Sunday, May 11, 2008

Stupidest Day of the Year

If every father were forced to take care of a baby for a few months, there would be no Mother's Day. We'd have Mother's Month, complete with daily parades and symphonies and fireworks. Every good parking spot in every parking lot in America would be designated for mothers only (you cripples would just have to suck it up).

But that ain't going to happen. We'll keep taking motherhood mostly for granted, value it less than we value curly fries, and look down at the ones who stay home with their infants instead of rushing back to some bullshit job that means approximately nothing next to the raising of a child.

Family values my ass. It took so long for us just to get the family medical leave act, which generously allows mothers (and fathers) to take unpaid leave to have a baby. In India, where millions of people still have to use the street as a toilet, women get 3 months of paid maternity leave (and, of course, free medical care). In Slovenia they get a year. F'in Slovenia.

But we'll give mothers this one day a year, that one card or phone call. (And even that seems to be too much for congressional republicans, who overwhelmingly voted against a resolution praising motherhood.) The rest of the year, they're on their own.

2 comments:

Otto Man said...

Spoken like a true stay-at-home Dad.

Preach on, brother. Preach on.

peb said...

To be fair, curly fries are awesome.