Bright Your Daughter To Work Day

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

This is about ten years old but it was fun finding/reading it after so long.


I have recently returned to work, a process which is very difficult for me and my daughter. Unfortunately, my husband and I have no reasonable alternative, as his income is paltry and we are already living as "streamlined" a lifestyle as possible. The changes in my life as I have adapted to motherhood have led me to spend a great deal of time thinking of the structure of our society; today, our government is instituting programs designed to help mothers get back to work and away from their babies within months after birth, spending taxpayers dollars so that strangers can take merely adequate care of infants who would be happier and healthier with their mothers.

Now, I don't think women should be restricted to the sometimes suffocating role of caregiver to their families. The vast majority of women have always worked, at least until modern times. Women have supplied their families with necessary goods, clothes, produce, household items, etc... all products of hard work. The new change is that we are for the first time in history expecting (and forcing) women to work AWAY from their children. This strikes me as unhealthy for mother and child, and therefore for society as a whole. Why are we as a people seeking ways to pay for the separation of parents from children rather than seeking to find ways to keep them together?

There are many jobs that could be accomplished in a child-permissive workplace, and with on-site daycare that number could balloon to include almost any branch of any profession. If we make that single change in the way we perceive infants and children, from nuisances to welcome additions in the workplace, we would be fostering a whole new type of culture - a far healthier one. While I have mentioned primarily mothers, fathers are also vital in the upbringing of their little ones and after breastfeeding years are past, could also care for their daughters and sons in the workplace.

We have separated too much from our children. We have come to a point at which too many people grow to adulthood with little or no exposure to the nitty-gritty of childrearing. Bringing our babies to work would also return them to the space which they should rightfully occupy at the center of our community, and would be a gift not only for parents but for an entire culture impoverished by familial distance.