BusinessWeek just named my town one of the best places to raise your children. It’s based on academic test scores, cost of living, crime rate and a couple of other factors. Great to find that out but I knew it – that’s why I live here. We are often years behind the times. (It has its upside. Last year’s fashions everywhere else are just becoming new trends here.)
What is really disturbing is the “debate” section at the end of the piece on the BusinessWeek Web site. It says, and I quote, “Join a debate about whether kids are worth the cost.” Mortification! I had to read it twice as I couldn’t believe my eyes. Then I made a big mistake. I went to actually read the debate section. (I forgot that ignorance is bliss which is our motto here in good old #11. Silly me.)
It was pretty sad – some bright points – but still sad. And it hit me! That’s why I love my little hometown. Someone would slap you if you had this debate here where the average income is $36,464. That’s why I give my town such high marks as a place to raise kids. We actually like them, celebrate when one is on the way, and recognize they are a valuable commodity. That’s our bottom line.
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“Children are one third of our population and all of our future.” ~ Select Panel for the Promotion of Child Health, 1981
6 responses so far ↓
1 Karen Vogel // Nov 29, 2007 at 10:51 am
I couldn’t resist looking. Frightening. And any society where it isn’t taken for granted that kids are “worth the cost,” whatever the heck that means, is lost.
Is my memory failing me (again), or wasn’t it Janis Joplin who sang, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”? The “Pro-child” person attributed it to Kris Kristofferson.
2 Mary // Nov 29, 2007 at 12:25 pm
I am glad you thought it was frightening too. I never went into parenting expecting to get anything back. I figured most of it would be in the giving, and I might be strange, but I like to be giving. And yes, what does “worth the cost” mean? I can’t wrap my brain around that.
FYI – Janis sang Me and Bobby McGee, Kris and Fred Foster wrote it. (Roger Miller sang it originally. Yikes!)
3 Rebecca // Nov 29, 2007 at 5:15 pm
I didn’t look at the article but it sounds ridiculous. Not the part about your town being a great place to raise kids but the “is it worth it” debate. I’m sure that would really upset people who so desperately want to have kids but can’t.
4 Joe // Nov 30, 2007 at 1:49 am
What the fudge is going on in these journalist minds? Someone needs a time out. Motherwise can you handle that?
5 Keli // Nov 30, 2007 at 11:42 am
It sounds like a stuper wrote that headline – (I can’t comment on the article yet as I haven’t read it, but I intuitively feel stupidity must be behind it!). Are kids worth the cost? For heaven’s sake, if we decide they’re not, can we return them and get our money back?
6 Keli // Nov 30, 2007 at 11:52 am
Okay, now I’ve read the debate and two things come to mind: Business Week was desperate to get a reaction from readers, hoping they’d talk about it to non-readers (like myself). Second, I was right; the con portion is definitely written by a categorically stupid person. I didn’t know kids came with a price tag. Thanks, Mary for giving me a new idea about a post!