Vent warning - I'm sick of 'working families'

[farmgirl77]

I have had it with the term 'working families'!

Have the pollies and everyone else who has now made this the phrase of the decade, not thought about those people who are not 'working families' and that these people may also be feeling the effects of interest rates, rising food prices etc etc, in addition to the reminder that dont have kids, but everyone else who is 'normal/average/worthy' (as evidenced by children) does!

Every time I hear the phrase, it is just a reminder of what we don't have, and in my mind serves to separate my DH and I more and more from our friends, people at work etc etc who do have kids, and who think that people without kids are selfish and mean spirited (and of course better off), because they choose not to have kids. Well wake up world, this is not a choice!

Ok, that is my vent...

[Mel A]

Here Here, to that.

[nickel]

Totally, the idea that everyone chooses not to have children, OR equally would have them if they could so obviously can't is completely insulting. As is this all embracing term "working families" - WTF does that mean anyway?
good vent.

[butterfly_warrior]

I had a similar grumble to a friend a while back. My friend pointed out that me and my DH are a family, but I didn't want to agree with him at the time. But fact is, we ARE a family unit just by ourselves. Sure, the family is not complete and is smaller than we would like... but that just means we are waiting to grow. It will happen one day...

Of course, it's only rare moments that I can actually believe that and not get frustrated by how long it is taking us to work on increasing our family. And yes, the bias and the assumptions in the media do frustrate the hell out of me as well. I'm going to sit here and try to believe that the term "our kids" is referring to the children of the nation, in which case they do sort of belong to us... I guess with being a teacher I'm a bit more closely linked to a lot of kids from other families, so it's a bit easier to delude myself in such a way to decrease the irritation and frustration.

Fact is... they are thoughts I pound into my head so I'm not constantly exploding at all the implications and assumptions behind those comments and phrases. Maybe we should explode publicly a little more often and try to change the mindset... not sure it will work, though.