Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Originally posted by: Schrodinger
Originally posted by: nakedfrog
Originally posted by: Geekbabe
Part of the reason the child free are becomong more publically vocal is because they feel discriminated against in our child centric society.Guess who gets asked to pick up the slack at work when parents have daycare problems or sick kids... yeap, the child free, guess who gets to work the bulk of the holidays so that parents can have family time, yeap, the child free, if there's a last minute forced overtime guess who gets stuck?
The general consensus seems to be that if you don't have kids you don't have a family... or any sort of a life for that matter.
Our child-centric society? I do think it would be sheer folly for any society to be anything but child-centric. Who takes care of us when we're old?
Any "child-free" person who is bitter about the perceived perks that parents get needs to examine their own perks derived from not having children--more disposable income, more free time, more freedom in general.
But both sets of adults made that decision. The childfree should not have to pay for the decisions that those with children have made and thats all that Geekbabe is pointing out. Those who have children and those who are without should be treated the same in the particular instances she touched on. If she chooses not to have kids so that she has more freedom--why should she have to pick up the slack at work because someone deserved to have kids? She obviously didn't make the choice so she could help out.
Well... let's just imagine a society that favors the childless over those with children...
Sick kids can't be at daycare. The parent can't get off work because it's not fair to those who don't have children. The kid has to stay at home alone. Awesome. Society benefits.
The kid dies from a complication, since no one was around to take the kid to the hospital. Hope the people without kids are happy they didn't have to do any extra work.
Suppose we make it so people who don't have kids don't have to pay taxes to support schools. Obviously less money for schools--kids get a poor education, and just decide to turn to crime because it's easier. The person without kids just got shot by a carjacker because they drove a nice car. Awesome. Society benefits.
My point here is the same point I made above: anything other than a child-centric society is folly and doomed to failure.
These are the trade-offs we made with women's liberation. None of this was a problem in the past because the mother was always at home for the children.