[lbo-talk] Children's Freedom of Movement Lost

[Jim Devine]

On 1/10/06, Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> wrote:
> What has changed between the time of Doug's childhood and now?  Women
> have ever fewer children, and more women are employed in wage labor
> than ever.  The fewer children you have, the more precious you feel
> each one is.  The more time women spend working outside home, the
> more social anxiety arises regarding children's safety, unless there
> are strong feminist policy and culture to counter it.  ...
>  More generally, the more
> independent of procreation sexuality becomes, the larger sexuality --
> including both positive and negative feelings about it -- looms in
> people's lives and their conceptions of their lives.

there's also a self-fulfilling prophecy: if there are fewer kids out
of the house, then there are more child molesters per child (assuming
that molesters are a constant percentage of the population), raising
the fears of child molestation, encouraging parents to keep their kids
in the house...
--
Jim Devine
"The price one pays for pursuing any profession or calling is an
intimate knowledge of its ugly side." -- James Baldwin