Don't freak out yet.
This diary entry by SlackerInc got me thinking again. Sorry.
I remember when Clinton was pushing for tax breaks for daycare. I was a little pissed that no one had thought of tax breaks for families with stay-at-home moms. Is this because some powerful Dems frown on women choosing to raise their kids in that fashion?
At the time, I was running my own business and had a newborn daughter that my wife and I decided to make a priority in our lives. My wife decided to stay home with baby, and I supported that decision wholeheartedly. Man, we had it rough, even having to file bakruptcy at one point. We almost lost our home.
Now, about nine years later, we've come out of that hard time. My wife works part time at the school that my daughter, Emmaline, attends (right across the street.) Emmaline, who turns nine in a few days, reads on a 7th grade level... reads six chapter books a week (Nancy Drew, Judy Bloom type stuff. We don't have a tv, except for DVDs.) and argued with my visiting in-laws about socialized medicine last night. Freaked me out. She donates a percentage of her allowance to "the poor" each week. She's a good, sharp, very advanced kid.
Would she be this sharp if she didn't have those first few years of non-stop nurturing attention? We she be this sharp if we had tv? Maybe, maybe not. I know that there is a big difference between her and the other kids in her class... except for the ones that had stay-at-home moms. In the case of this 30-kid microcosm, the kids on Ritalin and Zoloft are the ones that grew up in daycare (and probably with a lot of tv.)
Now, I am not saying that "a woman's place is in the home." It would be nice if we could all take that kind of care of our kids. If your husband is competent enough to pull that job off, kudos to him, have him do it. I know that I couldn't have done what my wife did. To take it a step further, I also think that it is your god-given right to stick your kid in daycare. On top of that, most people are in a situation where they simply must have two incomes to survive (though why they are in that spot is a subject for another thread.) Then, of course, you have the single parent who must put their child in daycare.
(The lack of quality daycare is an important subject for another day.)
Anyway, I do think that we should have a tax-break for stay-at-homers. I think that tax breaks for daycare may send the wrong message, unless it is only for single parents.
One thing I know for sure, and I have said it before: Collectively, we have abandoned our children, and in doing so, we have damaged our collective future. Collectively, we have decided to distract ourselves from the source of the problem by concentrating on the results of the problem.*
I think that as a society we should not be afraid of the bullshit stigma that comes with taking care of your child. My wife was frowned upon by many of her friends because she "caved in to societal demands." That's a bunch of crap. Very few of us progressives want to admit that it is, plain and simple, better for the child to have someone who loves it unconditionally around for the first couple of years. Does that concept "set women's rights back 50 years"? I don't believe it does.
Kill your television.
FLAME ON!
*This references things like school shootings, where we throw money at tighter security and other such nonsense without addressing the core issue.