Parenting

"Parents don’t have to be perfect. They don’t have to buy the “right” toy to jump-start an infant’s “cognitive skills” or play Mozart to a dribbling three-year-old — and contrary to what many women have been told these last few years, they also don’t have to be a stellar model of career success for their children to admire."

That quote is from Mary Eberstadt from the Q&A at NRO. On the few occasions when the conversation between friends and acquaintances has turned to parenting, my opinion has raised amused, sometimes shocked, eyebrows. I am in favor of a stay-at-home parent and homeschooling. That, in their opinion, translates to me condemning my future kids to being socially retarded and wasting my future wife's life. Of course, my comment referred to a stay-at-home parent, not necessarily the mom, but I find it odd, to say the least, that a woman's life is wasted if she chooses to be a stay-at-home mom. Sadly, this attitude is quite common. Kids are simply looked at as a nuisance. Practically everyone I know in my age group has said that they'll have at most two kids. No wonder the population of the West is declining.