Archive for the ‘childcare’ Tag
What’s bothering me to the point of insomnia is the awful cruelty to children and the lifetime of effects they are likely to suffer because of political interference in the complex process of insemination, pregnancy, and birth. I’m concerned about the generation of poor (and they will be mostly poor) babies who, by definition – indeed by law — will be force-born into a world that can’t afford them or can’t care for them for one of many possible reasons.
If the folks behind the ban on abortion were truly concerned about the welfare of the children and the people they will develop into there’d be massive efforts to assure a healthy first nine months by way of financial, medical, and social support. How about enlisting the person who helped create the fetus in the first place. Wouldn’t it make sense for men to register their DNA like registration for the draft so they can accept their share of the responsibility?
Once the baby is born if the forced-birth folks really cared for the little ones there would be recognition of the importance of a continued loving relationship with the parent whose body has been home during those essential developmental months. They’d be advocating like crazy to provide everything necessary for a good heginning. That would require maternal, parental, and childcare funding at every level for every person. At the same time they’d be advocating for good nourishing lives – physical, psychological, social, educational — all through childhood and beyond. There would be lifetime structural support for every individual to “be the best that they can be.” And women would continue to be counted among those who count.
Otherwise, based on what we know about human development, those same forced birth advocates will be complaining in twenty years or so about the use of their tax money to support a generation condemned by them to the need for special services.
I love the diapers adds showing a beautiful newborn baby gazing trustingly into the mother’s loving eyes. That’s how it should be. We can help assure that kind of love for the newly born and the rest of us to the end of life if we focus on the love, unimpeded by cold “righteousness.”
Consider those who are so caring for the sanctity of life that they would require the protection of all possible fertilized embryos or at least those who meet a dictated timeline no matter what the circumstances. Why are they not actively lobbying for the assurance of the health and safety of those fetuses during their first nine months of uterine existence? That would, of course, require the funded best care of the pregnant parent including stress reduction, healthy diet, safe and secure housing, childcare to free hours to earn money for the family’s future, and the best of prenatal medical care.
Just wondering …
The latest thing in “explaining” mass shootings is to focus on the shooter’s mental health. All good and well. Why wouldn’t this Psychologist be happy to know people’s mental health is gaining in focus and purpose?
But this Social Psychologist doesn’t like the way it’s being used to avoid the more basic horror – the cultural grounding in which poor mental health is being fostered. What sensible, alive, and aware person doesn’t carry a substratum ache of empathy, concern, and fear in this world of cruelty, killing, and destruction. It almost seems like a mark of emotional health to be disturbed. No, I don’t like the implication that the cause lies in an individual’s deviation from the norm. On the contrary, the cause lies in the culture that fosters the human potential for evil.
Will we ever get around to looking at the painful, destructive inequities in childcare, education, financial status, health care, gender acceptance, respect, and expectations for individual accomplishment (not necessarily measured by financial wealth)? What did I leave out?
It could be done. We could create a culture based on encouraging personal growth, self-confidence, gratitude, appreciation, cognitive competence, kindness, personal value – dare I say love? But that would require reducing the “blame the other” emphasis implied in the focus on individual mental health and looking instead at our own responsibility as part of a culture. As it is, I’m afraid we have adopted “mental health” as a way to avoid looking at our own selves.
Please notice, I haven’t used the words “mental illness.” That’s a related but different story.
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