Ruining the American Family One Women at a Time

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”

I am pretty sure old Thomas Jefferson is rolling over in his grave right now. His words are some of the most famous in American History and the foundation of a new country, a country where everyone (well, almost everyone) had opportunities.

Yet these opportunities are being blown by narrow-minded followers who are more worried about getting the SAME opportunities than pursuing happiness or creating equality. Being the same is not equal. And having opportunities doesn’t mean you have to take the path that everyone else is taking.

I’ve never understood the movement to take women out of the homes and into the corporate world. It’s not that I don’t think they should have the opportunities, because I think they should. And I don’t think women should be soly responsible for taking care of their children. My point isn’t to say what anyone should or should not do.

But right now, this country is in a crisis. Family is becoming a misnomer. Divorce rate is at an all time high, education at an all time low, and the idea of a family is falling apart at the core. Much of the reason for this stems from the movement to take women out of the house and into the workplace.

The problem is NO ONE is taking care of the children. When you have two parents who work full time jobs, there are kids who are being raised by babysitters and daycares. Why aren’t schools taking a more proactive approach to combating this move to multi-working parent households. Why isn’t there a pre-kindergarten education system in place that fills the needs of this new society?

And the corporate world and the schools have totally different schedules. WHY? With a workforce that’s nearly doubled over the past 50 years, why are we working longer hours with longer commutes? There are some companies that take amazing steps to ensure their employees families are taken care of. From onsite daycares where parents can go eat lunch, to 37.5 hour work weeks to get people home earlier there are ways for companies to allow their employees to be both workers and parents. Yet most companies stick with status quo.

The trickle-down affect of reducing the standard work day even to just 7.5 hours would be amazing. If people were getting off work at 4:30 rather than 5 every day, stores and restaurants wouldn’t have to stay open as late. In some cases it could mean more jobs, as companies would save 2.5 hours of pay on every employee, allowing a larger budget to hire more employees. It also would allow more companies to afford health insurance with the saved income.

It just seems that our countries first and foremost goal should be to raise our children and it’s not happening right now. We need to begin a dialog and find a plan to help this huge problem. Whether it’s getting more parents back into the house, creating a more well rounded and accessible pre-school education system, changing school hours to meet the needs of the corporate world, or have a movement to trim back wasteful time spent in the office, something needs to be done. If not, the Pursuit of Happiness is going to be a much harder road for our children.