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> A family is made up of a man and a women, who support each other in their strengths and interests, and raise children together. So why not focus on the "toget

> A family is made up of a man and a women, who support each other in their strengths and interests, and raise children together. So why not focus on the "together" part instead of trying to force partners into segregated roles? As you note yourself, stay at home mothers are in a precarious position (and, curiously, enthusiasm among males for traditional motherhood is NOT correlated with enthusiasm for lifelong alimony payments, or for generous government benefits for stay at home single mothers). And as far as the children are concerned, I don't think even the most conservative advocate of traditional gender roles would argue that they are better off being raised almost exclusively by one parent, and having the other confine themselves to cutting checks. So the solution, it seems to me, is to build a society that helps BOTH parents to spend time raising their children.

pabl0rg 8y ago
As a recent parent, view makes a lot of sense to me. Two weeks of parental leave is absolutely insufficient. There are probably a lot of other variables at play but Norway, which I’m sure encourages women to enter ‘male’ lines of work has a more sustainable population than Italy, which has a weaker social net. https://www.populationpyramid.net/norway/2017/ https://www.populationpyramid.net/norway/2017/ https://www.populationpyramid.net/italy/2017/ https://www.populationpyramid.net/italy/2017/
c0vfefe 8y ago
> being raised almost exclusively by one parent, and having the other confine themselves to cutting checks. If that's how you see the environment that a stay-at-home parent produces, with a full-time employed parent functioning only as a vending machine, then how could two working parents be an improvement?
- microtherion 8y ago
  Two part time working parents, BOTH engaged with domestic tasks.
  - c0vfefe 8y ago
    That would be a good alternative if an unlikely series of conditions were met, e.g. availability of sufficiently-paying part-time jobs, sufficient wage similarity to not make the lower-earning partner's work a relative waste, affordability of insurance, etc.
shagmin 8y ago
I agree, and I'd take it a step further. I just listened to an interview with Indra Nooyi (former CEO of PepsiCo). She attributed her success as CEO and ability to still be a mother due to extended family being involved with taking care of her kids. In western society there is a lot of value in independence in general. But a lot could be gained/saved from grandparents being able to help take care of children, and be able to get by on their retirement pension/savings much easier. Perhaps this is one aspect of non western societies that could/should be adopted more in the west.

pabl0rg 8y ago

As a recent parent, view makes a lot of sense to me. Two weeks of parental leave is absolutely insufficient. There are probably a lot of other variables at play but Norway, which I’m sure encourages women to enter ‘male’ lines of work has a more sustainable population than Italy, which has a weaker social net. https://www.populationpyramid.net/norway/2017/ https://www.populationpyramid.net/norway/2017/ https://www.populationpyramid.net/italy/2017/ https://www.populationpyramid.net/italy/2017/

c0vfefe 8y ago

> being raised almost exclusively by one parent, and having the other confine themselves to cutting checks. If that's how you see the environment that a stay-at-home parent produces, with a full-time employed parent functioning only as a vending machine, then how could two working parents be an improvement?

microtherion 8y ago
Two part time working parents, BOTH engaged with domestic tasks.
- c0vfefe 8y ago
  That would be a good alternative if an unlikely series of conditions were met, e.g. availability of sufficiently-paying part-time jobs, sufficient wage similarity to not make the lower-earning partner's work a relative waste, affordability of insurance, etc.

shagmin 8y ago

I agree, and I'd take it a step further. I just listened to an interview with Indra Nooyi (former CEO of PepsiCo). She attributed her success as CEO and ability to still be a mother due to extended family being involved with taking care of her kids. In western society there is a lot of value in independence in general. But a lot could be gained/saved from grandparents being able to help take care of children, and be able to get by on their retirement pension/savings much easier. Perhaps this is one aspect of non western societies that could/should be adopted more in the west.