more people to
help in the schools. In turn, our taxes go up because the schools had to
hire the help.
>
> We know that we don't like our taxes to go up. We know the schools need
help. But is this helping our children? More and More I keep wondering if we
as parents are neglecting our children because of the economic pressure?
>
> Personally, I found myself working 8 hours a day; then brought work home
and continue for another 3 to 4 hours. When did my children get to play
with me?
>
> Now I teach high school and still have the same issue. No matter what I do
to change the situation, I always find myself back into it.
>
> What can we do to find the art of parenting?
>
> www.auto-send.com/tr.php?537
>
> ---
> MAF Anti-Spam ID: 20050901185318U1x2AwB0
>
>