“I just tremble. I don’t know why some people have children at all if they know that they can only take a few weeks off work. I know you want a child, and you have every right to want a child, but does the child want you if you are going to put it in childcare at six weeks? I don’t think the child wants you, to tell the honest truth. I know that’s incredibly controversial.”
Mem Fox, author of the best-selling children’s book Possum Magic. Her comments led to mixed responses from Daily Telegraph readers:
“Mem Fox can stuff her books up her magic possum…Who do you think you are, Mem, stop living in the past and get a grip on the future.” Tracey Seal, Narellan Vale.
“I am so sick of all this “won’t somebody think of the children” crap. I don’t know a single mother who doesn’t adore her children and wouldn’t lie down in traffic to help them if they thought it would. To say they’re going to work because they’re greedy is judgmental because they are just trying to meet costs somebody else has set. And sometimes – shock, horror – a woman actually feels a sense of fulfilment and accomplishment for a thing other than family by having a paid job.” Rosemary Russell, Canberra.
“Two years ago we had our first child and we are expecting outr second in four weeks. My wife stays at home and I work, as nature intended.” Tim Parsley, Emu Plains.
“We need to reverse the direction society has taken in the past 100 years and not go for more of the same. Never in human history has today’s level if material affleunce made it as easy for mothers to stay at home and properly socialise their children, as nature intended.” Philip Pocok, Turner ACT.
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[...] women’s rights, but there are still distinctly reactionary elements of sexism here. Take the ongoing childcare debate, for example, or, in a more extreme case, the suicide of a female ambulance worker in response to [...]
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