Parenting THOMPSON, blog.

Academia Anthropology Free-For-All Parenting Reheated

Reheated (76)

March 1, 2023 104 Comments

For newcomers and the nostalgic, some items from the archives:

Academic of pallor denounces “whiteness,” flaps his scented handkerchief.

It scarcely needs saying that allowing one’s children to be exposed to the unhappy mental contortions of Professor Barrett would not be the wisest way to spend tens of thousands of dollars. Though conceivably one might use him as an illustration of how minds can come undone.

It’s worth pondering, for instance, what kind of adult might feel a need to signal their virtue, or what they imagine as virtue, habitually, and in such ostentatious ways. I mean, if you’re about as virtuous as you think you ought to be, given whatever circumstances, why would you spend time and effort putting on a show? What kind of person feels compelled to seem virtuous – to pretend to be more pious than they actually are – and to a degree that involves contortions like those above? At risk of sounding ungenerous, I think it’s a telling activity. A warning of sorts.

Crumbs Made Her Unhappy.

Atlantic senior editor Honor Jones dislikes crumbs. And so, she got divorced.

Needless to say, Ms Jones has dozens of blue-tick Twitter followers, many of whom are her peers in ‘progressive’ institutions of one kind or another, merrily gushing about her “courage” and capacity for introspection, her glorious humanity, her “brilliant soul.” Her tale, we’re told, is “beautiful and moving.” And none of those applauding apparently raised an eyebrow at a self-involved woman shattering the lives of her three small children, and her husband, in order to concentrate on herself even more than before.

Daddy’s Baggage.

Two-year-old boy likes footballs and tractors. Progressive father twitches.

Reading time: 2 min

Written by: David

Academia Free-For-All His Pretty Nails Parenting

And These Are My Knickers

February 7, 2023 153 Comments

Yuliah Alma on a suboptimal substitute teacher:

A trans-identified male substitute teacher was banned from King Middle School in Portland, Maine after he shared his highly sexualised TikTok account intentionally with students. Lydia Lamere, also known as Chris Lamere, wrote his TikTok handle on the whiteboard at the front of the classroom and encouraged students to “check it out,” according to one student.

When not conscripting middle-school children into his cross-dressing psychodrama, and presumably being thrilled by the thought of 11-year-olds seeing him in various states of undress, while discussing “kink” and sexual positions, Mr Lamere tells us, “I’m not a predator, I’m just a woman who happens to be super tall and hot.”

Mr Lamere’s employment history includes “environmental educator” and, er, pest control.

Update, via the comments:

Reading time: 1 min

Written by: David

Anthropology Free-For-All Parenting

Please Ignore The Sirens And The Flashing Red Light

January 23, 2023 69 Comments

In other news:

Grown men in children’s clothes hanging around schools is not acceptable.

The lady quoted above is referring to this ongoing adventure in sensitivity and tolerance:

A man in Essex county, England, is causing concern amongst locals, especially parents, after being spotted loitering near children’s schools while wearing a schoolgirl uniform. In response to complaints, Essex Police is insisting the man “does not pose a risk,” and has warned the public against sharing photos of him on social media.

Quite how the lack of risk was determined has not been made clear by the police. And as one might imagine, many parents, and schoolgirls, aren’t entirely thrilled to find said gentleman on the bus used by the girls to get to and from school, and loitering near their school, repeatedly, while wearing their school’s uniform, complete with stockings, a pleated skirt, and what appears to be a wig.

Consider this an open thread.

Reading time: 1 min

Written by: David

Academia Parenting Pregnancy

Let’s Do That Thing That Doesn’t Work

November 30, 2022 48 Comments

Janice Fiamengo pokes through the outpourings of Sophie Lewis:

Only a Marxist-feminist could pledge with a straight face that children will be better off when they are raised by a shifting coalition of non-relatives—or that being paid (by the state, one presumes) to raise someone else’s children will be more gratifying and less tiring than looking after one’s flesh and blood.

But Lewis’s utopianism is undeterred by evidence or common sense. “To abolish the family,” she has stated reassuringly in interview, “is not to destroy relationships of care and nurturance, but on the contrary, to expand and proliferate them.” To prove this point, Lewis’s book includes a historical survey of Marxist and queer imaginings of new types of social-family.

Given that such ideas stretch far back into the nineteenth century, one is struck less by the radicalism of Lewis’s propositions than by their tired predictability and centuries-old lack of viability. Does Lewis ever stop to ponder why attempts to replace the family have never managed to sustain themselves, even on a small scale? […] Does Lewis ever ponder the fact that it is mainly Marxist-feminists and queer radicals who seek a world in which caring for children could be farmed out to acquaintances?

Ms Lewis and her fever dreams have of course been mentioned here before:

So far as I can tell, and despite Ms Lewis’ theorising, mothers-to-be don’t generally feel a need to parse their pregnancy in terms of “abolishing the private nuclear household” and “global regimes of colonial and commodity exploitation.” Or indeed to champion abortion, via drugs or dismemberment, as a form of “anti-violence.” But that’s probably because – to borrow a phrase from Joan – they haven’t been tugging on the intersectional crack pipe.

Reading time: 3 min

Written by: David

Anthropology Feminist Witchcraft Parenting

I Have Some Reservations

October 26, 2022 124 Comments

From the pages of Scary Mommy, where ladies of a progressive bent share their fever dreams,

Could Witchcraft Make You A Better Parent? Real Witches Say ‘Yes’

I suspect the word real is creaking under the strain there. Other creaking may occur during our travels. Still, the author of the piece, Annie Midori Atherton, is keen to entice us with the prospect of paranormal parenting:

As a new mom fumbling through the daily grind of work, caregiving, and what little social life I can manage to eke in, I often find myself wondering how other parents pull it off… Some days I’m so worn down… that I feel I’d need to summon supernatural energy to thrive — rather than just survive.

And so, obviously,

For a growing number of people — including many mothers — witchcraft doesn’t begin or end with Halloween. According to one scholar, the number of Americans who identify with Wicca or paganism has risen from less than 200,000 twenty ago to nearly two million today.

Uncorrected narcissism, or fears of being an uninteresting person, or both, will do that, I suppose.

Reading time: 3 min

Written by: David