Always Look On The Glum Side of Life

In this post, a former inner-city LA school teacher talks about the lack of parenting that afflicts the inner city. (Oddly, he titles the post "Meet the Parents" and then goes on to tell you that he didn't meet the parents, because they are either apathetic or absent.) This is hardly cutting edge stuff, but it is sensible. Next, I guess in an effort to be fair and balanced, Mr. Hanscom chronicles how rich people can be bad parents too. Again, it is hardly cutting edge, and he has a point - the rich can raise some bratty kids sometimes - but in this post he uncritically relies on some modern Freudian pyshcobullshit that is reflexively denigrating to family life. The principal offensive piece of psychoshinola comes from (surprise) some NPR reporting. Apparently rich folks are having more kids. Why is that? Well, so says NPR, people are incredibly selfish and status conscious and kids are a big ego trip. Either that or formerly working women who no longer work have to put their energy into something! There you have it folks, 1) rich people are selfish and 2) without the joys of a demanding career (the only source of fulfillment any self-respecting woman could conceivably want) childrearing is a reasonable outlet for pent up energy for a gal.

This is astoninshing in its cynicism and its grounding in nonsensical pop psychology. Of course it never occured to the editors that people are having bigger families because of their inherent appeal. Maybe rich people are saying, "Gee, we love our little family so much, and we've always wanted a big family and, hell, we can afford it, why not have a few more kids?!" Or maybe after being told otherwise all their lives, modern women are discovering that they had no idea how rewarding motherhood could be and are choosing to experience it in spades. Nope, there can be no positive explanation for this phenomenon of larger families, it simply has to be grounded in human frailty. Pathetic.