41. Rich Girl – Gwen Stefani 2004

All the riches, baby
Won't mean anything
All the riches, baby
Don't bring what your love can bring
All the riches, baby
Won't mean anything
Don't need no other, baby

 

I want to start this post by saying I’m not a mum.

            Now, not following the sisterhood down the parenting path wasn’t a choice for me, but, as far as I’m aware, becoming parents was a choice for family and friends that managed to make their own cherubs.

My partner and I invested an awful lot of time and effort in practicing baby making, and then in attempting baby making. Then we invested significant finances in our baby making efforts as we navigated assisted reproduction. But it wasn’t to be.

Now we’re investing in other peoples offspring through the tax system.

I’m not saying I’m against paid parental leave, child rebates, public education, universal health care or whatever other tax redistribution programs there are out there to ensure we, as a population, keep contributing to growing the taxable population of Australia. But shouldn’t the economics of child rearing be considered before the baby is made?

I mean, if you need a tax incentive to have a kid, you probably shouldn’t have a kid.

“Raising kids is cheaper and easier than I ever thought it would be,” are words I’ve never heard a parent say.

At least in this country, and at this time, Oh my God! A Woman! isn’t required to, or even expected to, quit her job and essentially become a house slave once she’s exercised her right to reproduce. Yes, there are still places where this is required, and really it wasn’t that long ago, 1966 to be exact, that Australia did away with the marriage bar, requiring women to quit their jobs once they were married.

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rlNpWYQunY&list=RD9rlNpWYQunY&start_radio=1