[listennexttime]

I'm a low empathy technocrat because:

(1) I chose not to have children, and

(2) I find it unfair that I'm expected to work longer hours for the same compensation/work profile.

Is that it? ... No, that's not it. Your position assumes that:

(1) Child-rearing is some a-priori, guaranteed good, and

(2) That it apparently should be subsidized by employers,

(3) and (both implicitly and explicitly, from you and others) at the expense of their non-child having coworkers.

Am I getting something wrong, or missing something?

I absolutely think parents should get a break during the pandemic. I think everyone should. The work people are doing here to act like we should worship the ground parents walk is easily the most shocking thing I've witnessed.

Honestly, it's not at all a stretch to say you basically insist parents get extra compensation (in the form of extra paid vacation). Call me whatever name you want, but people are well within their rights on this, of all places, to raise an eyebrow.

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The other generous interpretation is that there is some base assumption that we ALL (parents and non-parents) should running ourselves at 90+% capacity. And that children are an accept caveat since parents are usually at 100% capacity. What a terrifying dismal way to look at life. I hope that's not it.

[kelnos]

> I find it unfair that I'm expected to work longer hours for the same compensation/work profile.

When you say "longer hours" do you mean "longer hours than I worked before COVID" or "the same amount of hours, but longer than parents will be working during COVID"?

If you mean the former, then you need a better employer, because agreed, you should not be required or expected to increase your work hours due to COVID, for any reason, and certainly not to pick up the slack caused by parents losing productivity.

If you mean the latter, then this just sounds like entitled whining. Your life has not changed because parents get more flexibility. It's exactly the same as it was before.

Parents don't get to stop taking care of their kids. I know quite a few working parents, and I guarantee you that they don't want to take time away from work for child care right now. But they have no choice. You are incredibly lucky that you aren't a parent right now; take that blessing as your "subsidy" and stop complaining about things that don't actually affect you.

[listennexttime]

Another argument that largely hinges on calling me a name; amusing considering I'm normally considered the annoying-bleeding-heart-softie. And you know, the part where I said parents deserve a break in my reply that you ignored.

Parents deserve extra flexibility.

So do single people working from their bedrooms, 50 hours a week, thinking about alternatives to this existence regularly because they have literally nothing else going on and don't have the vacation to take to get away.

So do people in relationships who are trapped in tiny, tiny SF apartments with no room to breathe in, when OH ALSO, your city is constantly filled with the noise of sirens because your police department keeps gassing your neighborhood.

Everyone deserves extra flexibility right now. Acting like your kid is some exception while calling me entitled is something else.

[matwood]

> When you say "longer hours" do you mean "longer hours than I worked before COVID" or "the same amount of hours, but longer than parents will be working during COVID"?

Reading these threads, I think the conversation has blurred COVID and non-COVID times. COVID has highlighted how much leeway parents get in general, regardless of whether people think they should/should not get it.

[bitexploder]

children are an a-priori good for society and they massively subsidized the childless in the long run. Anyhow, try the empathy thing out. Put yourself in the shoes of a hard working parent that up to this point, possible for 10+ years of child-rearing carries the same load as everyone else. Now, COVID has happened an unprecedented pandemic since the Spanish Flu. Maybe they have their hands a little full right now? Employers in general should be helping everyone out right now, not just parents, but I am sure you can see where I am going here? Some people are stuck in a 100% capacity spot for whatever reason. It’s not what I would prefer, but it’s how society is set up.

[Chris2048]

> they massively subsidised the childless in the long run

How, exactly? It feels like the glass-makers fallacy every time this point is expanded on.

> Anyhow, try the empathy thing out

empathy means "the ability to understand and share the feelings of another"; you assume this isn't the case because others draw a different conclusion to you own. What If others understand perfectly well? From my perspective the phrasing "try the empathy thing out" is pretty patronising, leading me to conclude you either lack empathy on that point, or else wanted it to be that way; it's possible to be (if not act) empathetic while acting vindictive.

[listennexttime]

Nice of you and others to ignore:

>I absolutely think parents should get a break during the pandemic. I think everyone should.

I am alone. I am completely alone. Completely socially isolated. And being expected to work 50 hours a week, as always, in my home. I get no extra time off. I get no allowances for a screaming kid in the background.

I THINK PARENTS SHOULD GET A BREAK. And I think everyone should equally.

Point-of-fact, only parents are the people in this thread demanding something and acting entitled and the fact that no one can respond to the arguments without resorting to name-calling just drives that point home.

[RankingMember]

> children are an a-priori good for society

Tell that to all the children born into poverty with parents who don't want them/are indifferent to them, and to the communities they inhabit who bear the fallout.