Am I the only one who finds that there is an overload of talk about incentives in the discourse about how to get people to have more children?
While I do agree that things like paternal leave (3 days is really, really paltry) would help to some extent, what about the social and emotional factors?
First of all, isn't it clear that many people do not really want children or are ambivalent about the matter?
Second, it sounds like we are going to try all sorts of imported methods to get people to have more children but have we considered how these children will grow up? I don't know very much about Swedish people except for ABBA, Bjorn Borg and the name Lars but I suspect that, on the whole, they do not:
a) see their children only before the sun has risen and after the sun has set on an almost daily basis,
b) leave a substantial part of their children's growing up years in the hands of others,
c) have their children sleep only 6-7 hours at night on school days,
d) subject their children to a slew of tuition/enrichment activities throughout the week (even on weekends),
e) cane their children,
f) allow themselves to be brainwashed into thinking that 'quality time' makes up for lack of time
Etc.
Upping the population figures is one thing (and I do agree it is a major concern) but having many (and more) children going through a sad sort of childhood is... well... a very sad thing.
While I do agree that things like paternal leave (3 days is really, really paltry) would help to some extent, what about the social and emotional factors?
First of all, isn't it clear that many people do not really want children or are ambivalent about the matter?
Second, it sounds like we are going to try all sorts of imported methods to get people to have more children but have we considered how these children will grow up? I don't know very much about Swedish people except for ABBA, Bjorn Borg and the name Lars but I suspect that, on the whole, they do not:
a) see their children only before the sun has risen and after the sun has set on an almost daily basis,
b) leave a substantial part of their children's growing up years in the hands of others,
c) have their children sleep only 6-7 hours at night on school days,
d) subject their children to a slew of tuition/enrichment activities throughout the week (even on weekends),
e) cane their children,
f) allow themselves to be brainwashed into thinking that 'quality time' makes up for lack of time
Etc.
Upping the population figures is one thing (and I do agree it is a major concern) but having many (and more) children going through a sad sort of childhood is... well... a very sad thing.
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