Monday, June 18, 2012

Pretty Depressing


Just found this on Facebook.
Click on the image to go to the website.

Family values?
Yeah. Fucked-up family values.



13 comments:

  1. It makes my stomach ache to think that parents have to go back to work so soon after the birth of a baby. It makes my heart ache to think a baby having to give up his or her parent at such a young age.
    How do parents afford daycare when they do not have unpaid childcare in place? Where do these children go?

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  2. Wow. That is an amazing and depressing bundle of info.
    I was able to stay home with my kids due to the privilege of being in an upper income bracket. For all the good there was in that experience, it was an isolating. What a different world it would be if the majority of women stayed home. I wonder if the postpartum depression rates are lower in countries with longer maternity leave.

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  3. Yeah, Bill Maher was talking about this on his show this weekend. It's a hot mess. Yet we're the number one country for self esteem. Ha.

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  4. Pakistan? Really? They 'let' women work outside the home there? (Is my ignorance showing?)

    I got 16 weeks disability pay 24 years ago -- about a quarter of my take-home salary. Yeah, we were rollin' in the dough. For the first 2 years, both my husband and I worked half time so we could each be a stay at home parent, and a worker. I wish more couples would consider it. It would have been better financially for the higher paid wage earner to work full-time, but that was not the point!

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  5. BabyMama (with the insurance) took 6 months and then I became HomeDaddy for 3 years.
    If I'd had parents in town, we may have done it differently, but I wasn't willing to let strangers in some daycare raise BabyGirl.

    I would've trusted you though.

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  6. Bill Maher also mentioned how low we rank on the mandated work vacation scale, below Sri Lanka and China. How sad is that?

    We are a very strange nation.

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  7. The United States is all talk and no action. We're the best country in the world. Keep talking and maybe you will convince yourself. We all know the US lags behind all other 1st world countries in many things.

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  8. Birdie- Well, lots of parents do send their kids to daycare which, ironically, causes more health problems. It's fucked up.

    Denise- It IS isolating. Terribly so. But I love the fact that stay-at-home mothers can have an online community now. That would have helped me so much, I think.

    Dayna- It's just horrible.

    gradydoctor- As that guy on Curb Your Enthusiasm used to say, "That is just a big bowl of wrong."

    Taradharma- Lily and Jason just can't afford that option. Sadly. But Jason does a lot of the childcare. And I love him for it.

    Magnum- I am honored that you would say that. Good for you for being Home Daddy! I'm sure that you and Baby Girl will always be closer for that.

    Mel- I love Bill Maher. Usually. He's very good at pointing out the ridiculosities of life.

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  9. Ellen Abbott- Yes. When people say that- we're the greatest country in the world- I want to cringe, scream, and throw up, all at the same time.

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  10. Ireland had three months, then went to four. Now it's six. And if you've been working you've a lot of options to take unpaid parental leave for the next six. Beyond that, it's hard to organise job share etc. But you have to have a full on CAREER for that sort of thing (and the unpaid leave etc. I never had those options.

    We need to work on paternity leave now too. Right now it's two days, I think., which is pretty scary if you're a brand new parent.

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  11. We lucked out. I was able to stay at home until Xander was about two, then worked from home while he was in part time nursery school after that. We couldn't do it now, though - which is one of the reasons we chose to just have one child. We don't have family near us or anything like that. He was in preschool/day care on and off until he started school, but I tried to stay as part time as we could afford.

    When I was pregnant with him, I worked at a small credit union that served police officers. When I told my boss I wanted to take 12 weeks because of FMLA she stated that she didn't have to comply because we had fewer than 50 employees, and that all she would give me was four weeks. FOUR WEEKS. So I quit, and we just rode it out. Luckily, it worked out.

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  12. This is completely fucked up.

    @Taradharma - your ignorance IS showing. Lots of Pakistani women work outside the home. It's not what you might imagine if all you have to go on is standard media.

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