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Mother and child reunion
By Betsy Richter | 11:38 amWe’ve been dealing with a rash of violence here in NE Portland lately. And at a news conference last Thursday, State Senator Margaret Carter said something that really set my nerves on edge.
(I’m going to paraphrase it, because the article online doesn’t contain the quote I know I read in The Oregonian last Friday, and the paper’s long since been recycled.)
She said she was speaking as a mother of several children, not as a public official, and she invoked motherhood as a line of defense against senseless shootings. As in “mothers need to know where their kids are at all times.”
Seems like a reasonable request, you think. And I agree – needing to know where your kids are is not only reasonable, but expected in an age where kids disappear from bus stops and respected authority figures can’t always be trusted.
But why am *I* being singled out? Why does it always fall back on the mother to track schedules…to be the disciplinarian and enforcer and household concierge? Why didn’t she (or the article) talk about fathers, and other family members? (insert pitiful whiny bleating noises here)
I know, I know. It’s a knee-jerk feminist reaction, and in this case, it’s not particularly helpful. Because the truth is – we are often the ones on the front line. And if it means that we keep our kids safer, well, then I really ought not to quibble about who’s job it really is, or whine about it ‘always being my job.’
But I still had one more nagging issue with the coverage of the McCorvey shooting – until this week’s Nose column in Willamette Week addressed it nicely. Talk about your much-needed bitchslaps.
While some pointed their fingers at cops and politicians, Carter politely called out another group. Parents, she said, “need to know where all their kids are all the time.”
Finally.
Finally, someone had the guts to say, in so many words, “What the hell is a 14-year-old girl doing out on the city streets alone at 1 o’clock in the morning?”
Okay. So I’m on the front lines here without complaint. But I’m still not going to take out the garbage by myself…
Topics: Bossing the Kids, PDX/Oregon Whim | No Comments »
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