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Jessica Valenti, *Why Have Kids?* (2012)
Oct. 14th, 2012 11:03 amYou may know Valenti as one of the originators of the popular site http://feministing.com/.
She has recently had a baby, an emergency c-section of a premmie, and she has written a book about parenting in modern America. My hat is off to anyone who can manage a newborn and a new book.
*Why Have Kids?* covers a lot of ground, child birth, feeding, maternity leave, working patterns, use of child care, family types, choices to remain child-free. With a heap of issues like this - issues which people feel passionately about - I would doubt anyone would read it and agree with every word.
I find her section on breast feeding off-putting, mostly because she relies on anecdotal evidence about babies who nearly starved or who did actually die. Um, pretty unusual. Also, she talks about the pressure that breast feeding advocates put on new mothers, which is probably accurate, but does not spend equal time on the massive structural, society-wide issues impeding breast feeding.
On the other hand, I was nodding along to her introduction, especially when she wrote:
( Read more... )
Her point, as I take it, is that our attention as parents is constantly being directed to small issues which we can fix as individuals. But we do not concentrate on the big picture because it is too massive and seems impossible to address. Also, no working together. Most parenting choices are positioned as individual choices - shall I vaccinate my kids? is that best for them? - and the wider issues - like herd immunity - are ignored.
And likewise I enjoyed a parenting book which puts the possibility of having a sick kid up-front instead of tucking it away in a separate chapter at the back (as in *What to Expect*).
She has recently had a baby, an emergency c-section of a premmie, and she has written a book about parenting in modern America. My hat is off to anyone who can manage a newborn and a new book.
*Why Have Kids?* covers a lot of ground, child birth, feeding, maternity leave, working patterns, use of child care, family types, choices to remain child-free. With a heap of issues like this - issues which people feel passionately about - I would doubt anyone would read it and agree with every word.
I find her section on breast feeding off-putting, mostly because she relies on anecdotal evidence about babies who nearly starved or who did actually die. Um, pretty unusual. Also, she talks about the pressure that breast feeding advocates put on new mothers, which is probably accurate, but does not spend equal time on the massive structural, society-wide issues impeding breast feeding.
On the other hand, I was nodding along to her introduction, especially when she wrote:
( Read more... )Her point, as I take it, is that our attention as parents is constantly being directed to small issues which we can fix as individuals. But we do not concentrate on the big picture because it is too massive and seems impossible to address. Also, no working together. Most parenting choices are positioned as individual choices - shall I vaccinate my kids? is that best for them? - and the wider issues - like herd immunity - are ignored.
And likewise I enjoyed a parenting book which puts the possibility of having a sick kid up-front instead of tucking it away in a separate chapter at the back (as in *What to Expect*).
