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I love this interview so much. I keep wanting to quote parts of it but it is fantastic in every word. But the last paragraph especially ... oof. Thank you AHP for this, and thanks to Angela as well for writing. It DOES matter; it absolutely does.
Raising children is a social responsibility -- this, to me, is EVERYTHING. The one thing that made the most positive impact on me as a first-time mom was a neighbor (who was not a mother) giving me words of encouragement and gratitude. The moment I realized I was doing the important work of raising the next generation of citizens, on behalf of our whole society, is the moment I discovered my power as a woman and a mother. This noble work is impossible to fully "hire out" to someone else. So instead of continuing on the nearly impossible path of mothering and staying in my field, I chose mothering.
AHP -- to your question of what is "enough". The framing of that question is itself fraught with all the failings of capitalism. Because there is so far down we can fall, because there is no safety net, we are grappling for individual definitions of what is "enough" instead of having our society collectively agreeing to a minimum level of care and welfare. If that existed, we could focus on defining "enough" in ascent, in striving upwards.
Thank you for this interview. You are correct, as a non-mother I thought this book was about parenting. I will be getting it today and moving it to the top of my TBR.
The part about capitalism and scarcity mirages leading us to ever feel "forced" into care--that hit my partner and me very hard. It felt somehow not surprising but also not something we had ever seen or heard so clearly ever before.
Thank you for this clear and incisive look.
For me, it underscores the bad news of Roe reversal: similarly, everyone is affected, the local feature (or its absence) belies the vastly nonlocal connectivity that will raise us up or, in the case of forced birth, bring us all very low.
I love every speck of this. My sister and I were just this morning talking over a camping trip we just went on, and the incredible freedom the kids of the various families feel every year we’re at this campground together. She pointed out how they roam around and know that at any one of our campsites they’ll get fed, listened to, cared for, and watched over if any of those things are needed. That they’re welcome in any of “our” spaces. And I thought about how for these few days every year they get to experience what being raises by a village actually feels like.
I love this interview so much. I keep wanting to quote parts of it but it is fantastic in every word. But the last paragraph especially ... oof. Thank you AHP for this, and thanks to Angela as well for writing. It DOES matter; it absolutely does.
Raising children is a social responsibility -- this, to me, is EVERYTHING. The one thing that made the most positive impact on me as a first-time mom was a neighbor (who was not a mother) giving me words of encouragement and gratitude. The moment I realized I was doing the important work of raising the next generation of citizens, on behalf of our whole society, is the moment I discovered my power as a woman and a mother. This noble work is impossible to fully "hire out" to someone else. So instead of continuing on the nearly impossible path of mothering and staying in my field, I chose mothering.
AHP -- to your question of what is "enough". The framing of that question is itself fraught with all the failings of capitalism. Because there is so far down we can fall, because there is no safety net, we are grappling for individual definitions of what is "enough" instead of having our society collectively agreeing to a minimum level of care and welfare. If that existed, we could focus on defining "enough" in ascent, in striving upwards.
Thank you for this interview. You are correct, as a non-mother I thought this book was about parenting. I will be getting it today and moving it to the top of my TBR.
The part about capitalism and scarcity mirages leading us to ever feel "forced" into care--that hit my partner and me very hard. It felt somehow not surprising but also not something we had ever seen or heard so clearly ever before.
Thank you for this clear and incisive look.
For me, it underscores the bad news of Roe reversal: similarly, everyone is affected, the local feature (or its absence) belies the vastly nonlocal connectivity that will raise us up or, in the case of forced birth, bring us all very low.
I love every speck of this. My sister and I were just this morning talking over a camping trip we just went on, and the incredible freedom the kids of the various families feel every year we’re at this campground together. She pointed out how they roam around and know that at any one of our campsites they’ll get fed, listened to, cared for, and watched over if any of those things are needed. That they’re welcome in any of “our” spaces. And I thought about how for these few days every year they get to experience what being raises by a village actually feels like.