melly

my response was entirely knee jerk and not so much base on the single parent aspect but the whole, extreme right wing slant on this -- that gays and single people are not fit parents. being heterosexual and married isn't the one path to happy children. being gay and single is not sick or ridiculous.

i myself am everlastingly sick of the rightwing outlook on this -- it's not just insulting, it does actual harm. how many of these sanctimonious assholes are out there undermining the goodness of devoted, but non-traditional parents?

i'm still mad as hell about it.

I barely know her, but shit like that pisses me off! Parents, especially single parents, have a hard enough job to do with out pillocks like that sticking their 2 penn'orth in. >:( GIT!!

Thank you for posting that because I got to go vent some scholarly bile - in a nice way however, as usual. But please - making such a statement and then suddenly saying "why is everyone so angry?!" How can anyone be so thick not to realize that this is a personal issue! Hello, everyone has had parents. There's your personal angle, not to mention the people who read and are parents. And as usual, people scoff over critiquing tv - oh yes, it's only tv, it never means anything, doesn't say anything about society - and that's why we had a vice president railing about Murphy Brown a few years ago - didn't mean anything, but took up a lot of speech time.... Not to mention that Americans only spend more time on the job or sleeping - watching tv is the third highest activity that we spend time doing in our lives. But then I'm biased - I study tv.

Oh and I just read the stupid article he cited and had to comment again.
Throw around a couple of references to Alexis de Tocqueville and William Galston and people think an author knows what they're talking about. Not like *I* do - but being able to name drop does not impress me. Also I study social science dammit - do not try and tell me how things work and what "normal" is. According to certain sociologists our society has been going to hell in a handbasket for ages - 1920s sociologists had all sorts of things to say about youth, alcohol, jazz, hemlines - and the decay of the fabric of our society, the breakdown of the family and America. And there's always someone who says the same things in every decade, trumpeting proudly as if they'd discovered it and figured this out on their own.

History is such fun. Always makes me calmer to know that people have gone down the same road before and survived. The family is just fine. It's got a different definition now.

*gets off soapbox, realizes she's still at work, decides to go home*

I went to the site and read his entry..
I don't agree with him, but he is so hellbent of his beliefs that there is no room for discussion with him..
And they are plenty of people like him out there..
Just let him go and hope he doesn't plant the seed of his beliefs on anyone human....

In his defence, he is a parent.
My entry against him was just bizarre. I think I'm on something, or too open-minded

i got a little bizarre myself. i guess i'm really sensitive to the whole issue, from every perspective -- single parents and nontraditional families are NOT sick.

and the other thing is, we all know Melly is like the best mommy ever. and if he upset her, well, it makes me want to kick his ass.

Damn straight!

i read your entry, then melly's entry, then what's-his-name's entry, then back to melly's entry. then i went and sat down to think. i considered rushing to the defense of melly, but i know that she's perfectly capable of defending herself <looks over shoulder>. i thought about criticizing what's-his-name, but decided that wouldn't really add anything to the discussion. then i thought about writing my own essay on the subject. maybe i'm thinking too much... i dunno.

i have no doubt about melly's intent to nurture her child. she's an incredible young woman who has more intestinal fortitude and strength than 90% of the rest of us. i've read her story and admire her greatly. i fully expect her to raise mattie to the best of her ability and she has the discipline to do it.

it is truly unfortunate that the tone of what's-his-name's entry seemed so negative about single parents. i don't think it was intended to target melly personally. (if so, then he get's whatever he deserves!)

sometimes we (myself included) seem to have skins that are a little too thin. it's easy to go off on someone like that. sometimes they desrve it; other times not.

now i think i'll go and ruminate some more....

No matter what people say or do there are always going to be single mothers and non-traditional families. What really urks me is the collateral damage to the kids of these families. What does all this right wing rhetoric do to these kids� self image when they overhear that they are the cause of "the decline of the American family"? It sounds a lot like a self-fulfilling prophecy to me.