Amid an otherwise pretty good column today, David Brooks writes, "reintroducing norms ... will require holding people responsible. People born into the most chaotic situations can still be asked the same questions: Are you living for short-term pleasure or long-term good? Are you living for yourself or for your children? Do you have the freedom of self-control or are you in bondage to your desires?"
This question, "are you living for yourself or for your children?" strikes me as a false dichotomy. The two aren't mutually exclusive, after all. What about people who don't have children? And for those who do have children, the idea of living exclusively for them, without doing anything for oneself, risks being a grim enough situation that it could turn one into a pretty grumpy parent. Anyway, maybe Mr. Brooks could explain what he means in a future column, because it wasn't entirely clear to this reader. No one is for parents who neglect their children entirely to focus solely on themselves, but that's a bit of a straw man — the real question for most parents is how to balance the children and other priorities.