The trouble with being stuck with the whole "women want to be equal" instead of "let's revolutionize this society so it's better for everybody," is that you get stuck, again, with "male" being the norm. So instead of revolutionizing the workplace so we've got onsite childcare, or better, can have kids hanging out acting as interns at the workplace and functioning as members of society instead of subordinates, we just figure, hey, the parents will work and just hire somebody to take care of the kid, like a wife.I've gone off on how I don't like the idea of an office full of babies before, but that's because I don't have the confidence that some people have that having a bunch of children around would not disrupt the workplace. One preschooler quietly playing with blocks on a blanket may be no big deal, but get a group of them together (because kids like to play with each other, duh) and they'll be tearing around the cubicle farm playing tag and chucking paper around before you can say Jack Robinson. They would have to be secluded in a day care area, and then boom, you've got to pay someone to be the wife--er, child care professional.
But setting aside the terror-inducing prospect of America's Ritalin-popping generation being expected to play quietly at the office while their parents work, the last bit of Ampersand's lament is really what threw me for a loop. Did I just hear a liberal suggest that five year olds act as interns in the workplace? Meaning that whole anti-child labor experiment is a thing of the past? After a hard half day of napping and coloring in kindergarten class, Junior can get bussed over to Mommy's office instead of home or to day care and get to some stapling. How much more does a parent get paid for bringing Junior to help out (assuming having little kids around the office is a value-added proposition, which I doubt)? Does the kid get his own W-2? I look forward to elaboration on this child labor idea.
