How is that autonomy? I have to wake up at 6am every single morning and make milk and change diapers. I have to take a crap with the door open. I have to think a day in advance if I can take a shower.
If I'm not doing one of those things I'm working, fixing something around the house, cooking, or running an errand. What I don't have is the privilege to do anything aside from what must be done.
Don't get me wrong, I love having a family but that's kind of my point: autonomy isn't worth a damn to me.
>How is that autonomy? I have to wake up at 6am every single morning and make milk and change diapers. I have to take a crap with the door open. I have to think a day in advance if I can take a shower.
That's still autonomy, since getting into that was your decision to make. Nobody put a pistol on your head to start a family and have kids (hopefully). That's something you chose, with the restrictions that come with it. You could might as well not have started a family, and thus not having to do that.
(Not to mention that if you had more money you could delegate most of those, including making milk and changing diapers, to some helpers, and only keep the "quality" time).
Now, imagine to still "lov[ing] having a family", but being so poor you couldn't afford to start one (or nobody would marry you, because you're, say, homeless). Or having to work double shifts just to make ends meet, and only being able to be minimally present for your kids, despite wanting to be there more. That's lack of autonomy.
> That's still autonomy, since getting into that was your decision to make
You do have to understand Covid changed a lot of the calculus around kids for a lot of parents. Everything has been affected: the amount of help and support you can get, the activities you can do with them.
That's a fair point, it was a decision I made so autonomy still applies by your definition. I think I disagree with the article's definition of highest form of wealth though:
> Controlling your time and the ability to wake up and say, “I can do whatever I want today.”
If I'm not doing one of those things I'm working, fixing something around the house, cooking, or running an errand. What I don't have is the privilege to do anything aside from what must be done.
Don't get me wrong, I love having a family but that's kind of my point: autonomy isn't worth a damn to me.