Loving Your Kids Is A Priority?

A blog posted today on WashingtonPost.com by Leslie Morgan Steiner suggests a crazy concept. Apparently, being a successful woman does not mean merely overcoming the gender gap or the stereotypes of our society. I was shocked (not really) to discover that loving your children puts a strain on a woman's career goals. In Alpha Girls Steiner writes concerning a group of excelling 17 year olds recently reported on by a national newspaper:

What I fear is the fate of these alpha girls once they have children. Years of hard work,
prizes and promotions can't prepare them for the only true enemy to female ambition in
America today: love for their children. For those who think the solution lies in not having
children, another kind of torture awaits them.

In other words, for all of the fuss being made over inequality in the work place, there is a struggle that no feminist seems willing to embrace. The problem for women achieving their career goals is not always the pressures of the outside world caving in on them, but rather the desire to love and nurture their children overriding their ambition to climb the corporate ladder. I'm not sure if she intended it this way, but Steiner's comments definitely lean toward a Christian world view. Just think, there are actually intelligent and educated adults, women even, who are willing to sacrifice their careers to raise their children properly--GREAT!!

If I may add, the one thing that Steiner misses out on is that there are a great number of dads in this world who could have climbed much higher on the corporate ladder if it were not for their love for their children. As shocking as it may seem, this is the biblical model. Paul did not say be an example for your kids by making tons of money, rather he admonished parents to raise their children in the fear of the Lord. It is truly a shame when loving your children more than your job is newsmaking material, but let's just be glad there are some who still do.