Letters to the Editor
LeCastor
Published Letters: 1916 Editor's Choice: 86
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Children vs. All Other Unworthy Lifestyle Choices
[Read the article: Why the barista can't breast-feed]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What i am saying is that the people who go off about wanting to do what THEY want to do as being so much important than kids are misanthropic.
I don't see how it makes me misanthropic. And i'm not even saying that my personal interests, whatever they may be (it's none of your business, pretty much), are equally as important as your beloved children, in the grand scheme of things. And so i really don't see why your child's sensebilities or wants, or your sensebilities, should trump my sensebilities and wants, just because you have a child, and i have a desire to discuss ethical implications of various sexual fetishes with my friend who used to work for Larry Flynt, for example. Why do you think you and your kid are more entitled and important than me and my friend?
I could give a rat's ass if people have kids or not. What concerns me is people arguing that parents needing flexibility to take care of their children is tantamount to childfree people needing flexibility for pedicures or whatever else they want to do. The inability to see the difference evinces, in my opinion, a serious societal priority problem.
Yes, all that we childfree people do is get pedicures. Like, that time i had to go to the emergency room 2 weeks ago and my boyfriend took a day off from work to accompany me, that was a pedicure (this was KStone's excellent point).
But my point is, having a children is a choice, just like getting a pedicure or writing or just sitting in front of the TV all day and vegging out, or traveling to Miami for a weekend of relaxing. Yes, they're all lifestyle choices. If you didn't want to spend your weekends mopping up baby vomit instead of everything from reading a good book to partying in Paris, you shouldn't have had children. So, even if what i do is not changing diapers or feeding babies, why should an employer say that taking care of Johnny is okay, but taking care of me and my brain is not?
It just really amazes me that we're willing to endorse such a vast invasion of private life by our employers -- that we're willing to let employers choose which of our private activities are worhty of flexibility and which aren't. Our employers are not our masters nor our parents, we don't need this paternalistic oversight -- we should be able to take time off (within reason) for whatever reason WE deem fit or necessary, and not let the employer choose.
As KStone put it, I really don't know where you parents get this sense that you're suffering for the rest of us and we should be grateful. There is no shortage of children who will become taxpayers. I'm more than happy to pay my taxes for schools and poor children healthcare and the whole shabang, i just don't appreciate when you try to make everyone live for the benefit of your children.
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Thanks
[Read the article: Why the barista can't breast-feed]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]for the vote of support, boo :)
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"Why do they think the need to take care of kids is a personal affront to their life and lifestyle choices? "
[Read the article: Why the barista can't breast-feed]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]My last post was all screwed up in terms of formatting, unfortunately. Sorry.
Why do they think the need to take care of kids is a personal affront to their life and lifestyle choices?
i'm not angry, but i'm writing because where i live, parents' and children's desires are limiting my life and choices. Screaming children on public transport and in restaurants, children where they shouldn't be, like bars, screaming children on the ground floor of my building (i live on the 5th floor, but this kid starts crying and drives me INSANE), people being absolutely rude with their strollers, people's unrly children kicking you on the bus (yeah, it's cute the first 5 times, but he's kicking my shin) people with children who think they can skip to the front of the line because they have children in a varity of shopping situations. Parents who give me dirty looks for having midly inappropriate conversation in front of their kids on the subway, like, using the word "shit" when talking about work. Big whoop.
And then all the things that the parents are doing in the name of their children, like hiding cosmo, calling my house in the middle of the day asking me if i think "hollywood should be cleaned up," protesting movies, art exhibits, laws, that aren't actually anti-children.
I just really treasure my rights here in america to access all sorts of controversial, provocative, possibly non-child-friendly media and material (i don't mean necessarily pornography, just things like movies by Tarantino), and to lead an intellectually challenging and interesting life, full of all sorts of books and media and news, etc., and then these parents come along and want to clean up tv and hollywood, and start screaming about revealing clothing and music that is too sexy (i love hiphop), it just really pisses me off that they're trying to take away things that i really like.
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I find it amazing
[Read the article: Why the barista can't breast-feed]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]that you've actually done the research to see when i subscribed to salon. but surely, if you've been paying attention, you'd know i'm in law school, and although i had an internship this summer, we have classes now, so yes, i do have time to have interesting discussions on Salon.
As for a job, i got an offer last week from a very reputable law firm, to work in their offices next summer, for a whole lotta money. So, apparently, some people actually enjoyed talking to me during my interviews. :)