Letters to the Editor
nancyh
Published Letters: 155 Editor's Choice: 5
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Most men and women are not abusers
[Read the article: Do we teach children to fear men?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]For a year, I worked with abused kids in a residential shelter for children removed from their homes by CPS. Women are responsible for a fair amount of physical abuse and neglect, primarily because women are more often primary caretakers or single parent caretakers (more opportunity=more cases).
What women don't typically do is sexually abuse their children (in the year that I worked at this facility, I never saw or heard of a case in which a woman molested a child), or abuse/molest other people's kids. Most men don't either, but the lurking "pedophile" is usually male.
The vitrol on this post is amazing. I think the point of the article was that most men are NOT pedophiles and society is the worse if we start to believe this crap. So, maybe we should all dial it down a little.
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dial it down
[Read the article: Do we teach children to fear men?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Andrea Yates was psychotic. She no more represents the average woman than Dennis Radar represents the average man.
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you have the wrong postergirl
[Read the article: Do we teach children to fear men?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Whether NOW paid for Yates defense or not is completely irrelevant. She was in inpatient psychiatric treatment before she killed her children and the psychiatrist in charge of her treatment a) recommended continued inpatient treatment-which was overruled by Yates insurance company and b)strongly urged Yates and her husband not to have another child for fear that Yates would again have an episode of post-partum psychosis. You have picked the wrong postergirl here. This woman was found to be clinically psychotic and legally insane by every competent psychologist/psychiatrist who evaluated her.
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stop the vitrol!
[Read the article: Do we teach children to fear men?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Raider is right! The odds of one of our children being molested (especially by a stranger) is very low-especially if we are fortunate enough to inhabit the middle or upper middle class.
Parson Jim- the big threat you are looking for is poverty. If you are a low income single parent (male or female), you are much more likely to leave your kids alone when you shouldn't because you can't afford day care/subject your kid to substandard daycare because good daycare is expensive/or move in with an unsuitable partner because he/she appears to add stability to the home. Ironically, adding a male step-parent or boyfriend to the home is the single biggest risk factor for sexual abuse-especially for girls.
Now, please don't get your knickers in a twist. Most stepdads/boyfrieds DO NOT molest. I know lots of step-dads (and step moms too) who should be in contention for sainthood.
The thing that disturbs me most about the last two posts is the characterization of the feminist (or feminazi as we all seem to be here) agenda with regards to men. The implication seems to be that feminist women want to marginalize men-keep them away from the kids. This is contrary to every conversation that I have had with feminist women friends over the past 20 years. We WANT, WELCOME, AND VALUE involved dads and grandpas, uncles, and cousins. From my prerspective, it seems to be the conservative agenda that wants to relegate child-rearing back to women's work.
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its the petard
[Read the article: In defense of Larry Craig]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]On one level I agree-not sure exactly what the crime here is. We are moving far too close to "Minority Report" for my taste.
But, this guy did get elected by people based on his homophobic-moralistic (anyone not seen the clip of Craig calling Clinton a naughty, nasty boy?-kind of makes you wonder whether he would have volunteered to give the spanking)stance. Based on what I have seen, it isn't the liberals calling for him to resign, it is his own peeps (McCain, Tom Delay etc). For better or worse, people want truth in advertising.
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Who are all these flashers?
[Read the article: Bill Maher: "Don't show me your tits!" ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Most of the posts correctly point out that breastfeeding should be done discretely. I couldn't agree more. But, I guess I wonder who and where all these flashers are? I breastfed my daughter (often in public) and have seen lots of other women breastfeed and I can't say that I have ever thought "whoa...she is really showing some skin." I suspect that there are a few very extreme cases or some really up tight people out there.
Being able to breastfeed in public ensures a) that women with infants can get out of the house once in a while and b) that it is not so inconvenient to breastfeed that women discontinue it before both mom and baby have acquired the maximum health benefits of nursing. The American Academy of Pediatrics reccomends breastfeeding for 1 year, the World Health Organization until 2. Most American moms stop at 3 or 4 months. Maybe more American moms would be likely to breast feed if they didn't get the message from Bill (who I usually agree with) and his ilk (including most recently Barbara Walters) that breastfeeding was some how a little icky.
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Nursing as Obesity Prevention
[Read the article: Bill Maher: "Don't show me your tits!" ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I believe that Bill Mahar has also used "New Rules" for a tirade against American obesity. So, presumably he thinks this is a topic that is worthy of our attention.
Treating obesity is either marginally effective (i.e., diets, exercise) or effective but very expensive (gastric bypass). The smart economical solution is to prevent it. To prevent obesity, you have to start young-with kids and ultimately infants. On demand nursing (meaning the infant decides when and how much) tends to reduce the chances of obesity because the food is better and the child learns to self-regulate intake. Natural selection - boobs not bottles.