Ruth Institute Blog

In a previous post, I discussed a Life-Style Leftist blogman’s outraged response to a perfectly reasonable statement about a very sound study, and analyzed the rhetorical strategy of accusing your opponent of saying  something he didn’t say. In this post, I want to talk about the substance of the study, what it shows and what it doesn’t.

It is always dangerous to speculate about people’s motives of course. I’ve never met Zach Ford, the blogman over at Think Progress, so I don’t know exactly what he is thinking. But I can say this: the logic of the marriage redefinition movement requires its advocates to deny that gender matters.

If gender is to become legally irrelevant to marriage, the logic of their position drives them to claim that gender is irrelevant to parenthood. The gender of parents doesn’t matter.  The gender of children doesn’t matter.  There is no difference between “mothers” and “fathers:” those are just empty, social constructs. There are only generic parents. In fact, everyone is a generic person. There are no sons and daughters either, only generic children.  So, the impact of an absent father on a girl should be exactly the same as an absent mother on a girl, or an absent father on a boy, or as an absent mother on a boy.

But now, take a look at the study that Mr. Ford claims that Mr. Stanton has mischaracterized.  The title of the study reveals that it is profoundly about gender, “The
Trouble with Boys: Social Influences and the Gender Gap in Disruptive Behavior.”  Mr. Ford characterizes the paper thus: “If anything, the Booth study supports arguments Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

In the last post on the new State of Our Unions (SOU) report from the National Marriage Project we read that “the benefits of generosity were particularly pronounced among couples with children”. Parents who were very generous with each other were more likely to be very happy as well. But there’s more. Generosity in having children is also part of the happiness equation. Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

A leading British headmistress is worried that it is not just today’s schoolchildren who lack values and good standards of behaviour but also their parents. Dr Helen Wright, president of the Girls’ Schools Association (GSA), does not blame the parents because she believes they themselves were failed by the education system at a young age. In a speech Dr Wright said: Read more…

I was riding the ski lift with one of my pupils, a little girl of roughly seven years. She could not keep her eyes off me. I thought it was really sweet, having a crush on her teacher, as it were.

When we reached the top and the ski lift stopped, she finally spoke to me, and what she said was magical:

Keep reading.

by Leila Miller

October 21, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A few months back, I told my readers on my blog how to raise eight children without even trying. Today, I’m going to tell you why I never should have had eight children in the first place: had I listened to the devil and modern conventional wisdom, that is. Read more…

“Because,” she replied. “I wasn’t sure, so I decided to test it…”

Keep reading.

by Simcha Fisher

by Wesley J. Smith

I have worried before that stopping the normal onset of puberty in boys who believe they are girls, is a form of human experimentation–and on children, no less. And now another case has surfaced of an 11-year-old boy who is being kept medically from entering puberty. From the story: Read more…

by Carolyn Moynihan

Most couples who marry, even today, probably intend to have one or two children at least. Marriage and the baby carriage (as family scholar Brad Wilcox likes to pair them) have always gone together. But this is not what is meant by the new catch-phrase “intentional parenthood”. Read more…

From Parentingisfunny.wordpress.com.

When my son was about 2 1/2, he became aware, from listening to his siblings or hearing things on TV, of what we call bad words, like “shut up”, “stupid,” and “jerk.”  So one day when we were in the check out line at the grocery store,

Keep reading.

by Carolyn Moynihan

There was an uproar in New Zealand recently about sex education when a father told the NZ Herald he had pulled his son out of sex education because the teacher had told his class that anal and oral sex were alternatives to intercourse and that it was okay to play with a girl’s private parts as long as she consented. The boy was only 12. His class was also told to lie on the floor and imagine that the whole word way gay. Other parents came up with their own horror stories. Read more…

by Marcia Segelstein

In the not too distant past, traditionalists theorized that when it came to raising children, the answer was to retreat from the world.  Use private or parochial schools.  Or even better, homeschool.  Raise up a generation of kids who would change the world by trying to raise them outside the world.

To some degree, I concur.  Homeschooling and using Christian and other private schools are great options for those who have the time and resources. Read more…

Another installment from Parentingisfunny.

When my daughter started first grade, I asked her if she was enjoying school. After her answer to the affirmative, I inquired what she liked most. “Recess” was her response. I pointed out that she has “recess” at home all the time, so why was that her favorite? Finally she declared:

Keep reading.

Here’s your second installment from the parentingisfunny.wordpress.com blog.

When I was in labor at the hospital, O.J. Simpson was driving his white Bronco down a long stretch of highway, being chased by police cars and helicopters. Footage of this was on the TV in the delivery room. All the adults standing in the room were enthralled watching the screen. I just laid there, waiting for them to remember that… Keep reading.

by Carolyn Moynihan

If you asked a normal father why he stayed around after his child was born he might be a bit offended, and then he might say that it was because he loved his child and its mother (his wife) and because, anyway, he is responsible, along with his wife, for the children they bring into the world. He might also point out that he committed himself to the family when he married his wife. In other words, he would give a moral explanation.

Much is being made this week, however, of a study that shows testosterone declines markedly in men who become fathers, giving them a push in the direction of committed parenthood. It’s, like, suddenly we can know that fathers are meant to be with their children because biology proves it. Oh well, anything that reinforces the message is welcome. Read more…

ScienceDaily (Aug. 31, 2011) — Fathers who actively engage in raising their children can help make their offspring smarter and better behaved, according to new research from Concordia University.

Published in the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, the long-term study examined how fathers can positively influence the development of their kids through hands-on parenting. Read more…

Once a week I’m going to be including a story from the “Parenting is Funny” blog. We’ll feature one here, but feel free to read more at the blog itself until you have your funny fix! (You can also subscribe to the blog and be emailed every time a new post goes up. That way you won’t have to wait a full week to get the latest funny parenting story.)

Here’s your first sample: Read more…

An urban high school teacher in Connecticut talks about unwed motherhood, fatherlessness, and how it affects the kids in his classroom.

by Gerry Garibaldi

…Here’s my prediction: the money, the reforms, the gleaming porcelain, the hopeful rhetoric about saving our children—all of it will have a limited impact, at best, on most city schoolchildren. Urban teachers face an intractable problem, one that we cannot spend or even teach our way out of: teen pregnancy. This year, all of my favorite girls are pregnant, four in all, future unwed mothers every one. There will be no innovation in this quarter, no race to the top. Personal moral accountability is the electrified rail that no politician wants to touch… Read more…

The State should support families and better enable them to survive and thrive.  California, however, is once again making it difficult-to-impossible for families to care for their own members in their own homes.  AB 889 is expected to soon be on Governor Brown‘s desk.

If you hire someone to care for your children in your home while you work, or care for an elderly parent, or care for someone who is sick or handicapped, AB 889 (Domestic Work Employees) would require you to provide rest breaks every two hours, carry Workers’ Comp insurance, issue paychecks with itemized pay stubs, etc.  It also allows for lawsuits and penalties if “employers” (aka Mom and Dad) fail to know and follow all of the labyrinthine requirements:

AB 889: “Adventures in Babysitting” Bill Is Making Its Way to the Governor’s Desk

 

How will parents react when they find out they will be expected to provide workers’ compensation benefits, rest and meal breaks and paid vacation time for…babysitters? Dinner and a movie night may soon become much more complicated.

 

Assembly Bill 889 (authored by Assemblymember Tom Ammiano of San Francisco) will require these protections for all “domestic employees,” including nannies, housekeepers and caregivers. The bill has already passed the Assembly and is quickly moving through the Senate with blanket support from the Democrat members that control both houses of the Legislature – and without the support of a single Republican member. Assuming the bill will easily clear its last couple of legislative hurdles, AB 889 will soon be on its way to the Governor’s desk. Read more…

by Rachel Jankovic

A few years ago, when I just had four children and when the oldest was still three, I loaded them all up to go on a walk. After the final sippy cup had found a place and we were ready to go, my two-year-old turned to me and said, “Wow! You have your hands full!” Read more…