For those of you who like to find good movies, I want to recommend "Nanny Diaries."

I picked this up as a Christmas present for my daughter who missed it in the theaters due to being largely pregnant and preoccupied at the time.  We popped it into the DVD the other night, thinking it would be a diverting story. 

I hate spoiling a story, so let's just say its a tongue-in-cheek look at the overstressed life of extremely rich families of Manhattan.  Despite financial plenty, the families are revealed as highly insecure, always looking for the next goalpost to measure themselves by, or the next trophy to validate their existence. 

This is the land of men who are desirable because of their money, and so, engage in multiple affairs, while women frantically seek the fountain of youth to keep themselves desirable, with no time for their own children.

Lost in all of this narcissism are the children, the "poor little rich kids."   I dare you not to love them.

The protagonist presents this as an anthropological study (and it totally works). The crucial message is "kids just want parents' love."

On the other side of the coin, we also purchased Season One of The Cosby Show.  This ran for 9 years, and dominated the ratings for most of them.  The episodes--only 1/2 hour--are still extremely funny, and we loved the situations and characters.  I did find myself cringing at a few things though, which as an older parent struck me as remarkably out-of-character for the otherwise attentive parents: kids allowed to go on dates at early ages, on school nights, with individuals with prison records and without good values.  Was life really that different in the 80s and early 90s that we thought this was okay?  Or was this the writers' blindspot, or a concession to being "with it?" 

Of course, again, the Huxtables weren't homeschooling, and most of the educational values they espoused had to do with exerting oneself in the external school environment and striving for college and career. 

Both of these fictional entertainment pieces reminded me that we choose our value systems, and that family is the best one we can choose. 

If we look at our lives, we can state a simple principle.  We are always investing energy into something, and we will receive a return in whatever we invest.  Invest energy and material into a farm, we harvest crops.  Invest it into the stock market or a job, we receive money.  Invest it into politics, and we receive power or position.  But investing into our children and our spouses, we receive strong and healthy relationships, and we get to grow individuals that are a source of value in this world. 

Women are often the main investors into the practical and emotional side of family life.  We are also usually the main educators in a homeschool family.  This may seem like a thankless task sometimes, or like "life is passing us by" as our contemporaries are pulling down big salaries, wearing elegant clothes and living in nicer surroundings. 

But as I look around at a family of happy adult children, all now married or engaged to wonderful, hard-working spouses, embarking on lives of value to a greater society, I am so glad I chose the less-traveled road.  I don't regret the car or house or scarf I couldn't afford 15 years ago--but I would regret if any of my children felt unsure of his or her value as a human being. 

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