At some places of work people with children can take time off, they have flex time, leave early, and come in late, use sick time freely, perhaps better benefits and/or other perks?
Uncle Sam gives each parent a Tax Credit for each child. Should someone who is childless feel left out or jealous?
I’ve heard a grumble or two sometime ago from those who are childless that they put in more time than those with kids. Is that really being fair to someone who is a parent though? Of course I’m going to be bias and defend those with kids.
Most times, the parent who works gets there a lot earlier so they can take advantage of leaving early, if they’re allowed to do so. They work just as hard because them having a job is very important to take care of the children.
The workers who don’t have kids: Most times, they get promoted more, they can work more hours and thus impress the boss, get the cushy assignments. They will travel more too.
But isn’t it being counter productive for those who are childless to feel threatened or jealous of the worker who has kids. For one thing, no longer are employers giving out cushy vacation packages, or benefits packages, (although some lucky ones do!); but most don’t even give end of the year bonuses anymore. The benefits for family are a lot more expensive than those for a single person or only two people. Having children to support is so much more expensive than being single.
And of course there are not only the work place dilemmas or working parent dilemmas. For those parents who don’t work in an office environment or who are stay at home moms (or dads), being out and about with their children can be nice at times or can get a bit testy.
If your child acts up in public, people look at you as if you’re weird or you don’t know how to control your kids. You get the go ahead to be the first to board the airplane and you get daggers thrown at you..(if looks could kill!) You give your kids freedom to play or keep themselves occupied while you try to get something done and it’s like you’re considered a bad parent!
In your grocery cart are cereals, cookies, bread, gooey stuff and basics for families with children, while the couple next to you has bottles of wine, French bread, olives and shrimp and other childless couple food in theirs. They look at you, look at your kids having a disagreement in the corner and give that snide smile and you bump into them by accident….yeah, that’s it, by accident on the way out while doting on your kids! Has that ever happened to you? It did to me once…yeah, by accident! (I didn't really bump into them..that's my story and I'm sticking to it!)
But seriously, let me get back to my point, some couples do feel threatened by couples with children. I think they need to get over it though. To each is own. If you don’t want to have them, that’s your business and if I want to have them, that’s mine…isn’t it? To each his own. The thing is, there really is no need to be jealous and the way life is these days if I’m going to get a bump or a favor done because I have my little adorable one with me…such is life! I grab it by the horns!