Friday, June 19, 2009

Iris Evans Ignites Furor Over "Raising Kids Right"

Alberta's Finance Minister, Iris Evans, is in hot water over some recent comments she made regarding child rearing. Evans was in Toronto this week speaking about the importance of teaching children financial literacy, when she said that good parenting means sacrificing some income to stay at home while kids are young, as her children have done.

“They’ve understood perfectly well that when you’re raising children you don’t both go off to work and leave them for somebody else to raise,” Ms. Evans said. “This is not a statement against daycare. It’s a statement about their belief in the importance of raising children properly.”

Naturally, this has sparked outrage and debate across the country. I won't write too much about it here, because you can read plenty of articles online about it (this one and this one are good), but I will say this:

When you're a Minister in the provincial government, you can't say shit like this. Period. For most families, their financial reality is that both parents must work in order to earn enough income. Also, there is no such thing as a "proper" or "correct" family. Whatever works for your family is what's right. 'Nuff said.

Ms. Evans has apologized for her remarks, but debate and anger continues to rage on.

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