Contd...

Now how many of us parents can do the above? very little because we in a daily life where we have to 'work hard to make ends meet' and so sending our children to childcare at a unacceptably early age depriving them of the natural right to be cared for by their parents during their crucial emotional brain development and maladaptation to which results in life long abnormal expression.

So what now... as whats really needed is not more childcare but more time for parents from work slavery to fulfill their parental responsibilities to their child during the crucial first 6 years of their life and both female and male expression constantly needed and to keep childcare for occasional use.

So it comes down to the cost of living and it is known that there is a dramatic 'value black hole' between the cost of the primary product and the final cost to consumer which supposedly disappears to the 'third person' and taxes. Example is a kilogram of tomatoes when I last informed paid to the farmer was 30cents/kilo but when in the supermarket it at 3.60/kilo is more than 1000% increase which cannot be explained by any reasonable addition of costs of transport, so basic message, reduce taxes and so we do not have to work so hard and spend more time having a life with our children.

We then as common people may have to do with 'less' of the civil comforts that comes with increasing 'civilization' for the benefit of which we are supposedly to pay taxes to the crown to maintain it. To be fair being less consumerist will help and not buy a house but share in a living etc and after all the benefit is more time that can be spend on what is important to you which is a part of you becoming a adult like you and share in the joy of the process.

Sam

Daniel, great article.

I really believe that a lot of these issues need significant work on family friendly work places. What the specific solutions are is another issue and will probably vary according to the type of work done by parents. I am looking primarily at things which support working parents and as the father of a primary schhol age child my issues might be a bit different to the specific subject of your article. Options which come to mind include
- more flexible work hours.
- less distinction between part time and full time employees.
- more thought on public transport timetables and out of hours care for children.
- more support for telecommuting
- more support for hubs vs central offices. How many of us spend too much time commuting to a city center when our work could easily be done in a local office employing people living in that region?

Terrific post, RObert, the workplace need to be redesigned to accomodate human beings. All good points you raised. However, it will require a complete ideological shift on the part of employers - can't see it happening any time soon.

Ringtail, I agree that employers are likley to be a stumbling block in this but also suspect that some of the shift needs to be on the part of unions. Some of those most opposed to workplace flexibility I have seen have been some of the most active in the unions.

I have not spent a lot of effort trying to understand what lies behind that, maybe it is a result of a conflict mentality. Clearly defined rules are easier to work with than fluid ones. If everybody has the same work conditions then it is harder for an employer to pressure an employee into accepting unreasonable conditions but it is also harder for an employee to negotiate conditions which best suit their needs.