I was at a relative's party on Sunday and at a point the discussion floated around motherhood and moms. I said my two cents on the topic as follows: I think women of my mom's generation (she's headed to 60) and before had a really hard time and generally bad quality of life. They got married when they were still kids and or had kids when they were still kids. They had to grow up so fast and manage their homes so early because the men they married generally were their first borns waiting on them for everything, demanding attention and then throwing tantrums. They had no choice in most family matters. They put up with bad behaviour from their husbands (drinking husbands especially)for years but were never expected to leave their husbands as if they did they would be casstigated by society, starting with their own dads and uncles.
I was quickly corrected and told that those womens' joy and good quality of life precisely came from the children they got so early and whom they actually grew up with. That what i perceive to be involuntary selflessness in the way women withstood pain and anguish caused by husbands ( i mean, what could they do, society expected them to stay in the marriage and raise happy children)was actually precisely voluntary because it is in that that they found joy.

There are many things i find wrong, unfair and even inhuman in what many of our moms were put through.

Is that generation of women happier today (having withstood incredible pains for say 40 years) than the new generation of moms in their 30s who wonder how people can have 5 kids when 1 is oh so overwhelming and oh too much responsibility, and who want 'me time' and weekends to 'hang out with the gals' and evenings to sip a drink quietly with their husbands occassionally on a reggae nite, and if it doesnt work out because he is cheating are willing to move out, separate and keep raising their children and kinda move on while the generation of our moms looks on with their mouths agape in judgement?

Hapo kuna maswali nyeti. Lets breakdown issues to chewable chunks:
- Pros and cons of delayed marriage and motherhood?
- Pros and cons of modern education, formal employment and urbanisation on marriage and motherhood.

Great debate.

I'll blame todays diet and television. Homes fed on good healthy unprocessed food, that are devoid of TVs, produce decent women. Whatever level of education or empowerment, notwithstanding. Look around.

Blame the genes....XXY

In previous generations gender roles played a large role in shaping the identity of an individual.The values advanced by this "man's world" consider feminine 'behaviour' to be weakness,competition is the norm and self-identity and expression is being 'promoted/protected' by and in a tussle with society.Weak or strong,it seems it's now in the values of the beholder.

[quote=AlphDoti]I pity the young generation so much, did somebody called them xxy?


You see men and women are equal in the eyes of God, but they have different roles, and the roles may NOT be equal, because they are not equal physically, emotionally etc. Also all children are equal, but their roles and capabilities are NOT equal.

People can never be equal. Take for example a group of students in a class. No matter what, those students will have different strengths in different areas. No matter what, not all of them will score 1st class honours (I'm yet to see that happen).

So I wonder when I see people say you must give all these students (plus the E ones) similar job in a corporation.

How? No way. Some must end up being the cleaners, some CEOs, some middle management, some will dig trenches to lay fiber, some will milk the cows, some will be house girls etc. That way, you have somebody in each of the roles required for a balance society.

unless they are in Zetech and those other guys who live in future