Culture in the 21st century

I think I am turning into my mother. 

Not that that is a bad thing, but I remember when I was much younger the things I would say to myself like "when I grow up, I’m going to be a different kind of mother!" – usually that statement would be as a result of something she said that I didn’t want to hear.

Isn’t it funny how when we get older we actually find out that many of the things our parents taught us when we were younger were on the mark?  Like "if you save money now, you’ll be better off later" or "if this relationship doesn’t work out, don’t fret.  The right one will come along"?

Ok, I’m digressing a bit.

What I really wanted to bring up this morning was a commercial I saw a couple of days ago.  I think it was for McDonald’s.  In it, there is a young attractive woman walking down the street.  She has a baby, who is strapped in to one of those baby holders that a woman can put around her shoulders that the baby can rest in without her having to hold him/her.  The woman has a McDonald’s cup in her hand, and she’s sipping on her drink.  There are young men (I’d guess mid 20s in age) sitting on the steps to their homes watching her as she walks towards them and by them, smiling and nodding and obviously interested. 

Towards the end of the commercial, she says something like "sorry guys, this is the only man I’ll take with me to McDonald’s" and the camera pans to the baby, obviously a boy.

Do you know what I think when I see stuff like that now? I think "where’s the father?"   I mean, is she married to the kid’s father?  Does the kid’s father have an aversion to McD’s? Or is this just a case of a single mother taking her kid to McD’s? What type of message does that send?

I know. I really shouldn’t put that much thought into a McD’s commercial.  But as I’ve gotten older, I think about stuff like that more – the symbolism of it, the implied statement behind it that says "I may have had a fling or relationship that didn’t work out, and had a baby from it."

This isn’t a slam on single motherhood, btw.  My mother was single at various times with me and my sisters.  I just think about the implied messages that commercials like this send to young women.   Like "it’s ok to have a baby without the father being around" – that sort of thing.  If a woman gets pregnant unexepectedly due to a fling or if she’s in a relationship with someone and it doesnt’ work out, I encourage that woman to have the child …. because it’s a precious little life.   But I just wish that commercials like the McD’s commercial would emphasize more the very important role the father plays in the upbringng of the child.

I feel like in today’s society, fathers sometimes get the short end of the stick.  Families are still de-emphasized to a certain extent in movies, TV shows, etc.  I know this has been going on for a while now, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve just come to recognize it more.  These are the kinds of things my mother used to point out to me, but I just never listened and waved it off as ‘old-fashioned nonsense.’

On a semi-related note about our culture, Mark In Mexico writes about a trend happening across Europe called "toothing" which sounds like the latest trend in how to obtain a "quickie."  Oh, the wonders of technology.  Warning: some pictures in that post are not work-friendly.

Cross-posted at California Conservative, where some of the other blog contributors there have some spot-on posts about fighting today’s culture wars like the following:

• “The Root Cause of Crime Is…”
• When Understanding and Compassion Hurt More Than They Help
• 25 To Life: A Clear And Present Danger

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