Stripping Off Political Correctness

I have ideas-- ideas that I grew up with--ideas that I have read a lot about-- ideas that everyone have. And I believe them. I believe them to my very core. Occasionally, some other idea crashes into to these original ideas and I cannot reconcile them. I have to decide which is true. This has happened to me recently.

A little over a month ago a wrote a piece, I titled, The New Gender Gap. To my surprise people actually read it. I had the question of what am I doing about it? ie: How am I helping my sons grow up to be successful when there is an epidemic of lazy boys addicted to video games and porn. I didn't have a response. So, like me, I have spent a lot of time thinking about it. What can be done? I have found one answer-- I suspect there are many-- to this problem. But this answer has caused me to change the course of my thinking. I have had to strip myself from popular belief, political correctness, and an idea that I have just grown up with. That idea is Gender Neutrality.

Everyone knows you will hurt your child if you push the societal ideas on gender on your children. We are supposed to let our children come into their own idea of gender-- not push any set role of society on them. Right? I have decided the answer is a BIG WRONG!

I realized this gender neutral thing was a myth. I was having an online debate with some politically correct bozo who believes it is a "right" to have sex with whoever whenever and that does not cause any harmful consequences to the children involved. (Isn't abortion a harmful to a child-- but that is another topic.)

My argument: if you take a mother or a father or a firm set of beliefs (religion) away from a child, that will leave a scar on the child. Some children may come out okay, but many will not. Children need to grow up with all three. I have had people argue that it is bad to "force" your religion on your children before they are old enough to choose. I have found that when a parent refuses to teach their children a firm set of values then a child grows up confused. Those children instead are forced to learn from natural and societal consequences--many which are very harsh. They do not have a value set to fall back on when they have to make adult decisions like, "Should I have sex with my boyfriend?" Those children growing up with religion have a good set of standards to look to when they have to make adult choices.

After arguing this, I thought about how for most of the history of the world, boys were taught to be boys by their fathers and girls were taught to be girls by their mothers. Now days, we carefully do not teach gender roles. And now days we have an entire generation of boys and girls growing up gender confused. Boys aren't trying to become educated or find jobs good enough to support a family. They don't even seem to know they should. Girls are acting out sexually and would rather work then become a nuturing mother because that is beneath them. Our great grandparents were right. Boys need to be taught to be boys and girls need to be taught to be girls. In fact, I think it is as important for children to be taught gender roles as it is for children to be taught religion. How will they know if we do not teach them?

There is a reason God sent his children into homes with a mother and a father. If children could just learn and make good decision with no instruction then they would not need a mother and a father to teach them. There is more to being a parent then providing food, clothes, and shelter. Our kids need to be taught who they are supposed to become and how they are to become that person. It is as essential for a child to be taught gender roles as it is for a child to be taught religion.

Nathan Cherry, blog writer for engage family minute said:

I will confess I get both furious and heavy-hearted when I read articles about parents letting their young boys dress in girls’ clothing. Rather than explain to their sons what it means to be a man, they embrace some liberal defined immorality that says boys can be girls and vice versa. I’m sure some people would scream if they knew I told my son he can’t play with purses and then gave them to my daughter and told her they were just for her. And I will do it again if necessary because I have a responsibility to teach my son what it means to be masculine, and masculinity doesn’t include purses.