Parenting Counts

[This blog was first published as a letter to the editor of the Dominion Post newspaper 17 November 2007]


James Weir (DomPost November 10th) assumes that any parent given the choice would opt for squeezing more paid working hours into an already busy schedule.

Fortunately not all parents focus purely on the monetary costs of having children. If the so-called “vanishing women” (and a few Dad’s) have opted to invest more time with their kids then that is a legitimate choice. Part time work can fit well with school pick ups and drop-offs.

Economists and policymakers need to realise that many parents see time invested with children as important. Some parents make a legitimate and positive choice to stay at home while their children are young – despite the economic and social costs of doing so in today’s politically correct culture. Others choose to return to work earlier. It’s time to stop the judgmental social engineering which sees parents as economic units of production to be extracted from the home and coaxed out into the labour market. Caring for children is a productive investment.