"Roger" wrote in message

To help her get set up with a rich guy to take care of her and the
kids? I'd say that's being thoughtful.


I was on a business trip a couple years back, on the bus to Tokyo-Narita
airport to catch a flight to Bangkok. I conveniently and rather
unsurprisingly ended up talking to the only other caucasian American on the
bus, a married father of two guy in his late 40s whose job involved constant
travel and occasional visits to places not renowned for their high standards
of safety. His wife was understandably less than thrilled with this, but, he
said, "I don't worry because if anything happens to me on one of these trips
she'll be collecting on so many policies she won't even have to think about
working ever again."

I think this is how men have to a large degree been programmed to think. We
are the providers for the family and our number one job is to make sure
everyone is fed, clothed, and put through college. Money is money whether
it's coming from our paycheck or an insurance policy. A mother's job on the
other hand is to mother, and that can't be done but in person. This has even
carried over into the present post-modern era of intentionally broken
families. Fail to pay your child support and the whole machinery of justice
might well mobilize against you. Do it often enough and they'll put your mug
in the local paper. But how many times have you heard of a judge putting a
father in jail for failing to show up to take the kids for the weekend?

-cwk.