The government doesn’t have to pay people to be parents to support parenthood, that’s just one option for discussion. However, people shouldn’t be penalized out of the workforce or forced to choose caretaking over work because there’s no support. That’s ageist as well as sexist. It should never be a choice of one over the other. The fact that it is for many is a signal that something is wrong.

We could think about programs like mini retirements where parents can draw social security during early childhood years and pay more into the program in later years to make up the difference.

They could require day cares at corporations and places of business in order to get tax breaks, either onsite or as part of some kind of voucher program.

Companies could be given incentives to hire parents back into the workforce after caretaking years, like they do vets. They could develop retraining or include caretakers into programs that already exist.

They could promote a shift of working hours so caretaking doesn’t land solely on moms. Dad’s need to do more too. A stepping into retirement system would free up grandparents to help out. And many of them would benefit from fewer hours as well.

They could support full or partial remote work in many industries.

There’s lots that can be done other than treating mothers and caretakers like slaves, forever shackled and held back due to the effects of unpaid labor.

As for your comment about choosing to be parents, do you have any idea how hard it is for women to get sterilized by choice so they don’t have to worry about birth control failure? Why aren’t those procedures covered by insurance? Do you have any idea how hard years of birth control is on your body? Or how hard it is to get many men to wear a condom? How hard it is to get a guy to pay child support if he doesn’t want to?

There’s a bit of a difference between choosing to be a parent and getting screwed over by it because the society you live in is simultaneously too involved in it (quick to criticize, condemn, propagandize) and not involved enough (no support, policies actively make the whole endeavor harder, devaluing it’s importance).

Consider this, if enough people choose to not become parents because society doesn’t support it and the demands of it within society are too stringent and limiting leaving you unable to provide well for yourself and your family…what happens to that society when there are no children?

What’s it worth to you now?