I am incredibly stressed about the idea of going back to work. I have had a lot of time to think about myself as a mother, and a feminist, and how being a mother should not exclude me from being a part of society.
I cannot explain how furious it makes me that babies and children are completely excluded from our society. People glare at you when you board an airplane with a baby, especially if you happen to be seated near them. Was there ever a time where people would not fear the baby on the plane and actually sympathize with a crying baby rather than send hateful little glares and grunt your way? Shouldn’t mothers and children actually be a part of our society just as much as everyone else? Is this a product of our paranoia surrounding our children’s safety? Maybe we hide them away from anything and everyone because we are scared of what could be done to them, or happen to them, if they aren’t watched by us, or specially trained professionals, or people we trust to watch them. Shouldn’t work places have childcare centers? I mean in a two parent family, I assume both parents could be working parents if they both could take their children to work and come see them periodically during the day. Our society seems to be set up for men. Oh wait…it is. It’s set up for men who apparently want to spend more time at work than with their families. Men who can stand to be away from their children for long periods of time and don’t mind giving the woman the unpaid, unappreciated mound of work that is unrecognized by most even as work. It’s not considered work because the family is not important. I don’t mean this bullshit idea of the family as presented by the christian right. I mean the family as parents who want to raise their children properly by setting a good example and spending time with their children. When the children get older they should be able to go to school locally and all schools should have a minimum level of quality, not determined by testing, but determined by educating good teachers and paying them a decent wage.
I want to be able to bring my daughter with me to singing, dancing, yoga, swimming, drawing, writing, etc. classes or groups without people giving you that look. You know the look, I’m sure you’ve given it to people for smoking near your, or eating meat, or whatever your pet peeves are. Children should not be something to glare about. They grow up so excluded from our society that the only way to make up for this is for mothers who work to spend double working time in the home and out and this is fucking exhausting! It’s so under-appreciated by most and it’s just not the way to run a healthy equal society
I have to go. Baby needs me.