Miranda Was the WORST Mother Ever!

Your comment strenghtens the case, at least for me, that people that see Miranda as the good parent have a strong belief that the best people are those who do what they're supposed to do, not those who do what they can do, and definitely not those who do what they want to do. While I agree fathering a child and raising it properly is probably the most serious responsibility one can have, I also think it's a sad world where any challenge to the status quo is seen as a bad thing, or that people who do challenge it are lazy, like if there was never a good reason to question the way we do things.

Lots of fathers are much worse than Daniel. Many of them were not raised properly either, and the same is true for mothers, too; so to expect them to be perfect parents is a bit too much. Everyone here seems to agree that both Daniel and Miranda had good and bad qualities when it comes to raising their children. Even I agree that the number one priority for parents is to provide food for their children. But food alone won't be enough to raise a decent human being.

If Daniel was such a deadbeat, how come he had money to throw a party to his son? Actual deadbeat fathers are often in jail, killed, or actively commiting crimes, which you'd have to agree is much worse than not being able to hold a steady job. It seems Miranda exaggerated his irresponsibility as a professional, probably because she thought the way she acted was the right way - and anyone who has ever been on a relationship knows that happens a lot, on both directions.

You seem to agree with Miranda's view that school should be taken seriously, that one who fails on his grades will eventually become a failed human being. Yet, most people, when they get old enough, eventually realize that most of the educational system they've been through all their lives is a big joke. It allows you to learn skills, improve your knowledge about the world, and lets you exercise your ability to live in a society. But it also exposes you to cheating, jealousy, bullies, mob mentality, ineffective methods of evaluating your learning skills, uniformization of human beings who are essentially very diverse, teachers' pets, a narrowed sense of aesthetics or individuality, etc.

After all, you're another brick in the wall. Not functioning properly on this make-believe world, where schools and workplaces are exactly the best that they can ever be, is for me a sign that you still haven't lost completely your connection with your true nature. Of course, refusing to just shut up and work, or shut up and study, is much easier when you don't have kids that depend on you. But even if you do have kids, making sure that they don't starve or that they get good grades is not the entire job of a good parent. There are plenty of reasons for a kid to not like school very much - in my opinion, an outdated educational system is the most important one, although not getting a proper sense of discipline from your parents is important, too.

If you raise children thinking being poor, unemployed and without a diploma are the worst things that can happen, you're not raising good human beings, you're raising monsters who will see everybody else in the world as competition. Adults who will be unable to empathize with the suffering or shortcomings of others.

Some people adapt easily to the way things are in the world today. Some don't, and some never will. A very small minority of those who are unable to fit perfectly into today's society will become sociopaths or psychopaths. The majority though, I believe, are much better people than those who adapt with little effort. After all, adapting easily to a sick world kinda makes you sick by definition, too, doesn't it?

But I'm still glad there are people who adapt easily. Half of my immediate family is like that, and the other half is not, but I love them all equally. I'm just concerned that, even though you seem to be one among the ones who adapt easily, and you like it that way and you think it's the right way to be, there's a good chance one of your children will feel the exact opposite of the way you feel. With the authority of a father and a mother, you could change that, but I know the kid won't ever be happy. The children that have the hardest time pleasing their parents, on fulfilling their expectations, are the ones who think about that the most. It may not seem like it, but "problem" children live day and night feeling guilty for not being the son or daughter their father or mother wanted them to be. Easily-adjustable kids also disagree with their parents, but they will leave as soon as they can to have their own families and then impose things the way they feel it's right, dragging up a cordial relationship with the old folks until the end of time. Those who can't or don't want to adjust though, will develop one or another addiction to cope with their perceived failure, often slowly dying out of depression or self-destructive behavior. It's no surprise that anti-depressants have such a huge captive market.

In the movie, even though Daniel obviously disagrees with the way Miranda lives her life and raises their children, she's the one humiliating him for being different, even trying to lead the children to think that their father, whom you must agree is not a terrible guy, is a loser. And she married and had three children with this loser, so doesn't that makes her a loser, too?

I don't know. The more I think about it, the more I think the only solution is to raise a moratory on having children, until we figure out how to do it properly. But I suppose there are some technical obstacles if we try to enforce this idea.

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Let's all agree to keep signatures apart from text body?

Ok. Just though I should clarify. What you said is basically how I feel too.

Once upon a time there was a magical place where it never rained. The end.

Actually, not to derail the subject too much, but often for welfare recipients, the money they would make working a job comes out to much less than they get with those welfare benefits. It's the reason that the $15/hour minimum wage didn't help many of them.