This can't be good...

[Gn2Dlnd]

Originally Posted by Prudence

... the ideal environment for kids is where they have a parent of each gender who stay married, don't beat each other, don't get fired from their jobs and lay around on the couch in their underwear for 6 years while the kids eat out of dumpsters, don't send their kids out to play in traffic while they pretend they're still kid/carefree, and can model appropriate intergender and interpersonal relationships, while instilling in the child both a sense of self-worth AND a sense of responsibility.

I agree with everything you say, except the part about a parent of each gender. My growing up Gay wasn't at all helped by my (eventually divorced and constantly screaming at each other) intergender parents. I don't think gender should enter, at all, in a child's education regarding interpersonal relationships. However, all things being equal, I was fed and clothed, driven to school and rehearsals, given swimming lessons, inocculated, taken on camping trips and to Disneyland, and generally raised as well as anyone else was raising kids in the 60's and 70's. Best? No. Good? Usually. Could it have been better? You bet. I love my parents, but I wouldn't want to live with them.