I have more to say, but I’ll wait for the blog posts!

Although I don’t speak up as frequently as others do I continue to read and to work things out in my own mind based on the discussion and reasoning I find here presented both by britgirl and here readers, and also base on my own happy child-free life.

Currently my Beloved and I are faced with some serious health issues so it’s difficult for me to thing beyond the next test at the hospital but I did want you all to know how much I appreciate your sharing.

P.S. An update on the woman who placed her marriage at great risk by insisting that she and her husband undergo fertility treatment in the States is IMO in order. Their relationship has ended and her husband has filed for divorce. What a shame that the relationship they once had was destroyed by her obsession to give birth at her advanced age.

Be well and be happy one and all and I’ll join you when I’m up to it.
Namaste

They need to be mindful that they need to support their workers, but they also need to be aware that if they don’t make a profit, the company will be gone.

Which is fine, except that family doesn’t mean person with no kids, or person who is single. It means people with children. People with children have – for example (at my company) – time off if their kids are sick, time off to go to parent teacher meetings, very good health benefits coverage extended to all dependents, subsidized childcare, on-site company childcare, time off if they are adopting kids, preferential tax breaks, tax credits and child benefit, a christmas party for workers children. During March break, childfree people can’t take vacation, because parents are on vacation.

Pregnant women can take up to a year off as maternity leave with all benefits and can return to their substantive grade. Their vacation entitlement remains untouched. This is also the case in the UK. When you consider that, some women are have vacation entitlement of 3-4 wks (depending on years of service) the time off is subtantial. (Vacation entitlement is more in the UK. I was entitled to 5 weeks/year). Employers cannot fill their positions, they must keep them open. Fathers are now entitled to paternity leave – though many don’t take it, mothers can opt to job share, flexible work, or work part time. PLUS there are many other ways government supports parents. In Europe, benefits for people with children are even more generous – depending on the country. Plus companies are sympathetic to parents when they have to dash out of the workplace to tend to a child, or attend a school function or a kid’s sports function. Not for the Childfree. I think you’ll find that even the US has many more benefits for parents as opposed to those without. So I think while it isn’t perfect, it’s more than lip-service.

Contrast that with what is provided for childfree people, or as mercurior says, young men (a pretty vulnerable group btw). We get no extra time off outside vacations and public holidays, even if we are taking care of a parent or a pet. There are signs that is now changing in larger corporations but it still is much less time than people with parents are able to take. Small companies may go under, they don’t have the same luxury of economies of scale. So, rightly or wrongly many won’t hire women.

We get no extra benefits. We can, of course, take a year off – but it will be without pay – unless we use our vacation time. We pay more tax than parents and get no tax breaks, no government support, no subsidized transportation, no subsidized elder care payments. And by the way, I work for one of the most family friendly companies in Canada, and one of the best employers, with over 50% of employees being women. Many in very senior positions. Might be different in the US, but I would guess that good companies still have more benefits for parents than non-parents. Generally we understand – children are demanding, but lately we’ve been getting fed-up at what we perceive as preferential treatment for parents.

And even if they try and make things more “family friendly” and “do more” for parents, childfree people will be even more marginalized as far as the workplace is concerned. In my opinion It’s already tipped far too much in parents’ favour – and we pick up the slack. As you said what’s needed is a more equitable solution – for childfree and childed alike.

i live in the UK, and parents with children working or not, get the lions share
theres WIC coupons in america predominantly for single mothers. and so on..

a lot is done for parents, less is done for young men, and young cf.

Britgirl -
One thing – despite all the pressure to reproduce – and I totally agree that this is a breed-oriented society – speaking from the U.S., we don’t do much to help parents. We act like we do, and we pay a lot of lip service to it, but when you get down to it, we’ve set things up so that parents who have jobs (which most parents need to have) are screwed, and their families are screwed.

This is not to say that the proposed solutions for parents in the workplace have always been great for cf people. I think we need a whole workplace revolution that will make *all* of our lives better. But I don’t think the U.S. really values parent-child or family relationships in general. I think it values the labor of employees, and that the encouragement of breeding is in part about creating a labor force and in part about gender roles.

Having a child makes one an adult.

A woman is not a real woman unless she’s given birth to a child.

101 REASONS FOR HAVING CHILDREN!
http://www.aboverubies.org/articles/101.html

the site above pretty much is the same as you list britgirl

there are 2 posters on this board who have done their own reasons..

http://www.thecfcouple.proboards37.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=guestrant&thread=1142033616&page=1

One size does not fit all.

She had a son and effectively said, when you don’t have children you wake up in the morning and only think about yourself. Once I had my son, I woke up in the morning and the first thing I thought about was another person. It changes your perspective.

Hmm, who is she to say that I don’t wake up and think of my husband or say a prayer to the flying spagetti monster or remember I must send a donation to my favourite charity. And, why does it make her a better person just because she thinks about her son when she wakes up.

Harrumph.