You would think that society would want to prepare people to be parents, considering that when we have children, we are literally raising society.
Renee Antonelli Valente
In school, they place emphasis on the past instead of the future. How many history classes must one take as requirements throughout their scholastic career, yet no one is required to learn how to balance a checkbook, obtain good credit or raise a family?
Granted, hospitals offer “classes” for parents: basic baby care, Lamaze and nursing. Wanting to be completely prepared, I took all three. The effectiveness of these classes is like being given sheets of cardboard and asked to practice making ravioli.
Changing a diaper is simple when it involves a doll. How about giving me a kicking, screaming baby with a poopy diaper in the car on the Parkway in bumper to bumper traffic in 10 degree weather and an empty box of wipes instead?
Lamaze? I came out of that learning I can feel great by just breathing…while sitting on the floor on a comfy mat. But start splitting my pelvic bones apart while incredible spasms of pain collapse me to the floor, and breathing doesn’t seem like such an effective management tool.
Nursing class was fun, too. This is where complete strangers get to stare at each other's boobs while holding a plastic baby -- almost like a scene from a creepy movie. For me, nursing a plastic baby was a piece of cake. Of course, it also didn’t quite prepare me for the writhing, unwilling, hungry infant with 4 a.m. jaws of steel.
And yet, anyone, anywhere, anytime can be thrust into some of the most difficult, challenging and important tasks they will ever have to face.
Think about it. Raising another human being is something even the most prepared are sometimes unprepared for. This person will interact with society, have children of his or her own, hold positions in business…all things that affect themselves, other people, and the world. These children will grow up to interact with MY children, make rules for me when I’m older, set the way of the world -- or at least be someone who'll slap cheese on my burger.
Perhaps many of modern days societal dilemmas can be avoided if we were trained and adequately prepared from the start. Teach us how to fix things around the house. Train us how to handle personal finances. Imbed in us the responsibilities we have as individuals and as a society as a whole.
While the insightful Mr. Salt and Mrs. Pepper from Blues Clues reminds our children that they “can be anything that they want to be,” we also have the obligation to teach them how to handle it when that just doesn’t happen.
Just like cigarettes come with a surgeon general's warning, perhaps birth control should bear a similar notice: Improper use of this item can significantly impact the course of your life and the life of others.
Maybe that way people will truly think, if even for a moment, that everything they do actually matters. If you’re the president, an artist, an office worker, or put cheese on a burger, you have some type of impact. It just would be nice if everyone understood that from the start.
