Mary Cheney's pregnancy affects us all
By Janice Shaw Crouse
Thursday, December 7, 2006

Mary Cheney’s pregnancy poses problems not just for her child, but also for all Americans. Her action repudiates traditional values and sets an appalling example for young people at a time when father absence is the most pressing social problem facing the nation. With 37 percent of American children born to fatherless families, Mary Cheney is contributing to a trend that is detrimental to all Americans who will live with the ramifications of millions of children whose anger and frustration at not knowing their father will be felt in the public schools and communities of our nation.

Mary Cheney is among that burgeoning group of adult women over age 20 that are driving the trend of women who don’t want a man in the picture, but want to have a baby. These older women are pushing out-of-wedlock birth statistics higher and higher. At a time when teen births and teen abortions are declining dramatically, older women are having more un-wed births and more abortions, including repeat abortions (indicating that they are using abortion as birth control).

Well-educated, professional Mary Cheney is flying in the face of the accumulated wisdom of the top experts who agree that the very best family structure for a child’s well-being is a married mom and dad family. Her child will have all the material advantages it will need, but it will still encounter the emotional devastation common to children without fathers.

One Georgia high school principal reported, “We have too many young men and women from single-mother families that don’t have the role models at home to teach them how to deal with adversity and handle responsibility. They’ve seen their mom work 60 hours a week just to put food on the table; they end up fending for themselves.”

Snip...... Townhall
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"Poor Dick and Lynne" would undoubtedly be the first to tell everyone to mind their own business.

On the other hand, as a society it is all of our business. It's way past the time when we all say, "hey do just what you like"

The social pathologies of selfishness end up costing everyone.

I'm the product of a single mother. Mom and Dad seperated/divorced when I was 9 going on 10 in 1994. My brother was 5 going on 6 when it happened. We had great role models in my Uncles on my Mom's side. Dad also didn't disappear, he was still around too...

BUT my point is, I don't think that a "father" is in reality necesarry. As long as there are loving parents. Mary Cheney's baby might be without a "father", but it is not a single parent family, and the child's parents will undoubtedly love him or her.

I do not think this is a big deal. I don't care if it is man/woman, man/man, or woman/woman, just so long as that child is loved and cared for.

Oh Frank, thous hast opened a bottle of right-wing wrath...

DQ...really boring day at work...I could use some excitement.

In the words of the President, "BRING IT ON".

I don't see anything wrong with it. I got your back, Mary.

But, Frank L, just look how you turned out!

It looks like the alternative lifestyles and single posters brigade is out in force - what in hell has happened to banking?

I agree with you X, and Ms. Janice Crouse, but we are a dying breed. That's why society is changing. Sometimes for good, sometimes for bad, who knows? All I know is, when it starts to get really bad, I will be gone,:) and all you bleeding heart liberals will be stuck in whatever mess you've made for yourselves.

I have a HUGE problem with some of Crouse's arguments in her article.



Really? Most pressing social problem facing the nation? More so then poverty, lack of education, the "war" on drugs?



Oh good God...



What experts? Can we have some names and credentials please?



Role models don't need to be "fathers". Role models come in all shapes and sizes.



And X...I turned out just fine...I turned out to be a conservative bashing, progressive thinking, intelligent and aspiring young adult...but I'm wondering X and Nanwa...my father had an alcohol problem and a drug problem. He was abusive, and he cheated on my mom. Should my mom have stayed with him?

As long as kids have good role models (family members, friends, etc.) they will be just fine. My Mom was also a single parent for most of my childhood (my dad had a drug problem), but I had very strong male role models to learn from. My Mother also showed me what a strong woman should be, and that you don't have to keep yourself in a very bad situation just because of other peoples opinions or views.

Some people have a cookie cutter ideal about what family should be, but it's just not realistic in 2006. Peoples ideals are changing and the family structure is changing to go along with it.

"And X...I turned out just fine...I turned out to be a conservative bashing, progressive thinking, intelligent and aspiring young adult...but I'm wondering X and Nanwa...my father had an alcohol problem and a drug problem. He was abusive, and he cheated on my mom. Should my mom have stayed with him?"

That's not the point though...the point is not about single parents raising children when a relationship goes bad because of drugs/alcohol/abuse/etc...the point is making the decision to be a single parent from the start.

And this kid will have a strong family support system...Two parent figures, two sets of very adoring grandparents (the Cheney's are actually very proud and loving of their daughter) and an aunt and uncle and their 5 cousins from Cheney's other daughter. If we want to talk about a strong support group and strong role models (whatever their personal beliefs are) they have found that in the Cheney family.

mary cheney's pregnancy has nothing to do with me, couldnt care less, you think shes the first gay person to do this???...if the child is loved do you think it matters what sex they are?...to me the answer is no...

Ok . . . This is coming from a single mother. My ex-husband and I were divorced when my son was in the second grade. My ex- was also an alcoholic, womanizing, abuser. I did what I thought was best for my child and myself - I left! I only regret that I did not do it sooner. I was married to him 9 years and 9 months.

I always tried not to berate my ex- in front of my son because I knew that he could see what was happening at the time, and would understand more on his own when he was older. I succeeded most of the time.

If I could do-over, I'd leave him when my son was a baby instead of hoping he'd change and staying around as long as I did.

Arye...thats not the feeling I'm getting from X and Nanwa...if thats (single from the start) what they're referring too, then they are entitled to that opinion...

But, if they are implying that all families should stay together because it is Mom and Dad (as my Grandmother did...whom told my mom my brother and I would turn into hoodlums if she divorced her son)...then I take a HUGE offense to that.

Thanks Nanwa!

I've been thinking a lot lately about how BOL has changed - when did we lose the capacity to argue rationally without appeal to irrelevant, emotional side issues?

When did we lose the ability to distinguish between circumstance beyond one's control and one's own life decisions?

Yes, some children have no fathers, through no fault of their own nor of their mother. This is not the same thing as making a conscious, premeditated decision to deliberately, on purpose, bring a fatherless child into the world.

People get hit by buses all the time. That doesn't make it right to push someone in front of one.

The posted issue is about the mom, but the real issue relates to the child and for any mom to make a conscious, premeditated decision that her child will be just fine without a father in life, given all that a child must now face in life, is a really selfish decision. There are lots of children out there available to adopt - I was one of them many years ago - that would have been a much better option to pursue.

Having a father in the picture does not guarantee a role model in a childs life. Sheesh, does this go back to the myth that women can not do a "man's" job?

Karen, just take off your shoes and get back in your kitchen, OK?

X, do you by chance live in Pennslyvania and keep a loaded weapon in your home to protect the womenfolk too?

You might want to protect yourself from the masses of fatherless children and their selfish single mothers who might be coming after you!

Well...Mary Cheney isn't a single parent, her partner of 15 years is the other parental figure. They aren't legally recognized as a married couple, and by no means are they single.

DQ -
I'm from the right wing ...and I say good for them.
I'm sure that they will have a great support system.

I know I know...what was I thinking??

Have Gun, Will Travel!

I am all for a two parent family. Mom and dad. Not every family is perfect, marriage is hard work, raising kids is even harder. It's not about if a woman needs a man, or if she can do a mans Job...it's about what benefits the child the most.

Raising a child can be done alone, no one is contesting that, it is done all the time. BUT would it have been better for the CHILD to have dad and mom around? I say yes.

LOL