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If you think supervising - i.e. raising - a child is drudgery people ought to be liberated from, I sincerely hope that you aren't a parent, and have no plans to

If you think supervising - i.e. raising - a child is drudgery people ought to be liberated from, I sincerely hope that you aren't a parent, and have no plans to become one in the near future. Being around your child, supervising them, talking to them, teaching them about the world around them (answering the "what's that?"s and "why?"s), and how to interact with others ("No! we don't just grab at things.") is a fundamental part of being a human parent. Heck, it's a fundamental part of being a mammalian parent. It's why people have kids. We need to free parents from all the other crap so they can spend time with their kids, not free them from their kids so they spend time on the other crap.

pjc50 13y ago
I appreciate that feminism is not going to get a good reception on HN, and I don't have my references to hand, so I'll stick to the easily googlable: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/07/parenting-makes-people-miserable-what-else-is-new/59283/ http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/07/par... http://philosophynow.org/issues/24/Can_a_Life_of_Child-rearing_Be_Meaningful http://philosophynow.org/issues/24/Can_a_Life_of_Child-reari...
- Karellen 13y ago
  What? I'm talking about parents, not mothers. Freeing fathers up from the drudgery of other crap to help raise their kids is just as important, partly so that the responsibilities can be better shared and mothers can have some time to themselves. Advancing the notion of freeing fathers to help raise their kids might be more important in some ways, as we have a farther road to travel there. Automating the need to work should be the goal. Also, I didn't mean to suggest that parenting might be "fun" or "easy". That it certainly isn't - at least not all the time. It's rewarding, but in the way that really hard work is.

pjc50 13y ago

I appreciate that feminism is not going to get a good reception on HN, and I don't have my references to hand, so I'll stick to the easily googlable: http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/07/parenting-makes-people-miserable-what-else-is-new/59283/ http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2010/07/par... http://philosophynow.org/issues/24/Can_a_Life_of_Child-rearing_Be_Meaningful http://philosophynow.org/issues/24/Can_a_Life_of_Child-reari...

Karellen 13y ago
What? I'm talking about parents, not mothers. Freeing fathers up from the drudgery of other crap to help raise their kids is just as important, partly so that the responsibilities can be better shared and mothers can have some time to themselves. Advancing the notion of freeing fathers to help raise their kids might be more important in some ways, as we have a farther road to travel there. Automating the need to work should be the goal. Also, I didn't mean to suggest that parenting might be "fun" or "easy". That it certainly isn't - at least not all the time. It's rewarding, but in the way that really hard work is.