Goals...

So in light of Absent Parent Day, one of the new goals of fatherhood is to make sure your kids don't celebrate that anti-day/non-holiday. I've heard Chris Rock in the past say that if you have a daughter, your primary goal as a father should be to "keep her off the pole"... ie: make sure she doesn't ever have to "resort" to becoming a stripper.

Since everyone's been quiet recently, I thought I'd try to fire things up and discuss this topic. I'm not sure I agree with Mr. Rock. Maybe it's my hormones.... Or maybe it's my anti-establishment leanings. Even as a kid, my dad used to threaten us with becoming a "trashman" if we didn't study or listen to our parents, etc. I rebeled and started telling him that I WANTED to be a trashman. From my point of view it was a stress-free job and someone had to do it! Besides, why dog on the trashman's job? Didn't seem very nice. My dad, wisely, then resorted to encouraging me to not just become a trashman, but to become the _president_ of the trash company! :)

So assuming that you raise your daughter well and give her all the self-esteem, self-worth, good self-view, and leadership, etc. that you can... what if she became really financially successful at stripping and had no emotional or religious issues with it? What is inherently wrong with that? Isn't that a more respectable profession than, say, being an injury attorney? Or an insurance rep? I hear full-time strippers in good clubs easily make over 6-figures. So from that point of view, I can say to my daughter "fine, be a stripper, but be the owner of your own strip club" or "...but work at a classy place making 6-figures!" Of course, my point of view only counts for 50%... we'll see what her mother thinks.