Mason  🏃‍♂️ ✂️

if it were my job to create propaganda for the purpose of reducing the human population, one thing i would do is reframe parenting as “unpaid labor”https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1258094215361413121 …

Omg mike just have kids

my point is not that parenting is unchallenging, nor do i think our culture values it highly enough. my point is that this language is degrading and dehumanizing.

I do not think so at all. Care-based professions, whether they are for kids, elders or others, are systematically under compensated precisely because they are just thoughtlessly relegated to women in the household or often to undocumented labor w little rights/negotiating power.

You’re quibbling about the language but not seeing the very real behavior it is referring to, which is the dehumanizing part.

I think the author would agree w some of the points you’re making about how we don’t put enough resources in this and is using this linguistic framing to underscore that.

A lot rides on the "labor" part. It's not just degrading, it's dystopian. Most stay-at-home parents don't consider what they're doing the provision of a service fungible with what's otherwise available on the market. And indeed, it isn't.