A radical post

I am waiting for my secretary to type up a document so that I can read it, correct my/her mistakes and then give it to my supervisor. After that, I am done - I will be able to go to yoga class! This is very radical, eh?

While I am idling away I have come across an even more radical article written by an English poet in the Guardian. She wrote about something that I think about from time to time - how to manage having children and a job without letting go of your sanity. Her proposal: have children first to get it out of the way, then when you are in your thirties, come back to the workplace. Make young men and women understand that having a family is not a lifestyle thing, woman thing, age thing, but something that is important for society. Change society's perceptions of women in the workforce. Change men's views on childrearing.

Interesting, isn't it? While this is not the answer for my situation or the solution to any developed country's problems (for it is a developed country's malaise that she is referring to), at least it is a different way to look at the problem. She should find a lot of support in Singapore, where (I hear) the government is practically emotionally blackmailing young couples into having children. But time is on her side, anyway, even if her views are not supported now. Within the next two decades most of the developed countries (and China) will be full of more geriatrics than young 'uns. The governments of those countries will have to start giving away money to young couples to persuade them to have as many children as possible. To bear a child will be like winning the lottery, or something.

I don't think this means much for me, though.