The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Left-Handed Family Conservativism

Posted on | March 19, 2013 | 14 Comments

by Smitty

We may not return to the notion of one job, one family as superior yet, but could drift back that direction. Lisa DePasquale reviews Lisa Millier in New York magazine on “The Retro Wife”, about feminists surveying the labor force and finding equally forceful labor at home. As though, in addition to decrying “slut shaming,” feminists may eventually back off of “wife shaming,” too. Go figure.

In the nearly 20 months that the World’s Youngest Blogger has been my joy, I’ve actually spent five of those months at home, on a sabbatical after deployment, and then the last two months laid off. Thus, I’ve grown to admire the undeniable fact that motherhood IS a full-on job, and feminists have been as false in attacking mothers who treat motherhood as a full-time job as the feminists have been diabolical in supporting abortion.

DePasquale notes:

Feminists always put a higher premium on what women miss in their careers — advancement, fulfillment, salary — while ignoring what they miss in their home life — time with children and spouse, hobbies, greater connection with what their children are doing. They were able to sell this bill of goods to women in the 60s, 70s and 80s because those women were less likely to be the children of working mothers. Women my generation and younger know what’s missing when living in a single parent or dual-working parents homes. Every generation wants their children to have better. For many mothers, that means being at home during the development years.

The other point here is that our progressive tax code really starts to crush and punish a second salary in the home. In the DC market, you really want $40K to pay a nanny to watch the little dears, by the time all of the pay and tax and overtime issues are sorted. Suddenly, the cost avoidance of sticking around the house and homeschooling the next generation seems much less of a hassle than dealing with the Great Wall of Traffic every day.

The Democrats’ anti-capitalist taxation ideas, ultimately, could help heal some of the cultural damage they’ve inflicted. Almost ironic, there in the rubble.

Category: Culture

Comments

14 Responses to “Left-Handed Family Conservativism”

  1. ProudoftheUSA
    March 19th, 2013 @ 4:30 pm

    RT @smitty_one_each: Left-Handed Family Conservativism http://t.co/x0uXXPW82Z #TCOT

  2. lonelycon
    March 19th, 2013 @ 4:31 pm

    RT @smitty_one_each: Left-Handed Family Conservativism http://t.co/x0uXXPW82Z #TCOT

  3. Kerry Dar-Du
    March 19th, 2013 @ 4:42 pm

    Kerry Dar-Du liked this on Facebook.

  4. Flabbergasted
    March 19th, 2013 @ 4:47 pm

    You know, I am tired of people thinking I do “nothing”, including family and church people. Really? I don’t get paid to run my kids around, doctor them, make their appointments, teach them educational skills that government schools are not willing to. Plus, I am a single parent most days. It’s the most unappreciated job.

  5. Rosalie
    March 19th, 2013 @ 5:24 pm

    “It’s the most unappreciated job.”
    But the most important job.

  6. Adjoran
    March 19th, 2013 @ 7:34 pm

    Well, it is understandable that people who promote murdering children in the womb don’t place a high value on child-rearing.

    But anyone who doubts it is full-time WORK has simply never done it.

  7. M. Thompson
    March 19th, 2013 @ 7:53 pm

    I can’t bad mouth stay at home moms.

    Mine was one, until my youngest brother was old enough not to need her full time care.

  8. Wombat_socho
    March 19th, 2013 @ 9:14 pm

    Being a single parent sucks, even when the kids are teenagers who can almost take care of themselves.

  9. Mike G.
    March 19th, 2013 @ 9:19 pm

    When having a two income household became “necessary” is when the moral and educational decay started. Stay at home Moms used to do stuff like go to PTA meetings, become den mothers, get involved in the local community.

  10. Flabbergasted
    March 19th, 2013 @ 9:49 pm

    When will MEN realize this? Not you, McCain.

  11. Barb the Evil Genius
    March 20th, 2013 @ 8:23 am

    Mike G, I’m a stay at home mom, but the PTA has become nationalized and encourages its members to support all kinds of leftist educational causes. I backed out of PTA as a result.

  12. Mike G.
    March 20th, 2013 @ 10:04 am

    This article here http://www.deweyfromdetroit.com/2013/03/beating-thy-enemy-i-education-system.html tells you what parents need to do to take it back.

  13. Quartermaster
    March 20th, 2013 @ 9:01 pm

    Why do you think he doesn’t?

  14. Flabbergasted
    March 24th, 2013 @ 10:43 pm

    he does.