I was at a Chamber of Commerce board meeting where the presenter spoke about the need for childcare so that mothers at home can get off the sidelines and into the workforce. I responded that my wife, who stays at home with our six children, is on the front lines. We have to change the conversation so that economic output is not the sole measure of a person's value. The value of motherhood, in itself, needs to be recaptured in the public conversation.
I love this piece. Could not agree more. I'd even expand it beyond "family policy." At home moms/parents could add a valuable perspective on how mass immigration affects neighborhoods and schools; on how Soros prosecutors make it harder to raise "free range" kids; and a whole host of other issues.
Of particular concern to me is AI policy, including the GOP Trifecta's horrible plan to give AI plutocrats carte blanche for five or 10 years, preempting many great red state laws (and some blue state ones) to protect children, belatedly from social media and ubiquitous online p*rn, and now to protect kids from child-inappropriate AI chatbots and open OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's personal passion, what he calls ChatGPT's "Adult Mode," which is now temporarily on ice only because two juries in one week smacked Big Tech for endangering our children.
Put at home moms (or dads) on POTUS' AI Advisory Board and a wide array of other federal and state entities and you'll get some fresh diversity of sound policy perspectives.
(I was an at home dad for a couple of decades, even took my first child as an infant to a few Hill advocacy/lobbying meetings. But I did feel ridiculous jamming a stroller into those tiny House offices, and once he became mobile and also later was joined by siblings, I evolved my work mix [when I could do any] to be done primarily from home on nights and weekends. Even then I did one time stand in the rain in the street while my toddler son called out through the screen door "Daddy, why are you talking on the phone in the rain?", as I defended the death penalty to a NY Times reporter [but didn't want his precocious ears to hear the words...the reporter was scandalized enough!]. ;)
And I would add stop focusing exclusively on the right and bring everybody to the table.
While the left generally focuses on structural supports—childcare funding, paid leave, and reproductive rights, it has organizations like Vote Mama and various grassroots collectives (e.g., Parenting for Liberation) that actively train and support mothers running for office, aiming to increase the number of moms with young children in legislative positions.
There is much to be done when these right/left divides that have been foisted on us by our hideously wealthy oligarchs are seen for what they are, things keeping us weak by keeping us apart. Our strength is in numbers. Let’s use everybody!
The first thing that should be done to help mothers and families is to get rid of car seat laws. The cost of those laws far exceeds what little utility they may have in saving children's lives. Though evidence is scant for their saving lives (versus seatbelts), evidence of their discouraging effect on big families is plain. In fact, want to help big families? Let the government provide suitable vehicles to every family with more than four children--vehicles and repairs. Forget most other forms of family support and pay for larger vehicles for larger families.
Not a mom and my kids are grown and even my grandchildren are entering tweendom in two weeks but these are good suggestions. I would note that financial policies have not been very successful in encouraging family formation. The issue is cultural which is a tougher nut to crack. I wish there was a silver bullet but I think the answer is going to be all of the above. My girls' mother stayed out of the workforce until the youngest entered school and then worked part-time for a few more years. My daughter just went back to full-time about a year ago. This takes resources though which we had but are not available to everyone. It probably involves fixing the whole economy so that one income can support a family in decent shape. And then there is the problem of single parents. Not always a symptom of cultural rot as I know several women who were widowed with a baby or while pregnant.
I was at a Chamber of Commerce board meeting where the presenter spoke about the need for childcare so that mothers at home can get off the sidelines and into the workforce. I responded that my wife, who stays at home with our six children, is on the front lines. We have to change the conversation so that economic output is not the sole measure of a person's value. The value of motherhood, in itself, needs to be recaptured in the public conversation.
I love this piece. Could not agree more. I'd even expand it beyond "family policy." At home moms/parents could add a valuable perspective on how mass immigration affects neighborhoods and schools; on how Soros prosecutors make it harder to raise "free range" kids; and a whole host of other issues.
Of particular concern to me is AI policy, including the GOP Trifecta's horrible plan to give AI plutocrats carte blanche for five or 10 years, preempting many great red state laws (and some blue state ones) to protect children, belatedly from social media and ubiquitous online p*rn, and now to protect kids from child-inappropriate AI chatbots and open OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's personal passion, what he calls ChatGPT's "Adult Mode," which is now temporarily on ice only because two juries in one week smacked Big Tech for endangering our children.
Put at home moms (or dads) on POTUS' AI Advisory Board and a wide array of other federal and state entities and you'll get some fresh diversity of sound policy perspectives.
(I was an at home dad for a couple of decades, even took my first child as an infant to a few Hill advocacy/lobbying meetings. But I did feel ridiculous jamming a stroller into those tiny House offices, and once he became mobile and also later was joined by siblings, I evolved my work mix [when I could do any] to be done primarily from home on nights and weekends. Even then I did one time stand in the rain in the street while my toddler son called out through the screen door "Daddy, why are you talking on the phone in the rain?", as I defended the death penalty to a NY Times reporter [but didn't want his precocious ears to hear the words...the reporter was scandalized enough!]. ;)
And I would add stop focusing exclusively on the right and bring everybody to the table.
While the left generally focuses on structural supports—childcare funding, paid leave, and reproductive rights, it has organizations like Vote Mama and various grassroots collectives (e.g., Parenting for Liberation) that actively train and support mothers running for office, aiming to increase the number of moms with young children in legislative positions.
There is much to be done when these right/left divides that have been foisted on us by our hideously wealthy oligarchs are seen for what they are, things keeping us weak by keeping us apart. Our strength is in numbers. Let’s use everybody!
The first thing that should be done to help mothers and families is to get rid of car seat laws. The cost of those laws far exceeds what little utility they may have in saving children's lives. Though evidence is scant for their saving lives (versus seatbelts), evidence of their discouraging effect on big families is plain. In fact, want to help big families? Let the government provide suitable vehicles to every family with more than four children--vehicles and repairs. Forget most other forms of family support and pay for larger vehicles for larger families.
Not a mom and my kids are grown and even my grandchildren are entering tweendom in two weeks but these are good suggestions. I would note that financial policies have not been very successful in encouraging family formation. The issue is cultural which is a tougher nut to crack. I wish there was a silver bullet but I think the answer is going to be all of the above. My girls' mother stayed out of the workforce until the youngest entered school and then worked part-time for a few more years. My daughter just went back to full-time about a year ago. This takes resources though which we had but are not available to everyone. It probably involves fixing the whole economy so that one income can support a family in decent shape. And then there is the problem of single parents. Not always a symptom of cultural rot as I know several women who were widowed with a baby or while pregnant.