Comments on: A Point of Departure

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 10 Apr 2006 00:19:00 +0000

“Father was out in the fields for 12 hours a day.”
In my mind this is part of the home, and father was not alone in the fields in most cases. The economy was a family responsibility in which all chipped in.
In some ways I am putting the responsbility for the break up of the family on the industrial revolution. However, I think the blame is more appropriately placed on the men who reacted to it- leaving the home in an effort to provide economic provision at the expense of providing other types of provision for their families.
I don't believe we can say the industrial revolution was a good or bad thing. Most technological advances have many positive and negative effects. I'm not sure it should (or could) have been stopped; I'm more concerned about the reaction to it.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 08 Apr 2006 06:03:00 +0000

Roger,
At what point in history did the following actually happen for most people:

“Rather, the truly traditional model found father, mother, and children at home. Home was not simply a place for meals and slumber, or where your heart is, but home was the heart, the center of the family

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 18:44:00 +0000

I meant to say something about this claim: “I think that most women use Feminism as a mechanism to get men to notice them.”
I suspect you're on to something here, but I might have said “value” rather than “notice.” That seems to me to strike closer to the heart of the problem. When men left women behind, men became the mythical “bread-winners” and women, nothing. We all need to feel that our lives have some enduring significance, and men have gained that (or perhaps the illusion of significance) through their careers.
What women want is to be held in esteem, to be appreciated, to have significance. It is part of the sinfulness of men that we fail to esteem women, and in the marriage relationship that we fail to help create meaninful roles for them in this new family dynamic that we have created. We leave to our work, and we hope they will figure out something to do while we're gone. We fail to take an active role in managing the family and helping our wives find the place of significance that God has planed for them.
Thanks for what you have written. I have no answers, but you've raised a lot of good questions.
BTW: I was raised by a single mother, too. I can relate.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 16:48:00 +0000

What? Are you saying “The Three Step Plan” isn't a good idea?!

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 16:27:00 +0000

I couldn't agree more Charlie. My generation feels the emptiness of fathers who aren't regularly home or abandoned their families all together. Many of us (myself included) were raised in single parent homes (usually mother) and as a result spent most of our time in day cares when we weren't in school. Whether conciously or not, I agree that the re-emphasis on the home for education and employement is an attempt to shield our families from the emptiness we experienced.
Though, I also think many of those choosing “home business” may do so out of laziness. Why go somewhere and interact with real people when I can just do it all from my home computer?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 07 Apr 2006 16:17:00 +0000

I think you've written a fair analysis, Roger. I look, for instance, at the woman in Proverbs 31 who was held in high esteem by her husband and had significant authority and interesting work to do in the home. Little is said there of the husband, but one knows that in that culture there was a true partnership of effort of every member of the family to support the family financially, and to run the home.
Your use of Leave it to Beaver is interesting. June Cleaver is always shown at home, never alone though she was mostly alone, always content in keeping the house and herself beautiful. Throughout the series, there is a sort of running joke about Ward's work in “the office.” No one is ever quite sure what he does at “the office.” Ward is never very excited to go to “the office.” He comes home tired. He rarely laughs — the office life seems unfulfilling, but it has to be done.
Feminists made the office and work world life seem romantic–even if it was dull, it was more interesting than being trapped in an empty house all day. In fact, the career world turned out to be a grind for women just as it has always been for men.
And, of course, choosing career meant not choosing motherhood, because you really can't have it all. Perhaps more families are choosing homeschooling and home businesses because they want to try to regain that unity and purpose in the family that was true in former times?