DAVID Crawford (Letters, July 27) argues that man is but an animal in a suit and that in most animal species, parents concentrate on raising their own offspring. This is used as an argument for paying parents to raise their own children, instead of paying others to provide childcare when the parents are out to work.
It is true that most animals raise their own offspring, and when the young have grown up, animals make more and raise more children. However, the animal in the suit gets on average fewer than two children (in the UK) in a lifetime – what is one to do when the children have flown the nest? Sit and watch the world go by?
Also, read for parents: mothers. To this day, it is overwhelmingly the mother in the family who takes up parental leave, gives up work or works part-time in order to juggle care with work. It is seemed easier for women after maternity leave; the fathers have more earning potential:l the reasons are well documented. But once the responsibilities for childcare are diminishing and women want to get back into the workplace (for whatever reason, financial need, the wish to use talents and training or whatever) many find that the world of work has moved on and there are not many jobs to return to.
So yes, it would be lovely to be in the position to raise your own children, together with a partner and without financial hardship, but only provided that when that period in life draws to a close there are suitable jobs to come back to. The animal in a skirt expects more in life than raising children.
Trudy Duffy-Wigman,
Devon View, Crook of Devon, Kinross.
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