To me the whole women-in-the-workplace, or rather mothers-in-the-workplace argument is just muddleheaded. Women should love their babies and be good mothers. I mean, that's not the issue. Everyone who thinks twice will know that to be true and those who argue it are fools. The problem, the lack of clarity, comes from the idea that it is someone's exclusive responsibility to love and care for babies. Everyone should love babies and care for them. Again, I'm not talking about deadbeat dads, although certainly that's important, and I hate living in a time when people are so casual about abandoning their children. Not dads, but everyone.
Think about that for a minute. Think about a world in which everybody loved and cared for babies instead of just making appropriate sounds of delight. Think about a world in which bosses offered crèches or subsidized day care or at least didn't fire girls who got pregnant. Think further about a world in which companies didn't make people choose between parenthood and job security. Think about a world in which food manufacturers made a real commitment to offering healthy, environmentally sensitive food so that children could grow up without Coke or McDonald's putting a sugar/caffeine/salt monkey on their little backs. Think about a world of green spaces, a clean world of delight, a world that contains its predators and keeps its babies safe.
This world, I'm thinking about it today. I wish I lived there.
* * *
1 year ago today: I just got everyone howling
