The Current Situation for Parents and the Work of Parenting

The situation for parents is growing more difficult in most countries of the world today, in spite of technological and material advances in the Western world.  Capitalism and the ethic that supports it is encroaching on all the cultures of the world.  Under that ethic, work that creates profit is made to seem far more important than the work we do to create closeness and caring with the people we live with.  Nurturing children, caring for those whose needs are great, and fostering community are activities that are threatened by the forces that draw men and women into paid work over long hours.

It is in the interests of profit-makers to involve as many people as possible in paid work.  Workers make the profits that increase the wealth of a few.  It is in the interests of profit-makers to see that wages earned by one person are not enough to support a family.  This insures that other individuals in the family will work for pay, and produce more wealth.  It is in the interests of profit-makers to pull as many hours as humanly possible from each individual worker.  This cuts down on overhead.  And it is in the interests of profit-makers to create a poverty of time in worker's lives.  People who are time-poor are forced to buy more commodities to shore up their existence.  Convenience foods, ready-made clothing, child care, child transportation, cleaning services, and devices to occupy children are made necessary by long work hours and the need for two parents to work outside the home.  Since there is no workable way of making profit directly from the at-home nurture of children, our parenting work doesn't "count" in this ethic that supports the making of profit.  Meter minders and fast food chefs get training, pay, regular breaks, and protection from overwork and injury.  They get "employee of the month" awards.  Parents get no preparation, no pay, and no protection from overwork or overwhelming circumstances.  Parenting is the most important work we'll ever do, and it doesn't "count" in our economy.

When businesses become enormous, and graduate into multinational corporations, they tend to erode community in all corners of our world.  Where such corporations wield influence, the work week gets ever longer, the gap between the lowest-paid and the highest-paid workers grows quickly, and we adults lose the essential vehicles of human caring. We need time.  We need energy.  We need hope.  We need time to talk, time to play, time to enjoy one another, time to solve problems in our families, time to share meals together, time to direct toward being neighbors, friends, and community activists, and the time to learn new things.  We need time to care well for ourselves and for our loved ones.  The time and energy we need for the work of parenting is turned toward making profit that does not, in the end, serve the common good.  Our time and energy is gathered and spent by companies interested in making more profit, in working more parents too hard.