Over the last few weeks, I’ve seen article after article in the New York Times, BBC, PBS, and a few others about a recent change in labor statistics: more mothers of young children are leaving the workforce.
While I agree with you main thesis that young children need their mothers, I disagree with the first two of your three prescriptions.
Supporting flexible work arrangements
Better parental leave systems
Formal recognition of caregiving as a vital societal contribution.
I think we need to return to recognizing a husband and wife as a unit that together earns a living and raises a family. And a society that values both of those goals together. Older children need hands-on parenting differently than babies and toddlers do, but they still need attention. We are reaping the outsourcing of education to schools and universities that are producing anxious, often illiterate students with poor logic and thinking skills. Raising the next generation is an important and worthwhile goal.
A lot of truth to this, but several things to consider...When women are well employed they can continue to support the family if they need to leave an abusive relationship, husband dies, etc.
My mother was, for her day, well educated. She had an expression "Just a dumb housewife."
Today, I see the very important role those housewives played in supporting the well being of their families. There was less mental illness and developmental problems. Obesity was rare and shocking. Culture is/was generally passed down through women or mothers, but quickly lost. Today we buy cookbooks to try to regain some of that important knowledge. Traditional, cultural knowledge is very valuable but largely erased by school education. Adding to the loss of nutritious meals is the increase in processed foods, and foods exposed to chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Around 1930 Weston A. Price, D.D.S. noticed deteriorating health in his patients, and asked the question "What makes people healthy?" He went to work to find out....see more at price-pottenger.org, 800-366-3748, 619-462-7600. Price saw value in traditional, indigenous people.
While I agree with you main thesis that young children need their mothers, I disagree with the first two of your three prescriptions.
Supporting flexible work arrangements
Better parental leave systems
Formal recognition of caregiving as a vital societal contribution.
I think we need to return to recognizing a husband and wife as a unit that together earns a living and raises a family. And a society that values both of those goals together. Older children need hands-on parenting differently than babies and toddlers do, but they still need attention. We are reaping the outsourcing of education to schools and universities that are producing anxious, often illiterate students with poor logic and thinking skills. Raising the next generation is an important and worthwhile goal.
A lot of truth to this, but several things to consider...When women are well employed they can continue to support the family if they need to leave an abusive relationship, husband dies, etc.
My mother was, for her day, well educated. She had an expression "Just a dumb housewife."
Today, I see the very important role those housewives played in supporting the well being of their families. There was less mental illness and developmental problems. Obesity was rare and shocking. Culture is/was generally passed down through women or mothers, but quickly lost. Today we buy cookbooks to try to regain some of that important knowledge. Traditional, cultural knowledge is very valuable but largely erased by school education. Adding to the loss of nutritious meals is the increase in processed foods, and foods exposed to chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Around 1930 Weston A. Price, D.D.S. noticed deteriorating health in his patients, and asked the question "What makes people healthy?" He went to work to find out....see more at price-pottenger.org, 800-366-3748, 619-462-7600. Price saw value in traditional, indigenous people.
Why would you expect anything else from The NY Times?