I'm always amused by the whole notion that influencing the next generation is an undesirable situation that needs to be pawned off on the "least powerful", whether that be ethnic nannies, low income babysitters, or pathetic stay-at-home mothers who can't get a real career.

It's all about survival--of our physical traits and our values--and there is quite simply no job more powerful than tending to the next generation of leaders, doctors, teachers, plumbers, engineers, whomever. Little do you (who hire out your childcare) know just how much power you are relinquishing.

If you don't know what I am talking about, then you are not paying attention. I'm referring to things big and small, and the potential examples are too numerous to get into. I feel so strongly about this that, unlike those who proudly announce "I already raised my kids; I have no intention of raising my grandkids!", I plan to be available, master's degree and all, to help my own kids raise theirs in the kind of leisurely, thoughtful, intelligent way I raised my own.

For those who are sure to attack on the class issue, I have this to say: One doesn't need a wealthy lifestyle to raise a decent, loving, LASTING family. Many say that it boils down to one thing: being able to support oneself. I disagree. It boils down to survival of the fittest, and my three intelligent, funny, moral, successful boys are a testimony to Darwin's work.

One of the most pervasive myths out there is capsulized in this letter-writer's comment:

________________________________________________________

Though raising your child is obviously rewarding, the lack of adult interaction, being out of the flow of economy and culture, not contributing to your brain bank or actual bank in a meaningul way is bound to have a negative impact on self-esteem, feelings of parity in the marriage, and a sense of self-actualization.

__________________________________________________________

I have not yet met a mother who feels smaller for having focused her time and energy full time on her children, even having traded money and the esteem of people like Kaylin and Harris in the process. The payoff in evolutionary terms is simply too great. It is a rationalization of working mothers that "Both sides feel guilt." Not true. That this writer thinks attentive parents are "not contributing to (their) brain bank...in a meaningful way" speaks volumes about his/her idea of what good parenting entails. It truly involves every corner of one's gray matter to do it well.

I've never been nearly as upset with the Bush Administration (and all the incompetent, immoral people that includes) as I have been at the everyday people who put him and his cronies in charge. That the average joe voted to put this man back into office after the first four disastrous years is mind boggling. But not when you remember Darwin: The people who are staying home and instilling their values into the next generation--imprinting, as it were--are the kind of people who support punitive policies, narrow-minded thinking, simplistic rhetoric, and childish responses. There are simply more of them, and one thing they have in common is that they don't leave child-rearing to strangers.