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Saturday, July 23, 2005

Less Redundancy, Please

I think I can summarize my last post, in a manner that is a hell of a lot more logical and concise. What I was trying to say was that the base liberal feminist concept of add women and stir is not enough. The Italian governments provision of pensions to homemakers is a start in the right direction, not an end in itself. Instead, it is part of the necessary shift in perceptions on the value of labour, whether it be paid or unpaid. The only reason unpaid labour is unpaid, is because we add hours to our week to do it. For those who feel all families should have dual incomes, such as Random, remember that once one is out of the home, that labour is sold to another, hence becomes paid labour. You can not argue that a babysitter is guarenteed to be more able to raise a child than that childs guardians. Hence choosing to stay at home is not choosing not to work, instead, it is self employment.

There we go. Still not terribly original and exciting, but a hell of a lot shorter than the last post. And I promise not to attempt to post while my daughters up again. Ever. It's so not worth it.

1 Comments:

Blogger Impulsivecompulsive said...

People tend not to understand this. They seem to feel that babysitting is free. For instance, a publication by the Gov't of Canada on how to support your children on a low income suggests that you get friends and family to sit for free. No shit, never thought of that. Good thing everyone I know is a retired philanthropist with nothing better to do!
Here, I've got daycare subsidy, and I do like to be out of the house, in adult company. Of course, as a student, a chunk of that time is spent studying, and since I'm a procrastinator, often studying means chain smoking and bullshitting, then busting my ass at finals, and when papers are due.
If I didn't have that time to BS, and didn't have daycare subsidy, it would not be worth it.
But finding an alternative often depends on pure luck, and recognizing an advantageous situation when it pops up. Of course, that can involve putting yourself on the line, something that's not so comfortable for a mother. (Eg, a friend is looking for a roomate and will sit for free some days. Could be great, but if she backs out, you're stuck with rent you can't afford, etc.) And you have to hope those lucky situations actually pop up.
It's tough, but about all you can do is keep your eyes open for anything that can make things easier. And if anyone offers you anything that can help, especially free babysitting, fuck pride, take them up on it!
Of course, there's gotta be that work from home, well paid job out there somewhere....

7/25/2005 5:30 PM  

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