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The New Paradigm
Oct. 21st, 2016 08:48 amI've only read the first couple of pages of this article about why there's such a prevalence of allergies nowadays, and I think we should look into a new paradigm for civilized living.
The moment a woman realizes she is pregnant, she takes maternity leave and goes and works on a farm, and then continues to work there for the next 6 months after the baby is born. Maternity leave would have new meaning. Many people currently interpret maternity leave as a drain on society while the mother sits at home on her ass (again, how other people interpret it, not me). Instead, it would mean a constant influx of workers into the farming industry while hopefully creating a healthier, less asthma-prone generation of newborns. The fathers could get a similar paternity leave, so as to keep the family unit together. More city folks living in the country for ~15 months at a time would encourage them to start pushing more money for education into these rural areas, since if they have more than one child they would be encouraged to bring the other kids along and start going to school there.
Hell, the rich could have their own "spa farms" in which they hang out around the animals, but get to keep their Louis Vuitton sneakers from touching the animal poo. Then they could still indulge in horse riding and croquet on the lawn, while baby gets to take fabulous pictures with other baby animals in the petting zoo.
I digress.
I still love the idea of adding agriculture programs to schools, although that doesn't affect expecting moms and newborns. My old roller skating rink was turned into an agriculture center for Birdville ISD. As far as I can tell, they're done with the building renovation, although there's still lots of unused parking space that I wonder if they will do anything with.
After reading Pearl S. Buck's book The Good Earth back in 9th grade, and specifically the sections when the mother walked off the rice fields into the house to give birth only to resume her duties a little later in the day, I realized just how pampered and spoiled we really are, and I've always thought about our germophobic* hospital environments as ironically gross. (Man. I managed to turn that into a single sentence. I'm leaving it as it is instead of editing it down.)
*My computer dictionary recognized homophobic, xenophobic, agoraphobic, arachnophobia (although not arachnophobic), but it didn't recognize germophobic or germophobia. *Add to Dictionary*
The moment a woman realizes she is pregnant, she takes maternity leave and goes and works on a farm, and then continues to work there for the next 6 months after the baby is born. Maternity leave would have new meaning. Many people currently interpret maternity leave as a drain on society while the mother sits at home on her ass (again, how other people interpret it, not me). Instead, it would mean a constant influx of workers into the farming industry while hopefully creating a healthier, less asthma-prone generation of newborns. The fathers could get a similar paternity leave, so as to keep the family unit together. More city folks living in the country for ~15 months at a time would encourage them to start pushing more money for education into these rural areas, since if they have more than one child they would be encouraged to bring the other kids along and start going to school there.
Hell, the rich could have their own "spa farms" in which they hang out around the animals, but get to keep their Louis Vuitton sneakers from touching the animal poo. Then they could still indulge in horse riding and croquet on the lawn, while baby gets to take fabulous pictures with other baby animals in the petting zoo.
I digress.
I still love the idea of adding agriculture programs to schools, although that doesn't affect expecting moms and newborns. My old roller skating rink was turned into an agriculture center for Birdville ISD. As far as I can tell, they're done with the building renovation, although there's still lots of unused parking space that I wonder if they will do anything with.
After reading Pearl S. Buck's book The Good Earth back in 9th grade, and specifically the sections when the mother walked off the rice fields into the house to give birth only to resume her duties a little later in the day, I realized just how pampered and spoiled we really are, and I've always thought about our germophobic* hospital environments as ironically gross. (Man. I managed to turn that into a single sentence. I'm leaving it as it is instead of editing it down.)
*My computer dictionary recognized homophobic, xenophobic, agoraphobic, arachnophobia (although not arachnophobic), but it didn't recognize germophobic or germophobia. *Add to Dictionary*
