Our Roles

Our role changes started to accelerate in the sixties with the break from traditional life that was prevalent in the fifties.  The “me” generation began along with the popularity of drugs, rock and roll, carefree sex, and divorce.  The seventies brought “women’s liberation” which only served to escalate the acceptance of divorce and the alteration in the roles of women.  Soon to follow was the breakdown of the family, a growing epidemic that has caused a rapid downward spiral in our value system. 

We all know that men and women are very different creatures.  We were made to be different and to have separate roles from each other.  As a teenager in the seventies, though, we were bombarded with the idea of “EQUALITY” for men and women.  That idea confused me for a long time and only magnified my dissatisfaction of my role as a wife and mother.  How shocked I was to discover that my husband and I didn’t think the same way about everything.

I understand the concept of equal pay for an equal job, but what else about men do we really want to be like?  Why would I want to be included at every function a man attends or in hanging out with the boys? (Maybe when I was young and single.) Yes, there are areas in life where men have the advantage, but how quickly we forget the liberties that come along with being female.  We may think men take the lead in society, but we women have the power to entice men into doing almost anything for us.  That has never changed.

As young adults, we tend to follow the loudest group that wants to alter society.  Our male/female relationships are mostly superficial because we’re on our best behavior to find our mate for life.  It’s difficult to know what our roles are when we’re busy trying to impress each other.   But as we get older, we see the importance of value and tradition and often times, change our thinking about the role we play in life.  Having our own children will ignite those ideas.

In our current times, bringing a child into the world is the point where all the societal rules for men and women have become confused.  Before children, the man and wife both worked and thought they knew their purpose and felt like a viable part of society.  And then the children come along.

I believe that motherhood is the most important role a woman will ever have.  We want to give our children every opportunity to excel in life.  It’s hard to do that when children spend most of their day in childcare and then school as they get older.

 

There used to be a time where parents were the greatest influence on a child’s beliefs.  Society has now taken that position, mainly because children are spending more time in the world than under the guidance of their parents.  Even at home, most children are raised by television, computers, and telephones.  Many parents are too busy and too tired to invest in quality time with their children.  It’s easier to occupy them with the latest electronic gadget.

Thanks to women’s lib, women have been brainwashed into believing that a women is nothing if she stays home to raise her children.  I struggled greatly with that idea when my children were young, and I stayed home with them.  There were many times I felt like a second-class citizen when others would ask me what I do, and they responded with a snarl or condescending look.  Why have we taken the most noble job God has given us and turned it into a thankless task left to childcare personnel who are over-worked and under paid and don’t really care about the values that are important to us?

Our love of money and things has also affected the need for women to go to work.  I wonder how many women really “need” to go to work.  Is it to put food on the table or to buy a bigger house and nicer car?  I remember a friend of mine who had recently moved into a larger house.  Her children were young and she worked full time.  She looked at her finances one day and said, with a heavy sigh, “If we hadn’t bought this house I could afford to stay home with my children.”  She was stuck in a thankless job losing valuable time with her children that she could never get back.

Stay tuned next week as I compare our roles to Adam and Eve.