Apple Pie and Motherhood 0

Meghan Daum commits sacrilege, suggesting that, perhaps, being a parent isn’t the toughest job in the world, despite the sanctimous bleating surrounding the Hilary Rosen kerfuffle:

Look, I would never suggest that being a mom — or a dad — isn’t very difficult at times (and when severe disabilities or illness are involved, it can be unfathomably difficult just about all of the time). I would even make the argument that parenting may in fact be the most important job in the world, given that it involves overseeing the physical, intellectual, social and moral development of small humans who will eventually grow up and take charge of the planet. But off the top of my head, I can think of several other jobs that are tougher than being a mom. For instance, president of the United States. Or coal miner. Or teacher in an underfunded urban public school. Or Amish farmer.

She has a point.

I’ve spent too much time at PTA meetings, playgrounds, swimming pools, and scout meetings to buy the line that having children inherently exalts persons into some kind of superbeings called “Moms” and “Dads,” worthy of reverence because they have succeeded in doing something that almost everyone has succeeded in doing since Adam and Eve.

You can argue that parenthood is inherently transformative, at least for most (he said oxymoronically).

It is not, however, inherently ennobling. Just look around you, for Pete’s sake.

The persons who benefit most from the reverentially sanctimonious treatment of parenthood as somehow inherently ennobling are politicians who want to change the subject and companies that sell greeting cards.

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