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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, January 18, 1993                   TAG: 9301180371
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

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CARTOON INSULTS WORKING PARENTS

BENSON (Jan. 9 cartoon, Opinion page) smugly criticizes parents who both feel the need to work. I do not advocate having children come home to an empty house after school, nor do I criticize the Roanoke Times & World-News for carrying the cartoon. Benson is narrow-minded, however, in assuming that in most households both parents work to selfishly pursue their own interests. In many homes, two incomes are necessary to pay the bills.

Parenting is noble work, but often the jobs parents hold outside the home are noble as well. I am a teacher who takes my family and my work seriously. It is an insult to working parents to suggest that their parenting is necessarily substandard. Parents may be nurturing or neglectful, responsible or irresponsible, whether they both work or one stays at home. Most working parents struggle to do what is right, a reality Benson ignores. DEE SHEFFER SALEM

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