Do Childless Workers Resent Parental Perks?

I resent the fucks who go out for a handful of smokes a day.

Six months later: everyone with a baby is working from home one day a week. Think they're taking that as vacation time? I FUCKING DOUBT IT. But the bosses should have come out and said "look, you can work from home in exceptional cases or in emergency situations." instead, they've said nothing.

Begging off for child care, BTW, works even after the child moves out. My mother wanted an afternoon off last month, so she said I was in the hospital with appendicitis or something. I found out a week later.

-- andy -- (and...), April 20th, 2005.

Um, dude, no offense, but this is the ultimate in capitalist boorishness, or at least extremely petty. Whatever "perks" a person gets from having kids are vastly overwhelmed by the fact that they HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF KIDS. THAT'S WHY THEY HAVE THE PERKS. BECAUSE WE WANT TO LIVE IN A FUCKING HUMAN SOCIETY. But obviously if someone is abusing the privelege, that's another matter. Plenty of people abuse sick time or other things as well.

(before anyone takes offense, I'm only saying that in the context of being offended by workers taking time off. I don't care who gets out of work in the first place,)

Oh remember that children are a public good and their taxes will support you in your lonely dotage and infirmity. No "your kid will be a no good anchor on society/psycho kitten killer" comments, please. Really, NEXT!

Also I think that stating that taxes off of the current generation of adults, much less future generations, is going to be enough to support social security is a possible fallacy.

So, um, NEXT!

xpost.

i think the key is when people take advantage of leave time.... that is certainly not limited to parental leave though, is it? not at my workplace in any case.

i'm pretty happy for anyone who makes their life better by utilising the gains in conditions unions/the women's movement/whatever etc have made for us (and when i find myself gritting my teeth i remind myself that spending my life feeling resentful would'nt be healthy)

Additionally: Everybody should be allowed to work from home. The technology fucking exists, and it costs hell of less than commercial office space per month.

So, um, NEXT!

-- Allyzay Subservient 50s-Type

Actually, the fallacy, perpetrated by the anti-"entitlement" Bush administration is that there's no way to support social security for future generations. There is, but it might involve (GASP) raising taxes on the rich instead of cutting them.

I so envy my friends who are able always to have one partner at home with their kid(s). Since the economy is now dependent on dual earnings by a large proportion of the married population, it would be nice if we elected a government that would put the proper amount of resources into helping families have better child care arrangements.

I was joking about the "public good" thing though I've heard that argument advanced in order to support further governement spending on the type of programs I wish for above.

What I've read that I find credible supports Hurting's position on SS. It is weird that so many people almost unquestioningly believe the dire predictions of a group of people dedicated to a program's destruction, but I don't think many of those people realize that the destruction of the program has been the goal all along.

It pisses me off to no end when people who have chosen to have children get to take more paid vacation. Regardless of whehter children are a community resource or not, parents get enough perks already (tax credits etc) that are at least ostensibly handed to them by "society". It is not the place of private corporations (IMO) to subsidize this sort of thing.

does this happen in america??

-- Michael Stuchbery (mikeybidnes...), April 21st, 2005.

Seriously. It hasn't been very long that we've even had the possibility of choosing NOT to have children (assuming people can't generally go without sex).

There's nothing I can do about it since she's my client, technically.

Oh well. I'm single and childless so I have nothing better to do.

Personally, I'd prefer that breeders went home to deal with their kids as opposed to bringing them to the office. Cute only lasts minutes in the office.

Xpost

Diedre, that is a very good question!

Diedre: "Go forth and multiply."

I just wanted to say I briefly touched upon this, upthread--I don't think it's a matter of not sharing the burden, I think it's a matter of it being a lot less "acceptable" for males to behave in this manner than females. Societal norms change slowly, etc. So it's not so much a matter of like the males not wishing to do this, it's more of a general employer/government attitude of "DON'T YOU HAVE A WIFE?"

x-post

Excellent choice!

Personally, I focus all my resentment on Princesss Stephanie of Monaco.

"Hi, I am having a baby and will thus be out for the rest of the afternoon as well as Thursday. I will be working from home Friday and possibly the beginning of next week; however, do not hesitate to call my cell phone if there is a matter that needs my attention."

I'm not sure why I'm telling this story.

xpost

i feel ya, but as a breeder, a lot of us take leave without pay, or work on the weekends, etc.

while the argument that "you didn't have to have kids" is fairly sound, at some point you have to wonder, "doesn't someone out there have to have kids in order to, ya know, keep the species going?"

those of you who will never have kids will have loads more free time, way less stress, way more money (i'm sorry, but no puny tax break remotely comes close to the cost of my kids), etc etc etc etc.

if you get all those things, can you not pluck a tiny, little chunk of understanding for the rest of us considering that our progeny will keep our species going?

is that worth anything to you? or is it basically, "after i'm dead, fuck humanity!" ?

imagine society without toy stores, without cartoons, without kids saying silly crap, etc etc... imagine a society that can't laugh and takes itself too seriously...

to the people that really have a hard time with this, i suggest perhaps... i dunno... getting in a food fight. have a water balloon war out on the street with just random person. go ride a bike to nowhere for a little while.

fuck around a little bit and stop writing names on the board.

i sympathize. i really do. it's no fun when everybody else seems to not play by the rules we do and they get just as much a reward. no fun at all. and i'd wager that if you are doing that much more, the workplace will reward you. i'm sorry, but once you get high up, taking time off for your kids is less and less allowed. you don't get away with that shit. we'll pay. trust me.

hang in there. in the meantime, leave early and fuck around. how about this, go get something nice to eat at nice restaurant, see a movie, and fuck your SO's brains out all evening. cause i really don't get to do that sort of thing anymore at all, now that i'm Married With Children TM.

http://www.mortystv.com/showcards/married_with_children.jpg

stay at home dads is the new trend. i know a few. i work from home and would be the stay and home dad, but my wife has a social work degree. the income is just not there. you don't get paid for helping people. not those kind of people at least.
m.

OTM. This caused comedy yucks when our daughter was born and I just refused to accept the "DON'T YOU HAVE A WIFE?" bullshit -- I was a lowly clock-punching pasteup slave and my wife was the managing editor of the third-largest newspaper in the state, and it just made sense for me to take off most of the times the kiddo was sick and couldn't go to daycare. My job just wasn't as important as my wife's job, and there was no rationalization my boss could offer that would change that. It didn't help that my boss was a horrible chainsmoking little old lady who'd never been able to have kids -- she gave me the hairy eyeball just about every time I opened my mouth there.

right. i appreciate that. frees up time to spend with the kids.
m.

I'm sorry, but I find the exact opposite to be true, actually. Especially vis a vis the fathers issue.

for example, i can't go back to school right now. that's gonna affect my career. in fact, it's probably going to mean thinking up a whole new concept of a career.

but hey, that's where i'm at.
m.

m.

Dealing humanely w/people's real-world issues: okay. Unilateral baby-worship: maybe not so much.

I think that it is that scenario being not uncommon that leads to resentment towards people who are viewed as "abusing" the leniency towards children-related absences.

OTOH quite often I've noticed that the abuses--without quotes, I'm just speaking from my real life experience now, and I'm not strictly talking about "parental abuses" here--are very often perpetrated by people who are, well, "teacher's pets" for lack of a better word so I think that might be more of the problem, the perception that Jane gets by working a 30 hour week because she's buddies with so and so but Emily gets shit for taking all of her vacation days off, sort of situation.

it's also humbling because i hate an entitlement mentality and i hate to be called out for how entitled i really am. life is rough and i don't want to be coddled. but hell, we got to skip the security line at the airport and with southwest, we always board first after wheelchair folks. so there you go, two more fuck yous to the childless.

i guess maybe i wish i could explain to you how grateful we are to you people for shit like the flying perks.

there should be like a national not a parent day. or something. i mean, i get father's day, why not a not a father's day? and vice versa for the ladies... maybe that's never gonna be enough. i dunno.
m.

i was fuming then, but it's pretty hilarious that he did that now.
m.