I think there could be more honest exploration about some of the more ... insidious reasons women choose motherhood? Motherhood itself is such a holy construct in our culture - criticizing mothers is seen as so universally awful or even borderline misogynistic - but how do we reconcile that with the fact that some people actually don't have kids for totally noble reasons? Whether its to reinforce the bonds of an already-failing marriage or enable more financial leverage in an anticipated divorce suit; Whether its simply kind of narcissistic (projecting all your own desires and disappointments onto the life of another like so many "stage mothers" have); Whether its a horrifying religious mandate (see: Duggar family); Whether its a status thing and not an actual desire to have and raise children - I mean, people really do have kids for terrible reasons - a lot! - and I think one of my issues with the so-called "liberal pro natalist" is an outright denial of that! Everyone who has kids does so for a good reason; There are no bad parents; There are no bad kids; There are no toxic families.
Its sort of like a mirror of the "Abolish the Family" crowd, where all nuclear families are presented as corrupted/flawed/toxic from jump despite that clearly not being everyone's feeling or experience. Neither of these camps seem to live on the same planet the rest of us do.
I think there could be more honest exploration about some of the more ... insidious reasons women choose motherhood? Motherhood itself is such a holy construct in our culture - criticizing mothers is seen as so universally awful or even borderline misogynistic - but how do we reconcile that with the fact that some people actually don't have kids for totally noble reasons? Whether its to reinforce the bonds of an already-failing marriage or enable more financial leverage in an anticipated divorce suit; Whether its simply kind of narcissistic (projecting all your own desires and disappointments onto the life of another like so many "stage mothers" have); Whether its a horrifying religious mandate (see: Duggar family); Whether its a status thing and not an actual desire to have and raise children - I mean, people really do have kids for terrible reasons - a lot! - and I think one of my issues with the so-called "liberal pro natalist" is an outright denial of that! Everyone who has kids does so for a good reason; There are no bad parents; There are no bad kids; There are no toxic families.
Its sort of like a mirror of the "Abolish the Family" crowd, where all nuclear families are presented as corrupted/flawed/toxic from jump despite that clearly not being everyone's feeling or experience. Neither of these camps seem to live on the same planet the rest of us do.