“The triumph of man was due entirely to the female of our species.” ~ Harold Klawans, MD
I wonder when 'child rearing' was relegated to a lesser role than tax-preparer. Maybe we need a new word for it. I’m proposing ‘director of development’ and I am putting it up there with medical doctor and other workers in the helping professions. I mean, the farther I went in life, the more I realized how essential motherhood is to the vitality and continuity of the human species. The mother’s heartbeat is the first language we learn. Outside the womb, the mother’s voice shapes the formation of language centers in the brain. Neuroscience informs us that the development of the brain takes place mostly outside the womb. The role of child rearing is to nurture this development. Messages conveyed by speech, touch and human interaction actually guide the growth of nerve-pathways to their destination. Without this, the human species would have become extinct a long time ago. We have to shake-off the stereotype that child rearing is somehow an unproductive activity .. little more than a burdensome ‘maternity leave’ in the workplace. Otherwise, we treat our own children like second-class citizens.
7 comments:
I love this.
Bravo for that! I loved my child-rearing days. I am sad at the place that so many moms, today, put their children. Working in a mental health facility, I see children everyday who, seemingly, might be ok, if their mother's gave them so attention. Instead the children are "attention deficit"... yeah, I know, not connected... right? Sitting in the waiting room, they are on their cell phones, chatting it up, or playing some game on their cell phone... while the kid is running wild in the waiting room, romping across furniture and reeking havoc. Anyhoo... excellant message, here. It's really important, parenting. The world has gotten so crazy that we put our kids in childcare, because we are all money hungry, and have to have more stuff (actually, have to work, because the cost of living has gone skyward). Women's lib is a wonderful thing... but somewhere, along the way, we traded off something that we shouldn't have. And maybe we wouldn't have, had our role been taken more seriously... ya think?
And btw... love Gustav Klimt!
And so as not to offend anyone... I was a working mom... just saying, lol...
Thank you Courtney ...
Sarah ~ I think you played your role well ..doesn’t matter how seriously you did or did not take it. Nature finds a way. I was commenting on the way our culture treats homemakers ..it can be demeaning.
Sarah ~ Working mom or stay at home mom ..it doesn’t make any difference ..the mother’s role is played.
The anthro-notion that human language came about because of the needs of males on the hunt is bullshit. It came about because of the need for oral transmission of the culture and environment (like danger signs) to the young. Without it, our children would not have survived long enough to ensure our continuity.
Post a Comment