Posted by
William D. Dannenmaier on Friday, May 11, 2007 7:41:57 AM
Mothers’ Day
By
William D. Dannenmaier
Sunday is Mothers’ Day. Everyone in this nation needs to celebrate it. Were it not for them, we would be living in a different nation, one of different morals and values even if in the same location and on the same continent. Most of us wouldn’t like it as well. That is obvious from the millions who demonstrate that they would rather live here than in their countries of origin, which seems especially true of South Americans, Middle Easterners, Asians, Africans, Eastern – you get the drift.
In our history as a nation, past and present, it is the mothers who have raised the children. Babies know their mothers for nine months before they meet anyone else. If you don’t believe learning occurs during pregnancy, read the studies that prove that a crying newborn in a hospital nursery will stop crying if a recording of its mother’s stomach sounds are played. It will not stop for a different mother’s sounds.
Mothers are important. The children of mothers who stay home and care for them, reading to them, correcting their behavior, showing them proper behavior by example and taking them to Sunday Schools do not crowd our courts and rehabilitation centers. Street children – those raised by Hillary’s “village” - crowd our courts.
Feminists have derided “stay at home mothers” and “soccer moms.” That is their problem, but it is also our problem. Our problem is the number of women who believe them, who have decided they can raise children without a responsible partner. To be a full time mother requires a full time father. No matter how hard any person tries, one person cannot do as good a job as two in raising children. The hours single parents are at work, the hours they need for preparing for work and getting to and from it, the hours they need for the normal tasks of living use the energy they would otherwise have for their children. At their best, they are tired.
Neither are they available when their children need them, unless by accident. Then, that tiredness prevents them from giving the time, affection and quality of care that are needed, albeit rocking them for a few minutes for a scratch on a knee or sitting for quiet discussion about how to handle boy (or girl) relationships. The liberal idea of the sixties and seventies of having working parents give an hour of “quality time” to their children after work was and is an absurdity. Quality time is time you spend with a child when that child needs you. Otherwise to children, being busy creatures, it is only an annoyance.
Baby sitters and nursery schools are not the answer. Few women, or men, make sufficient money in their employment to hire a person who is an adequate replacement for themselves. At their best, nurseries do not have the “manpower” to provide the intensive one on one care and training that infants and toddlers need. At their worst, baby sitters are semi-literates unable to get a better job elsewhere.
In our history books we celebrate many men, national leaders, anointing many as “great,” whose greatness would be questioned by honest and knowledgeable biographers. Considering the advent of Mothers’ Day, I have tried to decide which of our leaders have contributed as much to our current society as have mothers. I can think of only four: George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln. Perhaps Clark should be included as his wilderness campaign during the Revolutionary War drove the British from all of North America between the Appalachians and the Mississippi. The achievements of all the rest pale in comparison with what the mothers have done. But even those few greats did not create our culture, they only secured the land. The mothers secured the culture.
We have a day to honor Martin Luther King, but his “I have a Dream” speech would have fallen on deaf ears if tens of millions of mothers, black, brown and white, had not taken the time and spent the effort to raise children who thought that he was right.
The stay-at-home moms, who give up those little additional luxuries of living that a second salary might provide, are our nation’s greatest asset. Their children become responsible citizens. It is their sons and daughters who have built our nation, our unique culture. There is no adequate substitute for “mom.”