A Modest Proposal

I've always has a love-hate relationship with work and parenting. I can put a knot in my stomach any time by just thinking about the inherent conflicts -- the expanding hours Americans are expected to put in, the need to balance professional and personal creativity and productivity with the time and work involved in the feeding and care and enjoyment of offspring.

First there's the anti-parent faction at work - you know, the ones who look at you sideways or make snide remarks when you leave at 4:30 or 5 on a regular basis, to beat, as I used to call them, the Day Care Police.

On one hand, I believe that all workers should have, simply, a life - something other than the job that drives them and gives them joy. To that end, everyone ought to have a reason, and the ability, to spend reasonable amounts of time at home and at pursuits other than work.

On the other, I have personally suffered financially through the babyhood and elementary-school-hood of two American citizens-in-training, who will someday (God willing) be productive and engaged workers and taxpayers. Although their father and I cobbled together weekend and off-hour work that required no more than part-time day care, the resulting bill still approached and sometimes topped our mortgage payment. After-school and summer care continued to drain thousands of dollars each year from our family budget - money not spent on home repair, savings, new car, vacations - all the way through middle school.

The tax credit for day care seems like an afterthought and an insult when you consider the enormity of the expense - an expense the state does not see fit to help with at all.

Given the complete lack of interest and support my government has shown in helping with the care and well-being of my children in these extremely formative years, I've sometimes wanted to run for office on the Modest Proposal that MY two little future wage earners should therefore have their future Social Security taxes earmarked entirely to ..... ME. (Much the same way that Al Franken talked about running for office on the platform of eliminating ATM fees.)

Sure, there would be a little bookkeeping and earmarking involved at the IRS. But surely it'd be possible to track my little wage earners' income and make sure I got my slice! Imagine some of the eventual consequences... Childless people would have to put aside extra money in their early-earning years to compensate for the later lack of income! Exactly the inverse of now, where the child-bearing are sucked dry.

I'm just kidding, of course....Mostly. After all, I'd think the goal should be a society where the young and old are cared for by a community of people with ample resources. We've stripped so many supports from families now that parent's weekly schedules and bank accounts are both worn down to the nub. I think I know why there is no universal child care in the US: the parents of very young children, the ones who would have to lobby and advocate to make it happen, are simply too freaking tired.