well then I must continue to disagree. Even if a woman has her children at an earlier age such as during medical school or residency then the problem of not spending enough time with the children arises. This one goes for both men and woman. Medical school and residency consumes alot of time. I do not believe it allows proper time to be spent with children and day care is not an excuse for not spending time with kids. I read a paper on a doctor who had two kids during residency, and she could only spend about 2h/day with them not including sleep, and yet she claimed that she "did it all". Having only enough time to tuck your kids into bed is not parenting... The only real solution is to have a stay at home husband or part time working husband.
You may call me sexist if you wish. I believe men and woman are different. I do believe in what my prof told me. I knew it before he told me. I believe certain jobs are the domain of men and some the domain of woman. Neither is superior to the other. My sister is in dentistry school, i believe thats an excellent choice because she'll be a fully licensed dentist by age 25, can chose her own hours since she'll have her own private clinic which makes time for kids.
And I do believe certain career sacrifices should be made for those who want to have children men and women, earlier for woman because of their biology. (yeah thats' unfair, blame evolution). How someone can be a 60h/week resident and call themselves a proper parent is beyond me.
I feel men should have their kids by 40 to be able to watch them grow up and support them through school. I believe woman should have kids by 30 due to health reasons eg. down syndrome.
I have a number of things to say in response.
Firstly, it is clear that you are not a fan of women in medicine, or in any kind of high-profile professional position. Then why are you here provoking us with your inflammatory opinions on how we should run our lives? What professional choices we should make, when we should have our kids and how we should organise their upbringing, ... There seems to be only one proper way to do it and you have it completely figured out for us.
I'm a big fan of personal freedom and of letting people make their own choices in life. I don't really understand why you feel the need to tell other people how they should run theirs (down to the very details, I might add).
I wholeheartedly agree with you that the most important ingredient of good parenting is having time to spend with your children. And that a resident or fellow does not have that kind of time. However, a child has TWO parents. And in my most humble opinion, it doesn't really matter which one of them devotes most of his/her time to the kids. I come to my first point about personal freedom again: let people do what thery're good at, not what society dictates they should do. I'm a type A personality go-getter. My husband is much more laid-back. Why should I be the stay at home mom and he the breadwinner if it makes us both unhappy? Because you and your anatomy professor say so?
Thirdly, your quote ' How someone can be a 60h/week resident and call themselves a proper parent is beyond me.' really yanks my chain. Have you ever stuck your head out into the real world and had a good look around? With the economy being what it is right now, it's not just the residents who are working 60+ hours a week to keep their families clothed, fed and educated. There are just so many good people out there working 2 or 3 different jobs trying to make ends meet. Do you really believe they are not 'proper parents' as well? The upper- and middle-class obsession that the only 'proper' upbringing is one by a stay at home mother is crumbling under the financial reality. Working-class people never had this idea because they have never been able to manage on one income, not even back in those days when all was stil cookies and cream with the economy. You really are out of touch with reality here.
Lastly, do you really believe that all women over 30 and all men over 40 should just stop trying for that baby, because they are past their 'baby-making-expiration date'? How are you going to enforce this rule? Mandatory sterilisation?