I’m not too good with kids, but I figured I was competent enough to babysit the young set of spawn that belonged to my mother’s coworker for a few hours. After a lifetime of watching “Frozen” on a continuous loop and getting spit up on by a baby so small that the incredible amount of puke on my shirt just made no earthly sense I conjured a vendetta against children forever. Why would anyone give up their body, freedom, and independence in order to raise children? I quickly decided that there is no void big enough that would make me want to become a mother.
My tedious babysitting attempts outlined the immense responsibility that those who rear children endure. Parenting – one of the most important jobs – tends to go unnoticed as a viable exertion of time and productivity compared to those who spend their days in a traditional workplace setting. There’s a reason that nannying is a well-paying job. So why aren’t mothers who are struggling financially getting compensated for their hard work?
Judith Shulevitz’s article, “It’s Payback Time For Women,” published in The New York Times, highlights the grandeur issues behind a time-old notion that essentially reinforces the idea that “women’s work” is not work at all. Before reading Ms. Shulevitz’s article, I was remarkably unaware of the effects of a lack of recognition that stay-at-home mothers face, which is known to deteriorate a woman’s sense of purpose and therefore muddle any identity she has of herself. It’s simply unfair that stay-at-home mothers are often portrayed as “lazy or irrelevant” by those who perpetrate the myth that raising children is a mother’s duty and therefore cannot be considered “hard work.”
It’s both easy and disturbing to see that, according to a recent Gallup poll, stay-at-home mothers were 28% more likely to be depressed than other groups of women. The implementation of a universal basic income will improve the mental health of those who perform child rearing duties at home, help to reduce the stigma, and recognize and compensate their work while providing some economic stability.
A universal basic income is a system in which a population is given a set of money by their government, unconditionally, on account of how much money you make in a year. Other benefits of a UBI include an aid to reduce poverty and improve the economy. In populations where a UBI has been integrated, research shows that there has been a tremendous amount of positive responses because of the new founded system. For example, in the small Canadian town of Dauphin, residents making less than $13, 800 a year were given $4, 800 in addition as a supplement. Those benefitting from the UBI saw a decline in the number of mental health-related visits coupled with less mental health diagnoses altogether. In addition to those positive increases, the town saw a drop in hospital admissions, meaning there were less injuries caused by accidents. The town had originally implemented a UBI system to combat ravaging poverty and saw dynamic change both economically and within the civilian’s personal lives.
A Cherokee tribe in North Carolina is worth mentioning as we bring the focus back to mental health. The reservation, like most Native American reservations in the United States, greatly suffers from extreme poverty. After opening a casino, the tribe elected to give everyone a stipend of $6,000 yearly. The children in the tribe who were moved out of poverty saw behavioral problems decline by forty percent along with a decrease in minor crimes. Most importantly, children who started receiving the benefits that came with a UBI earlier in life had better mental health in early adulthood than those who received the UBI later in life.
I had always assumed money was the key to happiness, and I love being right. However, this is not a means to “give away free stuff.” As our economy changes we are required to reexamine the nature of work. As agriculture was replaced by manufacturing we became a wage centric society. Wages today can no longer promise us food and shelter, making a universal based income necessary for harmonious living.
The status of a person’s employment has a tremendous effect on the way they view themselves, and can also foster judgement about how others see them as well. Because stay-at-home mothers are deprived of the status that comes with traditional employment, there’s no question it could leave that unrecognized woman feeling dumped on and depressed. There is immense happiness in feeling appreciated, which is something that low-income stay-at-home mothers don’t feel often. A universal based income should be made a priority as the syndical evolutionary step towards economic and social equality.
