Jason Monastra

My life and thoughts out on the web

The traditional family, that horrible word - that trend that impedes the successful women of the world from making their mark.  Women’s rights I thought squashed this terrible ideology where woman stay home, take care of children and run the home.  Ahhhh…..but the idea is making a large come back and I am happy to see that people are seeing the benefits of the traditional family.  Working less, more balance and taking control and responsibility for their children in a country monopolized with fast food, instant dinners, and nannies that take the role of mothers.

Lets look at the statistics and see what is happening.  According to the Bureua of Labor Statistics, the trend is dropping.  Working mothers are slowly declining.  According to the professional stats, the trend began its decline in 1998 when it hit the peek where 58 percent of working mothers were active in the work force.  Since then, it has fallen, and continues to fall.  It hit an all time low in 2005.

Why is this happening?  Well, there are numerous factors that are behind the decline.  Economic factors are playing a large play in the decline.  In 2001, as the major recession hit the US - there were less roles available for the work force.  Women tend to have lower seniority in the work place.  Therefore, rather than working for lower pay or doing more work, the trend was to leave the work place till the landscape looked better.  In addition, there was an influx of women with younger children that looked over their family matters and began staying home at the younger stages of their childrens’ lives.  Those would return to the workforce when their children would get to school age.

The decision to return to the traditional family has many impacts, some micro and some macro offering opportunities and challenges for the economy and the family to deal with the shift.  First, income is reduced causing concessions and reductions in overall spending.  Decisions must be made on where to live and how to compete with dual income houses that vie for the best areas to live.  Secondly, the stigma - some people see the working mother as not the proper way for the family to operate.  While others revel in the opportunity grasping at the opportunity to climb the corporate ladder.  Third, the economic factors for the country is large.  Impact to overall company productivity and staff are huge.  Companies loose critical talent and struggle to find and train others to take their place.  It is has been a major force in the telecommuting boom and the rise in flex hours, making it possible for mothers to handle both work and home life responsibilities.

In all, the trend is moving and it has been shifting more towards the traditional family over the last decade.  What the data says, I think more than not - people are tired of selling their lives for a larger house, a better car, or to say they live in a specific area.  People want to be happy, live with the family - see their family, and enjoy time where not every minute is managed by someone else.  People want to be people.  That is more important than money and a lot more important than work.

I have been attempting to watch VT football since my departure in 1997 and it continually gets harder and harder to stomach.  Are we so blind that we have not evolved with the game.  Do not get me wrong, I follow each game and enjoy the school.  I believe that we have unlimited potential but have gotten away from the well rounded basics that make our football team great.

Yes, we are young this year but it does not account for the many years previous where our team has been set up for failure by the press and coaching staff.  Frank Beamer, love him.  Great guy and great coach.  Down to earth and really a strong anchor for the school.  However, we need to look at the offense and its supportive staff from the coaching perspective.  VT defense is always good.  VT special teams - they speak for themselves.  But the offense.  Where is it?  We have had teams that have had more firepower than others, but none has exalted themselves as a scoring machine that brings fear into the hearts of opposing defense.  Look at what we have today.  Tyrod Taylor - great athlete….average QB.  There is no one that does not know this kid cannot throw down field.  He can run, so they stack the box and ask you, nearly beg us to beat them throwing the ball.  How can you do that when you have someone that cannot throw farther than 10 yds accurately.

Recruiting and more recruiting.  Look at the athletes we get.  Defense are great.  I think Frank could turn anyone into a great special teams player.  But the offense - where do we go from here?  Recruit from outside of the state.  Look how many people we have that come from VA, specifically the Tidewater area of VA.  Tons.  Major programs gather talent from all of the US, bringing people sometimes cross country to play for them in hopes of winning a title.  We need to look outside the area and bring talent that would not normally look at us otherwise.

Recruiting and schedule go hand in hand.  Since we began this turn around and started going to bowl games in 1993, the program has been consistent with setting non-conference games with some of the weakest teams available.  WHY?  Who is that helping?  Face it, the ACC has no real strong teams.  We are one of the weakest conferences and cannot hold a candle to the SEC or some of the Midwest divisions.  Start setting team schedules that play those larger programs in an effort to not only develop the team, but better assist recruiting letting them know that they are playing the major teams which get the major TV time.

Lastly, beg the AP and every other ranking system to keep us low and out of the spotlight.  Annually they rank us higher than we are capable of playing, only to be ripped from the ranking in an embarrassing loss to some unranked team that we should have beat.  This happens every year.  Reason being, we are not a Top 10 team.  We should be in the 20-25 range most of the years…peaking into the teens occasionally.  Play better talent, develop the players and let the team understand what it takes to get to the top.  But as long as we keep playing Western KY and Akron, and floating in the ACC - we will never develop into a national program that is feared when it comes on the field.