The Many Issues Working Parents Face Essay Example for Free

The Many Issues Working Parents Face Essay Working parents may consider work to be either a blessing or a curse. Most people agree that without work there is no way to support oneself or a family. Both parents are forced to work because they want their children to experience â€Å"the good life.† However, on their road to success, working parents have to sacrifice several other things. In addition to a lack of family or leisure time, a person’s job also creates a lot of stress. Work can be the highway to success. However, hectic schedules caused by long hours of work can lead to negative changes in one’s personal life. Marilyn Gardner talks about a cop whose work hours are messed up. She states that Mr. Fulgham â€Å"works twelve-hour shifts which rotate between days and nights† and eats breakfast when his family is normally eating lunch. He gets almost no time with his family. When he gets a chance to spend time with his family, it causes the schedule of his family to get messed up too (Gardner 235-38). De Graaf, a journalist for the New York Times, states that â€Å"(u)ntil the current recession, Americans were working some of the longest hours in the industrial world.† Long hours at work lead to lesser time with family. For example, in â€Å"My Mother, Her Career, My Questions,† Palmer has a friend whose mother hardly spent any time with her. Being a doctor and working long hours, the mother was so tired when she came back home that she had to â€Å"force hers elf to play† with her kids (Palmer 244). This shows how work can have a negative impact of the person’s relationships with his/her family. Even parents feel guilty about not being able to spend enough time with family. They admit that the longer they work, the lesser time they spend with their kids (Seligson). It is said that people who work longer hours are more likely to get a divorce due to the lack of togetherness. The main point of being a â€Å"family† is that the members of the family have to be together and enjoy each other’s company. However, parents that work weird schedules or extremely long hours fail to spend enough time with their family. This loosens relationships and can even tear apart families. Thus, there has to be a balance between work time and family time. Parents are always aiming to work those extra hours to get more work done, but they do not realize that  they are missing out on their children’s lives. Additionally, working parents need to know that too much work can also cause Another negative effect of working long hours is the stress it causes. When there isn’t enough time to complete a certain project at work, a person works overtime to finish it. These long hours can mess up a person’s daily schedule. Anger, exhaustion and stress are some of the many negative effects long hours have on an individual (Gillian). Audrey Gillian, a journalist for The Guardian, feels that Ronald Regan was wrong when he said â€Å"hard work never killed anyone.† The health issues caused by working long hours can eventually lead to death. In addition to that, in â€Å"The Case for Staying at Home,† Claudia Wallis talks about how women have to work both at their workplace and at home which creates more stress and exhaustion. In â€Å"Serving in Florida† Barbara juggled two different jobs. With the minimum wage she got, she could hardly afford to pay her rent (Ehrenreich 179-186). She started working longer hours to get more money. Although she tried fighting till the end, she had to finally give up both her jobs because she was working all day and couldn’t seem to make ends meet (Ehrenreich 186). It seems like people have to choose between life and work. After coming back from a day of hard work, one would usually opt to take a break and just rest. However, women are expected to come home and attend to the family’s needs. She has to cook, clean and basically keep her family happy (Wallis 240). This causes the person to be stressed out and fatigued. People need to realize that it is fine to take a break from work once in a while. A person’s body has a certain limit for everything. When a person goes beyond that limit, the human body reacts and this causes stress and other health related issues. Stress leads to fights which lead to broken relationships. Are you ready to forget about family and only focus on your career? Most would say that there needs to be balance so that one can be successful at work and at the same time, maintain good relationships with his/her family. All in all, work may have a positive effect on our lives, but in excess it can ruin a person’s life and even break up families. Work can also make a person weary and tired. If you are in surgery, would you prefer a well rested doctor to operate on you or one who has been working the whole day with no break? I would surely opt for the rested one to make sure nothing would go wrong. People need to maintain a work-life balance so that the effects of work  don’t cause their life any harm. Works Cited de Graaf, John. Less Work, More Life. The Progressive Sept. 2010: 22+. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. Ehrenreich, Barbara. Serving in Florida. 2001. The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric. Boston: Bedford, 2008. 179-86. Print. Gardner, Marilyn. More Working Parents Play Beat the Clock. The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. 235-38. Print. Gillan, Audrey. Work until You Drop: How the Long-hours Culture Is Killing Us. The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 20 Aug. 2005. Web. 06 Dec. 2012. Palmer, Kimberly. My Mother, Myself, Her Career, My Questions. The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. 243-45. Print. Seligson, Hannah. When the Work-Life Scales Are Unequal. The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 Sept. 2012. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. Wallis, Claudia. The Case for Staying at Home. 2006. The Language of Composition: Reading, Writing, Rhetoric. Bedford, Freeman Worth Pub., 2008. 240-41. Print.

Queen Victoria Essay -- Alexandrina Victoria Royalty Essays

Queen Victoria   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Is it Georgiana Charlotte Augusta Alexandrina Victoria or just Alexandrina Victoria? Queen Victoria was born at Kensington Palace, London on May 24, 1819. She was the only child of Edward, the fourth son of King George III, and Victoria Mary Louise, the daughter of a German Duke. It was planed that the duke and duchess were to name their daughter Georgiana Charlotte Augusta Alexandrina Victoria but Prince Regent refused to have his name (George) nor his daughters name (Charlotte Augusta) to be his god daughter’s name. She was known as Alexandrina Victoria but was nicknamed Drina, her mother always called her Victoria. All this happiness ended when her dad, the Duke of Kent, died only eight months after she was born. The reason was because he let a small fever turn into pneumonia. Only a week after the death, King George III died and Prince Regent became King George IV.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Princess Victoria was brought up in the Kensington Palace, London by he governess. Her mom was so afraid of Victoria getting murdered by her uncle, who wanted to next in line for the throne. Victoria was never left alone there were always people who kept an eye out for her. She was too overprotected; she couldn’t even walk up the stairs with out holding some ones hand. John Conroy, who was her mother’s comptroller, kept a close eye on Victoria and was responsible for her. German was her main language until she the age of three. She then learned English and could speak it with out an accent. She also learned Italian because she loved listening to opera. Her favorite subject in school was his but she never knew she was soon going to play a major part in it. At age eleven she saw a family tree and said, â€Å"I’m nearer to the throne then I thought.† In her teens she became ill from complications of tonsillitis. With this weakness Conroy t ried to take advantage of her and asked her to sign a document saying he would be her secretary when she became Queen. Victoria refused. Victoria was close to her older sister, Feodora. She would send Victoria letters to cheer her up. In the summer of 1836, her cousins, Ernest and Albert, came to visit. Her mother thought one of the boys would be a good match for Victoria. Their father the Duke of Saxe-Coberg-Gotha, didn’t like the idea. May 24, 1837, she celebrated her 18th birthday. Now the only person standing in the way of her and ... ... her daughters call him â€Å"Mama’s Lover†. People got used to seeing them together and there was not much talk about them anymore. He remained on her confident for twenty years. When John Brown Died in 1883, the queen wrote, â€Å"The shock-the blow, the blank, the constant missing at every turn of one strong, powerful reliable arm and head almost stunned me and I am, truly over whelmed.† His room, like Albert’s, became a shrine. A flower was placed on his pillow everyday until she died. Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, at the age of 81. This was forty years of widowhood. She left major instructions for her funeral. She wanted her sons to lift her in to her coffin; she would wear a white dress and her wedding veil. London was to be festooned in purple and white. She was buried next to Prince Albert in the Frogmore Royal Mausoleum at Windsor Castle. Victoria had reigned for nearly 64 years-the longest reign in British History. A statue of the Queen made in 1862 was brought out of storage and placed next to her husband in the mausoleum. Victoria’s statue looks at Albert, her love, devotion, and sorrow at his early death and her long widowhood always will be captured in that stone.

Twain’s problematic ending of Huck Finn

The adventures of Huckleberry Finn is known as one novel that has brought controversy from the time it was published in the year 1884 (Pearl par 1). It was banned in major public libraries many referring to it as â€Å"trash. † Currently, many regard it as a classical American novel though others still critic it in one area or the other. It is a novel from where â€Å"all modern literature† was derived and modern scholars and critics now treats it as great work of art in America (Pearl par. 1). Perhaps the greatest irony is that though it received great criticism, of all the MT’s novels, it is the one that sold most immediately when it was published. Hunk Finn, as it is commonly referred to, is set in the Mississippi river town of St. Petersburg, Missouri and the various locations along that river through Arkansas (SparkNotes, screen 21). The major conflict in the novel is portrayed as the main character (protagonist), Huck struggles with a society (antagonist) that is trying to civilize him. The conflict is also intensified as Hunk deals with Jim who is a black slave; since Hunk must decide whether to reject Jim and please the society or protect him and follow his conscience. This essay shows that Twain’s ending of the novel betrays the true subject of the work. The novel ends with the three boys Huck, Tom and Jim escaping from a shed where they had been surrounded by about fifteen farmers guarding Jim, the black slave (Twain 361). They make a hole in the wall to escape but as they does, Tom makes some noise and what follows is the shooting that leaves a bullet in Tom’s leg who portrays himself a hero. However, Huck and Jim are concerned about the condition of the leg and upon Jim’s suggestion; they go to look for a doctor. This only worsens things for Jim who is captured by the locals and is chained as they bring Tom home on a mattress accompanied by the doctor. By this time Huck has already run home having left the two boys alone. The locals have decided to hang Jim though no one does it as they are afraid of compensating the slave owner. They are therefore left with no other option than to treat Jim roughly until the time when the doctor comes and saves him by explaining that it is him who in fact saved Tom’s leg from deteriorating by nursing him (Twain 377). When Tom however learns that Jim was still in chains, he reveals to them that in fact Jim had already been set free thus was no longer a slave. This allows the reader to glimpse the character trait of Tom. Though he had known all along that Miss Wanton who had died two months earlier had set Jim free in her will, he did not say it because he felt that they needed to device a good plan to rescue Jim. If he had said it earlier, Jim could not have gone through the sufferings that he had experienced. Huck arrived and on enquiring from Tom what he would do if Jim was freed; he replied that he planned to repay Jim for all his troubles and sending him off as a hero. And he said, what he had planned in his head from the start, if we got Jim out all safe, was for us to run him down the river on the raft, and have adventures plumb to the mouth of the river, and then tell him about his being free, and take him back up home on a steamboat, in style, and pay him for his lost time, and write word ahead and get out all the niggers around, and have them waltz him into town with a torchlight procession and a brass-band, and then he would be a hero, and so would we (Twain 387). The Phelpses and Aunt Polly release Jim and feed him on hearing that he helped the doctor to nurse Tom. He is also given forty dollars as a payment for all his troubles (Twain 387). Tom and Huck are not through with their adventure and plan to go for another one to the Indian territories. Huck thinks that Pap had taken all the money but it is Jim who informs him that in fact the dead man he had seen in a floating house was Pap (a cruel and drunk father). It is clear that though the writer of the novel was initially heading to the right direction in his writing, he â€Å"looses focus† (it may have been intentionally) as he comes to end of the novel in the way he presents the relationship between Huck and Jim. All along, the two boys had been together passing through hardships and challenges during their adventure. They are seen doing different things together; for example have to hide the inheritance of the Silk sisters in a coffin away from the greedy â€Å"King† and â€Å"Duke. Huck even comes to a time when he had to decide whether to give the remaining Gherkin (food) from his provisions to Jim or take it himself (Paine Par. 20). Therefore every reader expects Huck’s emotional attachment with Jim to grow. However when Tom appears, a different picture is portrayed with Huck remaining quiet when, they endanger Jim’s life by not telling Phelpses that Jim had already been released by the former Slave master and instead decides to device a plan as part of their adventure. When Jim goes to get the doctor, Huck leaves and runs to his uncle’s place leaving his friend. So then I crept into a lumber-pile to get some sleep; and next time I waked up the sun was away up over my head! I shot out and went for the doctor's house, but they told me he'd gone away in the night some time or other, and warn't back yet. Well, thinks I, that looks powerful bad for Tom, and I'll dig out for the island right off. So away I shoved, and turned the corner, and nearly rammed my head into Uncle Silas's stomach! (Twain 367). The other problem arises because though the novel’s subject is directed to the theme of freedom, at the end Jim who is supposed to be free is not still free. This can be attributed to the mistake that Tom made though intentionally. Jim, who has been technically free for all that time they were in the adventure, is still bound in chains, first in the home of Phelpses before the escape and then by the locals who captured him when he went to bring the doctor who would treat Tom. It is ridiculous that Miss Wanton can not set Jim free when she is alive and has to wait till she dies and does it in her will. Old Miss Watson died two months ago, and she was ashamed she ever was going to sell him down the river, and said so; and she set him free in her will. â€Å"(Twain 383) In conclusion, it is clear that the work of Mark Twain was based on the theme of racism, slavery and freedom thus different readers can critic it using different views. The plot flows smoothly from the beginning but the problem arises in the ending as the reader is left wondering why there is no development in Huck’s character -who is the protagonist and who is supposed to develop in all areas as the plot develops.

The Role and Influence of U.S. Foreign Policy in Modern...

The Role and Influence of U.S. Foreign Policy in Modern Greece United States and Greece are tied by a common heritage and shared democratic values (Greece Relations with U.S.). In fact, approximately 1.1 million Americans are of Greek heritage, and Greek-Americans comprise the seventh largest recipient of U.S. social security benefits. It is not surprising that this community has played an important role in strengthening Greek and U.S. foreign relations. The United States and Greece have participated as allies in World War II, the Korean conflict, and the Cold War. Most recently, Greece has given the United States use of its airspace and military assets in the counter-terrorism conflict in Iraq (Greece Relations with U.S.).†¦show more content†¦Greece objected to the use of the word Macedonia in Republic of Macedonia because of the word?s intrinsically Greek origin. Tensions escalated to the point where Greece placed a trade embargo against FYROM in 1994.? The United States along with the United Nations and the European Union finally h elped Greece and FYROM reach a temporary agreement in September of 1995 (Foreign Relations of Greece ? United States?).? Since this time, relations between the two countries have improved as indicated by an article in the European Report on January 15, 2003.? The article discussed Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou?s visit to FYROM on January 13, 2003, and his presentation of Greece?s plans for improving relations in the Balkans during its rotating six-month UN presidency (?EU/Balkans: Greek Presidency Tour Kicks Off in FYROM and Albania?). Cyprus ?Since 1974, the island of Cyprus has been divided between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.? An article by Kerin Hope of the Financial Times mentioned Greece?s support for a resolution to the Cyprus conflict before its admission to the European Union in May 2004 (?Modernization Campaign). The Greek government feels that Cyprus? as well as Turkey?s admissions to the European Union will benefit Greece.? According to the article, Greek-Turkish trade has nearly doubled since tensions between the countries have begun to relax.? An agreement to avoidShow MoreRelatedCauses Of The Cold War1108 Words   |  5 Pageswar and the desolation of mankind. It led to various proxy wars, costing the lives of millions in foreign nations and thousands of American and Soviet soldiers. With so much fear, death, money, and willpower going into the conflict, there must be an easy answer as to what force caused and drove the conflict. However, this topic is not met with consensus. From the onset of the Cold War to the modern day historians continue to debate over what the origin of the Cold War was. There are three major proposedRead MoreCharacteristics of the Modern Nation-State Essay1600 Words   |  7 PagesThis essay will describe the characteristics of the modern nation-state, explain how the United States fits the criteria of and functions as a modern nation-state, discuss the European Union as a transnational entity, analyze how nation-states and transnational entities engage on foreign policy to achieve their interests, and the consequences of this interaction for international politics. Some of the characteristics that make up a modern nation-state are; the population of the territory is unitedRead MoreThe Cold War And The Soviet Union1122 Words   |  5 Pages The Cold War was a state of political hostility between the U.S and the Soviet bloc, the most powerful nations in the world. The two countries fought together as allies in World War II but toward the end of the War the two nations competing ideologies and visions of the post War prevented them from working together. The Cold War was by far the biggest threat to human existence the world has ever seen, although their was never any declaration of War between the two competing nations, the SovietRead MoreSuperpowered Freedomtown Essay1651 Words   |  7 PagesStates of America became a super power after it jumped onto the world scene following World War II. Citizens of the U.S have always had pride in their nation or at the very least they honor and try to live up to the image that America gives to other Nat ions. But what has this superpower done? What activities have its military been involved in, what domestic policy and what foreign policy have it made or changed that gives it the status of a superpower? Superpower is defined as a nation with excessiveRead MoreClassical Rome And Classical Greece1498 Words   |  6 PagesThe contemporary United States has been influenced by many ancient civilizations, mainly Classical Rome and Classical Greece. Even though Greece had a tremendous influence over our civilization, out of these two classical civilizations, I believe that Classical Rome has had a bigger impact on many aspects of the contemporary United States. In this essay, I am going to examine the political system, economic system, and the architecture of the Classical Rome Empire, and explain how these influencedRead More Family Values and Structures in the Middle East Essay2848 Words   |  12 Pagesfamily values and structures, while incorporating social standing and lifestyle, such as the relationship between urban and rural families. I specifically mentioned that I would study values such as religion, which did in fact have an extremely large influence on family development an d change through out the history of each country we were in, though it was more apparent in certain countries. I also hoped to begin expanding my knowledge of my own birth culture through a unique perspective. One thingRead MoreThe Cold War And The Soviet Union1710 Words   |  7 PagesBritish Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s speech in 1946 in which he described an â€Å"iron curtain† which separated the East and the West, others say that it was their respective ideologies. The East consisted of the Soviet Union and its countries of influence and the West included the United States and their allies, the major ones being France and Great Britain. The relationship between the two powers started to waiver between 1945 and 1947, but by 1947 the Cold War was visible. The differences betweenRead MoreThe War Of The Cold War Essay1525 Words   |  7 PagesUnited States with the belief of a capitalistic government, along with the idea of democracy. Then the Soviet Union’s belief of communistic market form and totalitarian form of government. These two separate ideas created conditions for a Cold war. The U.S was willing to commit itself to the defense of then idea which led to the increase of American invaders in the world. To begin there was early conflict with the leader of the Soviet Union Joseph Stalin. To try having a sense of common ground, leadersRead MoreTaking a Look at the Bank of Canada1645 Words   |  7 PagesChairman and Vice Chairman, for four year terms. In the US, by law it is required to select one member from one of the twelve Reserve districts when appointing a member, to avoid bias. The main responsibility for the Board is to form a monetary policy. The Board holds the majority of seats in the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), who makes the decisions of cost and availability of money/credit in their economy. Other responsibilities include, analyzing international and domestic economicRead MoreCommunism: A Social Economic System1801 Words   |  7 PagesWorkingmen’s Association) 1864-1873 The Communist Manifesto was accepted as the program of the First International. It was mostly an association of trade unions, workers, study group and small socialist. The first International played a very important role in favor of workers by doing strikes on their demands but it was not able to continue itself and dissolved by 1873. The biggest achievement of the First International was the international strike on 1 May 1886 in some states of USA and in some countries