Saturday, July 02, 2005

mummy's boys

part one

mark latham is a self-confessed mummy’s boy.

Mum was my one true hero. If anyone ever called me a mummy's boy I'd wear it as a badge of honour because love of my mum and what she did for me is something that's been, y'know, up there as the most important thing in my life.
this is the answer here, for all you people wondering why mark had the massive dummy spit, went silent on the tsunami, quit politics [not just the leadership] and went the number one razor. he is a spoilt mummy'sboy who doesn't know how to keep his temper, control his reactions and think things through. now he has put whatever [little] credibility the ALP has remaining into the toilet with his new spit the dummy it's not fair book, and i for one, am almost glad he didn't get in. yes i voted for him. gave him a chance after voting greens for years. i thought perhaps there is a chance with this guy. at least he's trying and has a voice, unlike the eunuch beazley.

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i read in the paper that more than 80 percent of italian men aged between 18 and 30 still live with their parents. this has been named the “hotel mama” phenomenon.

hello?

i heard on the radio on thursday that there is a similar trend here, but it is divided fairly equally between the sexes. boys and girls are staying longer at home because they can’t afford to move out of home [so they say] or life is too good at home [now i think we’re getting warmer]

one caller said life is more liberal now and young people can bring their girl and boyfriends home and have sex with them. so in the past people had to move out so they could have regular, stress-free, non-car sex, whereas now they can have regular, really relaxed sex – with their parents in the next room watching the bill.

so basically kids can just stay at home, as long as they want, do what they want, and then maybe move out just as their parents become incontinent and infirm – they need to live their own lives you know. they don’t need to be tied down by having to look after the oldies.

one mother was laughing on the radio as she admitted she does her sons’ washing, irons their shirts, cooks for them, changes their linen once a week, and even makes their packed lunches every day [her reason was she doesn't want them in her kitchen. what an idiot]

do you clean his foreskin for him too lady?

one woman called in and said “how are these young people going to become independent?” i thought, here we go a voice of reason.

but she stopped right there

i wanted to call up and tell them that they were all missing the point.

what sorts of partners are these men going to make in their adult relationships? if they have grown up having a woman [mother/slave] doing everything for them, then how are they going to have an equal* relationship with a woman, and share responsibilities and burdens with her?

this is the stuff of my parents’ generation. live at home until you are married, then go straight from mummy’s apron strings to wifey’s.

what the hell is going on??

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my question here is: who has benefitted most from these new arrangements? is it the woman who works a full-time week, runs around town ferrying children to dance/footy/drama/tennis/swimming class? hauling groceries, cooking, cleaning the house, looking after pets, keeping on top of the garden, keeping on top of her husband.

i think not.

i think it’s her husband/partner who has help now to pay off the mortgage, while he can still enjoy his sport and beer. how nice. the children aren’t better off [because they are in professional care]. the woman isn’t better off. [working a 40+ paid working week in addition to the unpaid whatever hours are left deal she has at home]

i don’t think so.

i need a wife. i know this has been said before, but my life would be so much easier if i didn’t have so much to do. then i might be able to write that novel, paint that picture, learn that language and take that dance class.

i know, wait until retirement. well, it’s a fuck of a long way off and i will be really, really tired by then.


* i don’t believe true equality is possible. feminism to date has just achieved a certain amount of freedoms [ie we can have sex without too much public censure, we can have abortions when we need them**, we can divorce without fault*** etc. BUT we can also work our fucking arses off in addition to doing most of the child rearing and domestic work, because on that front, ie child and home stuff, men simply are not doing that much more.]

** this may change if the current ugly and right-wing forces have their way

*** this has also benefitted men – they can now have affairs and abuse their women without being penalised through divorce/property/custody settlements


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Coming – mummy's boys part two. Just to get you going, pick the mummy’s boys from this group:

adolf hitler, elvis, bill clinton, leo di caprio, matthew wales, eminem

Also, do you fear the greer – why germaine greer is so hated

3 comments:

R.H. said...

My auntie could never get rid of her three sponging offspring. To get rid of them in the end she had to sell her house.

Liberalism takes away a lot of fun, nothing beats a quick bang in a car.

Cape Man said...

I know someone who left home at age 25. His European mother cried for weeks, thinking that she had failed as a mother. She crossed out every day on a calendar that he was gone, waiting for his return. With emotional pressure on the individual like that, is it any wonder that kids are staying home longer.
Maybe this generation of parents do actually want or need the companionship. With a high rate of divorce, maybe it's the form of companionship the parent can continue to deal with. Blame shouldn't be automatically apportioned to the children is what I am saying.
In some cases, the life skills are handed down through ozmosis (as with the 25 yo above).

Melba said...

hey cape man

i wasn't just blaming the children, didn't you read where i called a mother an idiot. it's the parents too, who don't either a] push them out or b] make them pull their (adult)weight around the house. they just make it too easy. and it's the mothers that do it. because the fathers are probably just sitting on their arses and doing nothing domestic as well. and so it continues