Parents have frequently become the
favorite whipping posts of psychologists and clergy persons, truant officers
and school principals everywhere. If little Billy goes a step astray, we can
blame it on his parents, because they are not very stable themselves. If Susy
gets caught with something “naughty”, it’s because her mother dyes her hair and
smokes cigarettes. If Junior runs into somebody with his tricycle, it’s
probably because his dad is known to drive with a “heavy foot” and the “pedal
to the metal.” Just about every time some interested group meets to try to
solve a community problem, someone suggests that the problem and the real blame
can be clearly traced to the parents! One sometimes gets the impression that if
we could just find a way to eliminate parents, the world would be a better
place in which to live! Yes, folks, parents regularly take it on the chin!
Someone has said that new parents, especially, are so ill-equipped and
inadequate for the task of child-rearing that the first child should be
plastic!
Mother’s Day, too, regularly “takes it
on the chin” as nothing more than a capitalist promotion. Some suggest that
Mother’s Day was invited by florists, chocolate candy makers, and the American
Restaurant Association. Even amongst the clergy it has sometimes been
sarcastically referred to as “St. Mother’s Day,” an allusion to the reality
that the day is often devoted to a syrupy eulogizing of motherhood - to the
embarrassment of mothers-and the benefit of no one.
Perhaps you heard the quip about a
teacher who was trying to teach her class about magnets. When she had completed
the lesson, it came time for the question period. The teacher thought she would
start with a really simple question: “My name starts with an “M”, I have six
letters, and I am always picking something up. What am I?” A little tyke in the
front row raised his hand and burst forth with an answer instantly. “I know … you’re
a Mother!”
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