The chickens are coming home
Today I want to talk about the family. Your family, my family, little Johnny's family down the road — and, in a roundabout way, the family of man.
The family: what would we do without it? Who feeds or clothes us, teaches us right from wrong or kick-starts us in this hard world? Who wipes the tear from our sorrowful eye or makes sure we don't leave the house without clean underwear? Who makes us right? Who cheers us on? Who supplies the nappies? Why, it's the family. Day in, day out, it's always there to pick up the toys or the bill.
Without the family, what would granny do when she goes gaga? Without the family, there would be no-one to blame for our childhood. Without the family, everyone would have to buy their own television set and bottle of shampoo. Without the family, we'd be alone in the world.
For, you see, the family is all about sharing the load. The family distributes the burden of living and the largesse of life. You won't find a more benevolent institution.
Imagine! Without it, we'd all have to be cradle-to-grave communists just to get by.
I wanted to offer these observations about family life because the primary level of family life — Level I: mutual financial dependence, situational neurosis and cohabitation — is going to be extended by another three years.
Where once the family could divest itself of many of its responsibilities to its offspring at age 16, this has now been extended from the later marker of 18 to age 21. This basically means that without gainful employment or study, junior family members get to stay on within the conflict and custom they've been used to for another few years.
For this affirmation of the traditional family values of sacrifice and sufferance, we need to thank John Howard. Indeed, Mr Howard and his government seem to be demanding a lot of the family lately.
Given this, one wonders how benevolent one institution can afford to be. If I was an out of work 19-year-old (which I'm not, I am delighted to say) and I knocked on the door of the local business enterprise asking for a job in order to feed and clothe myself, they'd laugh at me. Similarly, if I then visited the local church — an institution which, like John Howard, is another stalwart of the family — and asked for room and board for the next few years, they'd tell me to say three Hail Maries and go home to mum and dad.
Because, when it comes down to the line, the family takes up the slack and simply has no choice in the matter.
If you were planning on letting junior's room or moving gran in there so she doesn't wander off again, you're in for a sudden surprise: like it or not, the chickens have come back home to roost, and it was your mistake starting a family in the first place.
Dave Riley