This is so sharp and on point, you are 100% right. However, given the track record of the US government the chances of this happening are nearly zero. When you have a culture where people are humiliated for even the smallest of mistakes, and where compliance and control are valued above all else, and the perceived risks to government information going home on a laptop and workers being out of sight is enormous (worth far more to a bureaucrat’s career than a mere $200,000,000!) work outside the office is not going to happen.

I wonder if I’m wrong and there are one or two departments in the US government where that culture is different. If so how did that change take place and how can we get it to grow?

Thanks! I appreciate your comments and your added insight.

- Jaime

Oh, and did you forget? Men are responsible for every thing that goes wrong. Aren’t they? I mean that’s what women/feminists have been saying for the past 30 years or more. Oh how the world would be so much better if women were in charge. How many times have I heard that? But now all of sudden you want men involved. Well so we need men after all? Imagine that! I thought women could handle every thing far better than men. Don’t you remember, “Woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle”? So I would think you would be happy not to have men involved. Now all of a sudden, men “have to model the way”! Well that’s a switch isn’t it?! Women need men to model the way. What a joke. Did you forget that men are all rapists, that trhey’re all too “macho”, that men have ego problems, that men are the source of all that is wrong with the world? Now all of a sudden men are the “models”? Yeah I’m sure men will fall for this.

And since when is “alienating” men a bad thing? I mean shouldn’t someone have spoken up about that long before now? I mean there’s been a hell of a lot of anti-male bigotry being spewed for years now, so it’s more than a little late to suddenly decide it’s a bad thing to alienate men.

So now just remember what you’ve been saying for years: who needs men. women are independent. women do a better job than men.

I am so thankful that my mother had a good career because my father died when I was 10 (and my sister 13), and she was able to support us without leaving our house, our town, and our friends.

Besides the divorce rate, there’s also death, unemployment (for the working spouse), and the many benefits of having 2 working parents. I think it’s important to have career goals and work hard for them, and that’s something I want to teach my kids.

There will always be time when we have to “push” on a project, and put in extra time. I’m a proponent that if our work “bleeds” into time outside of work, I prefer to get up a little earlier, rather than work longer into the night.

The benefit is the same - an uninterrupted vacuum chamber to focus - but our brains are more fresh after resting…and we get to enjoy that first cup of fresh coffeee. Ahhhh!

The person who emailed you mentioned 6-week-old babies being sent to day care. My guess is that this happens at the end of a 6-week maternity leave. So if we have longer parental leaves, this wouldn’t happen as often. So again, another problem to solve.

As far as the question “Why Even Have Kids if You’re Not Going to Raise Them?” is concerned, I think it is funny how people always pose that question to working mothers but not working fathers.

Unfortunately, since the inflationary 1970’s, a dual income household has become the only way for many American families to stay afloat. And, like it or not, choosing to stay at home to raise your children comes at a cost.

Jaime, you were right to point out one aspect of this cost of which many people are not aware. I certainly didn’t think about it during the 2.5 yrs I stayed at home raising my children.

And, I must challenge your reader’s notion that a non-parent caregiver is a “substitute” for the parents themselves. I see it differently.

From the time my first son was born, I have felt strongly that my children learn from, be nurtured and influenced by lots of adults. I want my children to see the world as a place with many traditions, cultures, perspectives and styles, so that as they figure out who they are, the world feels inclusive; and as they face the pressures and choices of young adulthood, they know they can seek counsel not just from us, but from coaches, teachers, clergy, neighbors, family friends, etc.

To view our role as parents as that of “protector” from people who are different or who act as “substitutes” and stand-ins for the “real” parents, is to limit our children’s capacity to grab the world by the tail and figure out how to tame it for themselves.