I am so embarrassed by my home province sometimes.

[sylvia_rachel]

Words of dubious wisdom from Iris Evans, Alberta's minister of finance & enterprise, on the "sacrifices" her children have made in order to "raise their children properly":

"They've understood perfectly well that when you're raising children you don't both go off to work and leave them for somebody else to raise."

Thank you, Ms Evans. Thank you for

Comments

[undergroundsea]

One of our Green politicians brought their child into the Senate last night. It cried and was ejected from the chamber. The talkback on the radio has brought out a lot of Ms Evan's breed.

[sylvia_rachel]

Well, I don't know that I'd take a baby into Parliament. Not mine, anyway -- she'd have been ejected within 30 seconds :P

But sometimes needs must ...

Really, though, it's the class issue that pisses me off most, the idea that all you need is not to be stupid with your money and you will magically be able to afford not just the house, car, and maxed-out RRSPs but also the 1950s-style stay-at-home parenting. (Because, really: if Ms Evans's kids have all this stuff, how exactly have they made financial sacrifices?) Very true if you started out with lots of money; less true if you, well, didn't.

Oh, and also, Ms Evans: lack of stay-at-home parenting causes mental illness? Really? And you are qualified to make this statement how??

[undergroundsea]

:) It was a special circumstance as it turned out. We have a system where the Senate has bells to call a vote and if you don't front up in time they close the doors on you and you cannot come in. I don't know how this is democratic but I suppose it saves time and it gives people an excuse if they feel unable to vote. We've had a few incidents over the last couple of years where people have conveniently gone missing

[undergroundsea]

Logging in would be handy :)

[sylvia_rachel]

S'okay, I could tell it was you :)

Lack of stay at home parenting is a stretch, but the type of home environment and diet provided by 2 stressed out parents could affect a child and lead to behavioural issues/mental illness.

Certainly. And even if I'm wrong and such circumstances don't in themselves lead to such issues, I know that parental stress can, and does, exacerbate any existing issues kids may have.

Thing is, people can be stressed out by staying home as well, or -- more commonly, one suspects -- by money troubles resulting from the switch to one income. It's a bad idea to be prescriptivist about this because it's very hard to tell from outside what's going to work for a particular family.

[undergroundsea]

Yes, and I was thinking this morning about how much psychologists used to blame the problems of children/young adults on their over-involved mothers!

[sylvia_rachel]

Well, of course, the thing about parenting is that no matter what you do, someone will think it's the wrong thing...