Friday, May 07, 2004
I've only just discovered Wolf Food but have enjoyed what I've read so far. I don't know who Donna Barr is beyond what she puts in her blog. But there's been some cracking posts about adults, children, responsibilities and so on.
People, those of you who want censorship -- in any form -- no matter how mild -- for your kids' sake or whatever -- had better know that if you bring it up to artists/writers like me, we are going to blow sky high.
The Nuclear Family -- it kills kids.
See? These parents think that the rest of us are supposed to put up with the result of their breeding, and lose their minds the moment one of us says we have had it with the kids.
Now, her criticism is sharper than mine would be, but I've had to put my foot down at work and refuse, and so far thank Lada it seems to be working, to have anything to do with running any of the children related activities at the library since we lost our children's librarian. I'm happy to help out with legwork, I'm happy to do extra time covering another service point to free another member of staff to do the work, but I'm not going to sit and try reading stories to a bunch of pre-schoolers, or try to encourage six or seven year olds to get glitter and/or paint on the picture of the brontasaurus rather than their faces. Someone at another branch said that amy attitude was as bad as refusing to help disabled people because I didn't like the way they twitched. But you can actually have a conversation with disabled people, plus the reason we work in a team is so that people back one anothers strengths and weaknesses, there are several members of the team here that do better with children than me. And I'm not saying I refuse to help children look for books or do their homework, just story time events.
But as someone who is unlikely to ever take part in the breeding game, it does seem that having children often adds a whole new spurt of 'crazy' into the parental hormonal mix. And often libraries, whether they want to or not, get treated like creches. At the Greenhouse we had a real problem with a woman who would use a computer at one end of the library and would ignore her toddler who would walk to the other end of the library and try to get out the door. And the number we get who will sit by and do nothing while their child merrily tips books off shelves and make a mess, then walk away leaving us to clean up.
Thankfully I've also met great parents, I had two of them myself, the ones that realise that having children is a responsibility, not a right. This is where the Government, both in the UK and US, go wrong. The most important thing is not that there are two middle-class, white people of either of the two main sexes, if they are feckless idiots who, from the moment the egg implants in the uterine wall are looking to other people to bring their kids up for them. Some of the best parents I've seen are single, poor women who can't afford to buy their kids the latest toy and treat them with equal parts love and refusal. Good people are always made, not born.
People, those of you who want censorship -- in any form -- no matter how mild -- for your kids' sake or whatever -- had better know that if you bring it up to artists/writers like me, we are going to blow sky high.
The Nuclear Family -- it kills kids.
See? These parents think that the rest of us are supposed to put up with the result of their breeding, and lose their minds the moment one of us says we have had it with the kids.
Now, her criticism is sharper than mine would be, but I've had to put my foot down at work and refuse, and so far thank Lada it seems to be working, to have anything to do with running any of the children related activities at the library since we lost our children's librarian. I'm happy to help out with legwork, I'm happy to do extra time covering another service point to free another member of staff to do the work, but I'm not going to sit and try reading stories to a bunch of pre-schoolers, or try to encourage six or seven year olds to get glitter and/or paint on the picture of the brontasaurus rather than their faces. Someone at another branch said that amy attitude was as bad as refusing to help disabled people because I didn't like the way they twitched. But you can actually have a conversation with disabled people, plus the reason we work in a team is so that people back one anothers strengths and weaknesses, there are several members of the team here that do better with children than me. And I'm not saying I refuse to help children look for books or do their homework, just story time events.
But as someone who is unlikely to ever take part in the breeding game, it does seem that having children often adds a whole new spurt of 'crazy' into the parental hormonal mix. And often libraries, whether they want to or not, get treated like creches. At the Greenhouse we had a real problem with a woman who would use a computer at one end of the library and would ignore her toddler who would walk to the other end of the library and try to get out the door. And the number we get who will sit by and do nothing while their child merrily tips books off shelves and make a mess, then walk away leaving us to clean up.
Thankfully I've also met great parents, I had two of them myself, the ones that realise that having children is a responsibility, not a right. This is where the Government, both in the UK and US, go wrong. The most important thing is not that there are two middle-class, white people of either of the two main sexes, if they are feckless idiots who, from the moment the egg implants in the uterine wall are looking to other people to bring their kids up for them. Some of the best parents I've seen are single, poor women who can't afford to buy their kids the latest toy and treat them with equal parts love and refusal. Good people are always made, not born.
