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What would make the logistics part better? Would it be hiring dedicated help?

by Axsuul 5y ago

ativzzz 5y ago
It would be having community that helps ease the burden of child rearing. Grandparents, neighbor friends with kids, etc
- watwut 5y ago
  The trouble is, such community requires payback. You need ot just take, you need to give. And often in ways you don't like giving or more then you like. It requires a lot more negotiation with more people, compromise about what we are used to be autonomous in and conformity. The strong individualism is not really compatible with that. On HN when these structures are talked about, it is always only in terms of essentially free labor from extended family.
Arubis 5y ago
I had many moments of thinking “is there a product here?” Most things that help aren’t products. We nibble around the logistic edges with buying our time back: a front-door laundry service, a lot of delivery meals when we had a newborn during peak Covid, Amazon Prime for virtually everything. “Acquiring consumer stuff” is fairly solved. We had a nanny for a while, and that had a lot of upsides, but having a family-like relationship that’s actually transactional is extra overhead to manage. Nice while it was working well, though. My local pizza joint’s app has a “repeat last delivery order” that comes in handy. Ultimately, though, the hard parts remain hard. When a kid is sick or doesn’t sleep through the night, who’s skipping work tomorrow? How do we tag-team our way to survive till bedtime? Do I not bill out a client today so my wife can get enough of a break from the kids to stay sane—and vice-versa? It’s very isolating. This feels like a fabric-of-society issue to which the product-and-services-to-solve-it mentality, however well-intentioned in the moment, is kinda how we ended up here in the first place. There isn’t an app or a service that’ll make living in the states (or, I gather, much of the west, albeit to a lesser degree) less individualized and more communal.
- ericd 5y ago
  To your point about becoming more communal, we found this the other day: https://www.cohousing.org/directory/wpbdp_category/comm/ https://www.cohousing.org/directory/wpbdp_category/comm/ We haven’t tried it, but this looks like it could be great if you find a group you’re compatible with.
  - Arubis 5y ago
    That looks like a cool resource; thank you! We’re pondering making a move at some point in the next year or so, and this is gross for that particular mill.

What would make the logistics part better? Would it be hiring dedicated help?

by Axsuul 5y ago

What would make the logistics part better? Would it be hiring dedicated help?

ativzzz 5y ago

It would be having community that helps ease the burden of child rearing. Grandparents, neighbor friends with kids, etc

watwut 5y ago
The trouble is, such community requires payback. You need ot just take, you need to give. And often in ways you don't like giving or more then you like. It requires a lot more negotiation with more people, compromise about what we are used to be autonomous in and conformity. The strong individualism is not really compatible with that. On HN when these structures are talked about, it is always only in terms of essentially free labor from extended family.

Arubis 5y ago

I had many moments of thinking “is there a product here?” Most things that help aren’t products. We nibble around the logistic edges with buying our time back: a front-door laundry service, a lot of delivery meals when we had a newborn during peak Covid, Amazon Prime for virtually everything. “Acquiring consumer stuff” is fairly solved. We had a nanny for a while, and that had a lot of upsides, but having a family-like relationship that’s actually transactional is extra overhead to manage. Nice while it was working well, though. My local pizza joint’s app has a “repeat last delivery order” that comes in handy. Ultimately, though, the hard parts remain hard. When a kid is sick or doesn’t sleep through the night, who’s skipping work tomorrow? How do we tag-team our way to survive till bedtime? Do I not bill out a client today so my wife can get enough of a break from the kids to stay sane—and vice-versa? It’s very isolating. This feels like a fabric-of-society issue to which the product-and-services-to-solve-it mentality, however well-intentioned in the moment, is kinda how we ended up here in the first place. There isn’t an app or a service that’ll make living in the states (or, I gather, much of the west, albeit to a lesser degree) less individualized and more communal.

ericd 5y ago
To your point about becoming more communal, we found this the other day: https://www.cohousing.org/directory/wpbdp_category/comm/ https://www.cohousing.org/directory/wpbdp_category/comm/ We haven’t tried it, but this looks like it could be great if you find a group you’re compatible with.
- Arubis 5y ago
  That looks like a cool resource; thank you! We’re pondering making a move at some point in the next year or so, and this is gross for that particular mill.