Sometimes when people begin to speak about increasing fertility, attempting to get us off the demographic cliff we are on, the issue of ‘daycare’ comes up. I would like to propose the opposite solution. I would like to eliminate ‘no kids allowed’.
We have a system now, and I won’t describe it but we all live it, in which children are forbidden from large swaths of life. The only reason this system ‘works’ is because we have very few children, and we divorce them from their parents.
Schools
I would like to propose that babies be allowed in schools. Even toddlers and bigger, if they are at issue. Like, not only allowed but encouraged. That it should be just as normal to sit next to a woman holding her baby in school as it is in church. If that means Jr High or high school, then so be it. The child should be with the mother.
Indeed, it should be perfectly normal to sit next to a nursing woman with her baby in all of those places, but try telling modern people that! The other day I was standing in an ER (where I worked) and I asked a co-worker where another co-worker was. He looked at me and said, “She’s breastfeeding. I guess you don’t know about that.” Which I sort of didn’t because, besides having my own wife breastfeed all of my own children, and being around hundreds of breastfeeding mothers in Africa, I was unfamiliar with the ‘go in a back room and pump and call that breastfeeding’ phenomenon of the modern US.
Work
Ditto work. And if you are going to tell me that the work is too dangerous to have a baby there, then I will say that it is too dangerous for the baby’s mother!
But most of the time it is just down as ‘not professional’. As if destroying our country was somehow professional. And woe betide the office that decided that hiring women was ‘not professional’.
Vacations
Ok, so kids are allowed on vacations. Sort of. If a young husband wanted to take his young wife on a vacation, they might find it tricky. And it certainly can be hard for a big family.
The Military
Women in the military is stupid on its face; but the awfulness doesn’t stop there. I met a woman the other day whose husband joined the Air Force and they posted him away from his wife and child for six months.
Now, one understands warfare, although many militaries in the past have done a lot better job of keeping families together. But in a time of peace to seperate a man from his child (and his wife) for six months just for ‘basic training’? The military needs some training in exactly what is basic.
Conclusion
Anyone that has lived long enough, or visited the right foreign countries, will realise that our current way of treating children is historically bizarre. And when combined with our plummeting birth rates, our failure to notice this is devastating.
One important aspect of welcoming children into our society is… welcoming children into our society. Not making our workplaces and play places hostile environments. It is illegal to put up a sign that says, ‘No Italians Allowed’. But it is common to have a sign, “No Children”, and even more common to do so without a sign. A babe at the breast outrageous the public both because of the breast and the babe.
Imagine, if you will, a world where you could walk into a bank and be greeted by a bank teller with a babe at her breast. Or, better, she was at home with her babe and it was a man who greeted you.
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Thanks again, God Bless, Soli Deo gloria,
Von
Yes. I completely agree. I love how natural it is in worship to hear children laughing or crying and such with all in attendance still focused on the sermon and privately appreciating the warmth that children bring to church. I was sickened the other day when my wife and I were invited to a wedding only to be informed that children were not allowed! What?! It seems like bad luck to ban children from such a joyous occasion that looks to bring future children into the world. In some parts of the world, children are encouraged to come and if there are none directly available from the immediate family, families might even pay their neighbors to come and bring their kids.