Frenchparents Blog: For Parents with an interest in the French Culture

What would life be like in a society where raising happy, well adjusted, open-minded children was really considered the most important job?

First of all nannies and parents accompanied by children would be welcomed with a cheerful “hello” by MUNI bus drivers while every adult with the capacity to move would volunteer to get up to give up their seat at the front of the bus to let the little ones sit down…The bus driver would help the caregiver(s) fold the stroller and the babycarrier so he/she could watch the children and the survival bag with the snacks, the bottles, the diapers, the blanket and the Tylenol… ( We have had our child bag taken from us in a bus while attending to our children….). If little Will is still munching on a banana, the driver would kindly ask the child to put it away for now rather than telling him to get off the bus or throw the offending fruit OUT! (Real story number two).

On a higher plane, newspapers and radios would include in their regular news, the way sports results are blasted out to our ears every fifteen minutes, information that’d be relevant to parents, such as school and day care rankings, missing children info, parents having found a great way to manage their work and family life, etc… I suggest The Chronicle call this daily or weekend section Family Matters (duh), where they would cover the challenges and the joys of raising children so as to inspire us all- and when I say all, I mean parents acting as such, as well as parents as business and political leaders. Parenting magazines can still get into the nitty gritty of potty-training but why are the issues around raising kids, which are so important to a society and are dealt with by what, 70% of the population, not central to the media? How does pro football impact me in my daily life, huh?

Parents with a career prior to having children who decide to stay at home, not because they have too much cash lying around or are just plain old lazy, but because they think it’s best for their children for a while would get some sort of tax break, recognizing their contribution to society as ones whose children, on average, will have less agressive behaviour, less drugs and alcohol use, and, on a more positive note, will be more open-minded, generous and confident contributors to tomorrow’s economy and society.

Getting a few hours of child care would be recommended, if not mandatory, after expert studies (that Frenchparents co-founder Valerie and moi could perform for a fraction of the fee Dr. Steven Rosenbaum would charge by the way!) would have shown that an adult with a normal IQ cannot keep a sane and fresh mind if he or she spends eight hours a day attending to very young- or even older- children. Even teachers don’t spend that much time in their classrooms- and they have people who can talk- even talk back, I know- before them!

Participating in an activity, whether it be a part time job, a cause of some sort, or even a sports or arts activity, would then not be prohibitive financially for many, making society a place where parents would still be visible, active contributors rather than shadows behind their children with no public voice- not to mention pains in restaurants! And where more men would be tempted by the stay-at-home option? Now that’d signal a change…;-)

When they’d eventually decide to get back to work, these parents would be recognized not as drop outs or slackers but as those having taken time off to become more mature, accomplished individual with a richer approach to life - and a knack with handling bratty colleagues! In order to help measure their contributions and efforts, with no PowerPoint presentations to show, here are the data that could be used to assess the usefulness of their work:

Number of shouting matches a week between them and their kids would appear on their resume so as to be compared to the nationally broadcast working parent averages, as well as:

Index of resistance to food items ( especially anything naturally green or yellow)

(Related to the above) Number of sandwiches and pizzas vs hot meals eaten a week by child. ( Studies would have shown that intaking too much peperoni pizza as a child makes you more likely to vote for Arnold Schwartzenegger in gubernatorial elections).

Average time required to go to bed at night.

Number of bribes ( with an index going from popsicles up to high end dolls or trucks ) required to accomplish: a/ a family outing b/ a chore.

Number of fits a week in public places.and a few others to be determined would also be yardsticks to measure these individual’s accomplishments vs working parents’ averages.Then having the Most Important Job would finally deserve its name…

This entry was posted on Monday, November 6th, 2006 @ 3:41 am on the category — Educational approaches in the US - Children, Living in the US with children. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.