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Anytime I see anyone talking about how schools need to reopen because they need their kids OUT of the house, I can't help but hear this in my head: youtube.com/watch?v=x-P2fILsLH8&t=16m20sPermalink On twitter.com
Mood -2 🙁
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And no, it's not that I don't get that moms are bearing more of the load of childcare than dads in most 2-parent families. Trust me, I've heard lots of moms say it and I sympathize. But—and not to ignore single parents—I always wonder, "Why the hell doesn't your partner step up?"Permalink On twitter.com
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For most families, the solution isn't feeding Moloch a feast like nothing he's been fed before. There is SO much unknown about this virus, and so few admit it. The solution is that parents of both sexes need to be supported better in doing their *primary* jobs: parenting.Permalink On twitter.com
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People observe, "If nobody's earning any money, who will buy products that companies produce?" Sure. So, tell me: if nobody's raising sane, competent children who're not maybe possibly permanently screwed up by this virus, who will work or buy anything?Permalink On twitter.com
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I mean, I've been really lucky. I telecommuted last semester, and my schedule was flexible. I worked every day, but I was able to do a fair bit of child care AND my job. (I mean, I honestly burned out, had no free time, was constantly losing my mind. But what are you gonna do?)Permalink On twitter.com
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People who want schools open spout crap like, "Our children will be neurotic because they're not being socialized." This is absurd: kids did fine for millennia w/o being forced into schoolrooms with only their peers + 1 adult. Really! Sure, they got to play outside more. But...Permalink On twitter.com
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Read Pepys if you think sending your kid out into pandemic-land or acting like everything's fine won't scar your kids. Seeing a catastrophe—being sent out into one—will probably be *far* more scarring that a year or two of not attending school. theconversation.com/diary-of-samuel-pepys-shows-how-life-under-the-bubonic-plague-mirrored-todays-pandemic-136222Permalink On twitter.com
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You know that time your parent did something, and you look back on it and think, "How could you *do* that to me?" This is all our kids' version of that. They will have the receipts, too: the articles from countless experts saying, "There are just so many unknowns..."Permalink On twitter.com
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And they will have hindsight, sure; but we are supposed to have hindsight too. Experts are saying, "So many unknowns, but..." and describing pretty awful potential longer-term effects in those who survive COVID-19. Including children: nbcnews.com/health/health-news/covid-19-children-doctors-see-link-between-virus-neurological-side-n1235501Permalink On twitter.com
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Before you say, "Eh..." Would you smoke with a baby in the room? No. Why? Long term respiratory issues. Would you feel a young child undercooked hamburger? No. Why? E coli can kill children. But sending kids out to risk exposure and infection by this virus? "Sign me up!"Permalink On twitter.com
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The thing is, we suck at hearing experts when they say, "We don't know yet. There's so much we don't know yet." They keep saying this, and people keep not listening, because they want this to be over. People just want their kids out of the house. But that is not the answer.Permalink On twitter.com
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The answer is recognizing that the way our working hours and job schedules are arranged was not received on stone tablets from heaven. (I mean, neither was our entire economic system with the assumption of constant, breakneck growth being necessary, but that's another subject.)Permalink On twitter.com
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If they refuse to respect the rights of families and parents *of both sexes* to protect and care for their kids, companies can be forced—by workers, or by government—to adopt civilized standards. For example, more flexible hours and schedules for those who need it.Permalink On twitter.com
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I mean, this is something we should have been demanding for decades now. The fight for women to have access to the workforce was an important and necessary first step. But it was never the endgame, was it? What made us think it was?Permalink On twitter.com
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It was wrong that women were by default considered primary caregivers, but because it was sexist, not because caregiving is a negligibly important task we can dump onto strangers because "work" and "business" and "money" trumps all other values. It doesn't. It never did.Permalink On twitter.com
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Down that road lies Moloch. Are we really that society? I mean, yes. Metaphorically, we have been for generations. Look at school lunches. I mean, look at schools. Look at the ads on childrens' TV, as Russell Banks argued we must: youtube.com/watch?v=Kv3Rbq5WIK4&t=17m10sPermalink On twitter.com
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So, yes, we are. But... literally? Seriously?Permalink On twitter.com
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When women seized the liberty to join the workforce en masse, wasn't that a step along a road to someplace? A step in the direction of fundamental social change, where parents of both sexes balance work outside the home and the (far more important) work of childcare?Permalink On twitter.com
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People realizing neither parent should be default primary caregiver/breadwinner was a stepping stone to sharing both jobs, wasn't it? Sure, we're not there. Blame inertia. Blame male resistance. But also: we never bothered to fight this battle. Our employers appreciate it.Permalink On twitter.com
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So we settled for outsourcing parenthood to daycares, and, worse, to schooling as a stopgap. Regardless of how defunded it gets, or how inefficient and archaic it becomes, or how undercut and segregated and resistant and broken it ends up becoming.On twitter.com
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I could say a lot more about how we could also do much better than the mostly-simulacrum of schooling that's been proposed/deployed, too—so much brain-deadening "sit here and watch hours of lectures on this iPad" but that's a topic for another day, I think.Permalink On twitter.com
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Even brain-deadening iPad lectures is better than sticking kids in schools to feel like lab rats. (Which is what Korean high school seniors said it felt like when they were sent back, before other kids. Lab rats. Concerned about psychological trauma? Worry about *that.*Permalink On twitter.com
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I've shared this link before, but it's pretty pertinent to all I've said above. Pull quote: "We haven’t made our kids’ future important enough to inconvenience ourselves. And they know it." coronavirus.medium.com/what-future-generations-will-remember-about-the-pandemic-4bbc52cd4c8ePermalink On twitter.com
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Aaaand... I don't know key I pressed that made this publish before I could read it over one last time, but, eh... the odd typo aside, it's fine, so I'm leaving it up. (Almost didn't tweet all this at all, but... I just... had to say something.)Permalink On twitter.com