18 Comments
User's avatar
Fred Bruning's avatar

Don't I get credit for cleaning the bathroom sink trap?

Expand full comment
Fred Bruning's avatar

Sue -- Wife swapping! So...1955! Although, might be a good followup on the "trad" movement. What's "traditional," anyway?

Expand full comment
Fred Bruning's avatar

The question, Ed, is where do the children fit? No matter the answer, we love ya.

Expand full comment
Fred Bruning's avatar

Prine for Secretary of Sanity.

Expand full comment
Fred Bruning's avatar

Can't keep up, Reg. Still consider the telephone social media. Boy, are we old. Cheers and thanks/fb

Expand full comment
Fred Bruning's avatar

Glad to have been part of the herd.

Expand full comment
Fred Bruning's avatar

Margaret Attwood would be amazed.

Expand full comment
Jamey L's avatar

All new terms for me, Dad. You and mom both deserve awards!

Expand full comment
Fred Bruning's avatar

Mom's the champ. I'm runner up.

Expand full comment
Gwen Young's avatar

You are a sweet, loving daughter, Jamey. And you're right. Both your folks deserve medals, not for just the loving way they raised their family but also for how they choose to the live their lives, trying their best to make the world a better place for everyone. Have never known a more admirable couple.

Expand full comment
Jamey L's avatar

Thank you, Gwen. All 4 of us are very lucky to have the parents we do. And I am grateful they have such long-lasting friendships with people like you!

Expand full comment
Carol C. Rescigno's avatar

I knew I couldn’t be a tradwife when I wore high heels. Once. Also, the ‘60s. Also, herding reporters is a bit like raising kids anyway.

Expand full comment
Bob Keeler's avatar

You didn’t mention the other Musk campaign: paid wives. His modus operandi seems to be: impregnate, compensate, move on.

Expand full comment
Gwen Young's avatar

"Courageously, Wink stayed home when the kids were little. As soon as the four could be trusted not to burn down the house or sponsor an illicit beer blast if left alone for a few hours, she started service as a social worker.

"On a flow chart of family duties, I think we’re about even."

I'd say your flow chart needs reconsideration, Fred. Wink is standing on the Bruning Family podium with all the medals.

Expand full comment
Susan Kaplan's avatar

Enlightening article once again Fred. I thought Trad Wives was a misspelling, referring to wife swapping back in the day! lol Thanks to you I can keep up with the latest trends. Your articles never cease to to give lol moments and brighten my day!

Expand full comment
John Jeansonne's avatar

Maybe the Trump administration's pronatalism plan is just satire? Like the John Prine lyric, "Who's gonna take your garbage out when I pack up and go?" ("You're going to miss me. And my Hefty bag.") No, I expect the pronatalism deal is as serious as all the other criminal and cruelty intentions of Trump and his lickspittles. Another Prine lyric comes to mind: "Some humans ain't human; some people ain't kind."

Expand full comment
Edward Sanady's avatar

Well that sure was a fun read. I just wonder where a Roman Catholic couple in Queens, NY, who cranked out seven boys in 10 years back in the earl-y-1950's to early-1960's fits in all this.

Expand full comment
Reg Gale's avatar

I gotta keep up better. I heard about the "pronatalism" thing, but not the "tradwife" thing. My tradwife just retired after a lifetime working as a registered nurse, and pssing the kids back and forth when I was a young journalist working nights and she managed the house in the early evening, and I did it during the days. This is when we shared a single car back and forth because we could only afford one, and where she managed to come up with dinner, whether homemade or takeout for the three boys, and I ate leftovers. This is more the "traditional" American homelife these days, I suspect, than the "Father KNows Best" era of the 1950s. Traditions change year-by-year, generation-by-generation, don't they?

Expand full comment