Hi Aiyana, I deeply appreciate you adding to the conversation.
I agree with your points. I think what we need is more equality though without there being a hierachy. For instance, I saw first hand parents being able to leave work early or not come in for child oriented reasons, yet I had to take leave for to take my dog to an emergency vet appointment. Similar situation for caring for elderly parents or any other care sort of role.
I had to use annual leave in the wake of a bereavement because they weren't "family" yet my colleague got given compassionte leave for his wife's grandmother!
Gettting on planes first and things like this make sense to me. So I agree with you. Objecting to this type of thing weakens our position.
The productivity quote is an interesting one and I am glad you brought this up. Because on the one hand and at face value I agree with it. BUT, on the other hand all this Tweet did (which is now deleted) is create a fess pit for folk who are anti non-parents in the comments.
And it built the wall between non-parents and parents a little higher.
I do a lot of work to try and break this wall down.
Can you imagine the anguish and hurt of someone who desperately wants children, reading something like that and then reading the comments.
But that is just the tip of the issue.
Because in all honesty, not all parents experience the same lives and not all non-parents experience the same lives. We are all different.
For instance a parent with one child, a stay at home partner, a cleaner, cook and gardener is going to experience very different challenges to a single parent of 4 children on the poverty line.
But we must beware of the "hierachy of struggles" which is a notion which Dr. Edith Eger talks about and completely debunks.
In my view using our reproduction status as whether or not we are worthy of taking productivity advice from is lazy, diminishing and undermining. Because we are all different and we all have challenges in our lives.
I completely appreciate that at first glance that Tweet seems to make sense. But when we scratch below the surface it's rather problematic.
