The Post & Email by ProfDave 12/14/2021
A few weeks ago I wrote that “Children Matter.” Children have to come from somewhere. Someone has to take care of them. Someone needs to prepare them to be productive citizens.
The importance of children
Babies are important. Without babies, there would be no one to care for us in our old age. Without babies to pay taxes there would be no social security. Without babies there would be no first responders, no armed forces, no hospitals – we could go on and on. Without my baby daughter (and her generous husband) I would be homeless. Babies are essential to the survival of the species. We need babies. Am I going too fast for you?
Despite advances in modern “science” and imagination, babies are still produced in the old-fashioned way: m + f = bm or f. People are not assembled in a factory in Detroit or Mumbai or Wuhan. Nor are they grown on the prairies and harvested with combines. They have to be raised by parents, involving intensive 24×7 care and cultivation for a couple of decades. You can’t leave them in the garage. The process is not merely physical, but intellectual, emotional and spiritual. It is long and arduous. The investment is huge.
One term we use is socialization. Maturity – which we hope they will eventually attain – is when the person becomes an independent and productive citizen, able to produce a healthy family of his/her own. Sadly, some never make it.
Whose children?Clearly, we need babies and the only way we are going to get them is through parents. Whose baby is it? Is it an accidental product of conception or a gift of God? Never mind, there it is inside a woman, a new human being. Is it hers? She goes through the discomfort of pregnancy and the agony of giving birth. Cutting the cord in no way severs the bond. Is it hers? When it is born, it is placed in the hands of the father (if he hasn’t run away). Is it his? If he makes the mistake of looking into its eyes he will experience feelings and hormones he didn’t know he had! When they leave the hospital with it, it is emphatically their baby.
OK, other things happen. In Greco-Roman times, the patrician husband would inspect the product of conception, and if it did not meet specifications – say it was a girl – he would put it out with the garbage. Sometimes a Christian couple would pick it up. Today we call this abortion; then it was called exposure. Adoption is a far more beneficial option in which a childless couple go through a gauntlet of examination, paperwork and expenses to assume the privileges and responsibilities of parenting the new human being.
In any case, the baby leaves the hospital in someone’s arms and is totally dependent on at least one person called a ‘parent.’ God grant them a mother and a father. They are legally responsible for its care and feeding. No one can apply a band-aid without parental permission. They may, if able, arrange for help from extended family, Nanny or daycare, but no one contests their ownership until the state gets involved.
More:
https://www.thepostemail.com/2021/12/14/parents-matter/
