1857 - Tag-team parenting

From the article:

However, even for families who “choose” tag-team parenting, policymakers should be concerned. If working alternating schedules is the best way for families to provide care, then there may be something wrong with our system of childcare or our workplaces. Parents need flexibility to balance work and family, but the solutions must create a workable day-to-day balance for families, which truly allows them to care not only for their children, but for themselves and their spouses as well.

Why does no one ever mention the option of only having as many kids as you can afford WITHOUT both parents knocking themselves out at full-time jobs in the first place? Why is there "something wrong" with our workplaces when parents paint themselves into the corner of tag-team workshifts? Why all the handwringing over "solutions" and "flexibility" when the answer lies mostly with the people creating their own problems in the first place?

STOP BREEDING, goddammit!!

Relationships/marriages are hard enough as it is. I would believe that tag team parenting would stress the relationship more as the couple would have no time to spend with one another. In my company, one man only works third shift now because he has to be home with the baby...but he gets so little sleep.

Folks feel you can't tell them how many babies should have. Why, dag-gum-bit, they're gunna have as many baybees as they possibly can, even if the can barely afford to pay rent! GOD WILL PROVIDE FOR THEIR MIRAKULS, remember? LOL

Also, telling folks to have only as many kids as they can afford thereby not creating a vicious cycle of financial, mental, physical and emotional strain is, well, that's TOO MUCH LIKE RIGHT and some folks don 't wanna do right, ya know? LOL

Damn, folks act like this is some new thing...people have been doing this for DECADES, and somehow, magically, the children have turned out fine. I guess nowdays, when parenting means being in control of each and every one of your child's actions, activities and movements (you know, helicopter parents), then of course, tagteaming it just doesn't cut the mustard, becuase those kids might end up being left alone at some time before they turn 21.

Yea people, cry me a river. If you can't afford kids, then don't have them. Plain and simple.

However, this request falls on deaf ears. Breeders think that it is their "RIGHT" to breed - whether or not they can afford it.

Unfortunately, this "RIGHT" becomes everyone elses problem in the form of welfare, subsidized programs, etc.

Feh, you are right on that one. I worked briefly with a young woman who had two sprogs with her live-in boyfriend. The young man worked as an air-conditioner mechanic during the day. My co-worker worked the 5-10 shift at a convenience store. The guy would stay out all night once she got home or if it was her day off. His excuse was that he was angry that his girlfriend worked evenings and he was missing her.

This @ss went onto say how the boy, who was about 4, was whining for his moo and that he was just so crestfallen that she was gone five nights a week. I did not see my mom all that much during my younger years because she chose to work hard to give us a good life after a divorce rather than be on welfare or find some sugar daddy to do for us. I came out okay. I do not buy that jackass' story of how the kid needed his moo as an excuse for running around.

I never know what happened to the girl. She is probably back at her mom's after this whole fiasco.

Why oh WHY do people have children if they can't afford to raise them? The American attitude of "Have kids first, THEN worry about how to support them" has got to end. Why is everyone to blame but the parents? Why is it society's fault if people are too stupid to use birth control or too shortsighted to PLAN the size and timing of their family according to their income and career path?

My income and work history was erratic from my late teens to my 30s; therefore I chose not to have children. It's that simple. Life is about hard choices. The world doesn't owe you a decent income and flexible work schedule just because you have children.

Okay. I want equal time for tag-team management of our new Pound Hound puppy "Skeeter". Skeeter will need both of us to take at least a six month pup-ternity leave so we can properly teach him how to catch the Frisbee, growl at the brats across the street and quality time with his chewie toys.

I DEMAND PUP-TERNITY TIME! Let's start a nationwide movement!

PET-TERNITY TIME HAS COME!!!

My company allows employees to bring a child into work if: there is a day care problem that particular day, school is closed, or the kid is home sick. Anything to make it convenient for the employee to be in work that day.

SURE! Bring a sick kid into the office! Spread illness then when workers are out sick, we can be the ones scrutinzed for sick days!

I think I'll start bringing our elderly dog and Chihuahua in to the office. They don't like being left home alone anymore. Maybe our 6 cats too, they hate when we leave for work.

If I ever need a day or two to stay out to care for any of my pets, I'll call in sick. No way will I ever let them know I am caring for an ailing pet. I'd never hear the end of it.

I know a woman who generally is smart, etc., had a kyd, and of course, her marriage went to pot. She totally would love to divorce but b/c of her job and the kyd schedule, she stays married just b/c the tag team parunting works out so well, therefore, she needn't worry about child care.

Life does become pathetic when you become a breeder. Even the smart ones fall into the craziness.

CFScorpio Wrote:
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> The world doesn't owe you a decent
> income and flexible work schedule just because you
> have children.

The world doesn't owe you a decent income and flexible work schedule whether you have children or not.

BillyC Wrote:
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> Okay. I want equal time for tag-team management
> of our new Pound Hound puppy "Skeeter". Skeeter
> will need both of us to take at least a six month
> pup-ternity leave so we can properly teach him how
> to catch the Frisbee, growl at the brats across
> the street and quality time with his chewie toys.
>
> I DEMAND PUP-TERNITY TIME! Let's start a
> nationwide movement!
>
> PET-TERNITY TIME HAS COME!!!


BWAHAHAHAHA!! Love it! Pupternity and meowternity leave. Pet-ternity for other critters.

The point is, of course, that ALL lifestyle choices should be equally respected and accommodated. Breeders should have no more opportunity for leave time than ANYONE else.

That's right! We want meowternity leave! We adopted a new kitty a couple of weeks ago, and Catdaddy hasn't had much chance to bond with him. It is SOOOO UNFAAAAAIIIIR!

gleepy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> CFScorpio Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > The world doesn't owe you a decent
> > income and flexible work schedule just
> because you
> > have children.
>
> The world doesn't owe you a decent income and
> flexible work schedule whether you have children
> or not.
>
That's true as well.

CheeseLouise Wrote:
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> STOP BREEDING, goddammit!!


I concur!