AmericanHistoryMom brings up an important point:
I'm worried about the moms who take their babies to the tiny and depressing day care center with no outside play space around the corner from me. There are far too few adults to properly care for the kids and none of the developmental toys and activities necessary to nourish those little developing minds. I've read about moms in tears because they can only afford to leave their kids with elderly neighbors who chain smoke. I've read about moms on welfare who lock their kids in the apartment all day because they have NO child care options. We know that single women with children suffer poverty at higher rates than any other group. And we are all paying a price for the toll that poverty takes on kids, whether we know it or not. So should we think about pushing for policies to support these vulnerable members of our society? Or should we require that those without the means to raise children be sterilized?
I've always thought that the reason America hasn't adopted the kinds of "child friendly" policies that are common in Europe is because of our history of racial and ethnic division. For too long, too many Americans have, on some level, believed that those other, swarthier Americans probably shouldn't be reproducing at all. Certainly we shouldn't adopt policies that would encourage them to do so.
Some of us may be struggling to have it all, but most are struggling just to get by.
