Don’t fault the grandparents

OPINION:

While I enjoy reading everything Charles Hurt delivers and agree with most of his viewpoints and sentiments, his Aug. 1 lecture on parenting and grandparenting veered way off course (“Media protects Biden men and their ’foibles,’” web, July 31).

How can one fault grandparents for being less than enthusiastic when a wayward son fathers a child out of wedlock? That the son should have been encouraged to support the child — especially financially — is a given.

However, to expect grandparents to have the warm and fuzzies for a child who could have been the result of a one-night stand is a bit much, particularly when the mother is totally unknown to them.

Secondly, the statement “A daughter’s most important relationship is with her father” is refuted by biology.

A baby spends nine months developing in the womb, is birthed and nursed by the mother and spends countless hours, both day and night for months on end, with the mother.

Quite naturally, a daughter will further identify with her mother simply through biological traits as she develops into a woman. Though she may come to dislike her mother later on in life, this only underscores a mother’s primacy.

Sorry, Charles, you missed on this one. 

MARGARET FOSS

Arlington, Virginia