Even if I had no professional obligations, I still wouldn't have autonomy. Young children, like software projects, take up all available time. They restrict you in where you can go, for how long, with whom, and what you can do.
Sure you could hire help and free up more time. And that's a choice many people make. But it wouldn't sit right with me to have someone else teach my children to read, or build robots, or ride a bike if I really have the free time to do it myself.
>Even if I had no professional obligations, I still wouldn't have autonomy. Young children, like software projects, take up all available time.
As long as time is limited and we can't replicate ourselves to be in more than one place, some lack of autonomy is expected. But nobody talked about total autonomy here. The post, and I, mean the casual autonomy to not to be forced to do something you didn't chose at any point.
Young children you can chose to have or not (and take the time hit that goes with it).
Whereas if you have no money and need food and rent and so on, not working is not a choice.
Autonomy is not about having all free time all the time. It's about chosing how you want to spend your time (if that - like having kids - comes with restrictions, those are still your choice, since you opted to that).
Lack of autonomy is when you can't opt out - like when you don't want to have kids but your parents force you to an arranged marriage, or when you want to have kids but can't because you can't afford it, or when you want to spend time with your kids/family but need to work, and so on.
Autonomy as a concept doesn’t get you very far if you’re seeking fulfillment or meaning. Sure, it’s an important component of fulfillment, but you don’t even need complete autonomy to be happy. You can be happy with compelled marriage or accidental childbirth. This article, and I think you, are too focused on autonomy and material conditions.
Sure you could hire help and free up more time. And that's a choice many people make. But it wouldn't sit right with me to have someone else teach my children to read, or build robots, or ride a bike if I really have the free time to do it myself.