But that’s not what maternity leave is for. There are a lot of events that happen in a human life that necessarily involve self-reflection. The death of someone close to you, getting married, moving to a new city, losing your job, dealing with addiction, etc. Big events in your life generally necessitate…

I’m not saying the affluent aren’t hugely advantaged in all kinds of ways, but that doesn’t mean that when affluent women take maternity leave, it’s a vacation.

This needs more stars. Maternity/Paternity leave is really about the child. Just as taking leave to care for a sick parent is about caring for the sick parent. Infants need not only to be kept safe and alive, they need to form a solid bond with a caregiver or they will grow up to be a major problem for society. I’m…

Seriously, where the fuck do you live? My husband and I both have good (white collar) jobs and we both had to drain all our sick and vacation to cobble together leave and I still had to take 4 weeks unpaid. No one around here offers paid paternity leave and very few offer any paid maternity. I had to stay home the…

R...ight. I’m not sure why you chose to focus on that aspect of it, when my point was clearly speaking to the “...for space and self-reflection” part of it.

I get the point you’re trying to make, and I don’t have children either and am 30 and have been working full-time for the last 12 years. But I don’t think that having children is the same as the personal goals you list. We as a society acknowledge to some degree that having children is a benefit to society as a whole.…

In the US, I don’t personally know of any dads that have taken more than 2-3 weeks off, unless they are quitting their jobs to be a stay-at-home dad. Maternity leave is the combination of recovering from a medical event (which is why short-term disability often covers up to 6 weeks) and providing 24-7 care to a…

Oh for gods sake. Obviously I don’t mean marriage = literal ownership of another human being. But in 95% of marriages (a common thing people are typically aware of) it’s understood to be a monogamous committed relationship between two people. If it’s not your relationship, don’t insert yourself into it. It’s common…

Moral relativism is a position, but a very weak one from an ethical standpoint. The litmus test for behaviour in any given society - that is, behaviour that affects more than just yourself - is to ask “what if everyone did this?”. If it’s ‘acceptable’ in a minority scenario, but would lead to destruction of the social…

Honestly, I hate that “oh it’s only the married person’s problem” moral-vacuum bullshit. Oh, my friend killed a guy, but I don’t know their life! I’m pretty sure the ring my boyfriend gave me was stolen, but that’s not my problem! My mom embezzled a bunch of money, let’s go shopping!

I agree it’s a good idea to sometimes call out these little microbullshit instances (love that term!) - I, too, would’ve said something to the karate teacher - but a little goes a long way if you don’t want to be perceived as “that Mom.” For one thing, people tune out “that Mom” and then they don’t listen when it…

I’m all for speaking up and speaking out about many issues, but having been a primary school teacher for a long time, some of the complaints that were made at the school and library illicited involuntary eyerolls. Kids do things like turn the lights out on each other because they are impulsive and do stupid shit.

Consider the possibility that people did not respond to your concerns in the way you wanted them to because you send them long-assed missives and consequently came across as hostile and rambling.

As a parent of a small daughter all I can say is your right but you are going to exhaust yourself. My daughter is also multi cultural, and if I had to sit her down and fight every micro bs moment we wouldn’t have time to have fun with life. The best I can teach her is that it is up to her to define her own existance,…

There are great statistics on the education of women and better well-being outcomes. All of those scenarios assume a little bit of culturally granted agency. I can’t imagine how education would have helped the these women.

I am a woman. I am 25. I live in Florida. I am on birth control. I am sexually active. I do not want to have kids. WHAT THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO DO IF I GET PREGNANT? I am not an incubator. I am not going to add another unwanted baby to this world. So I guess I *am* the woman who will have to resort to dangerous,…