Hear Me Out: Your Kids Don’t Owe You Anything

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4 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2023

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… stop with the breakfast in bed. As we approach the summertime season of parenting holidays in the U.S. — Mother’s Day in May and Father’s Day in June — it’s worth remembering that these holidays’ histories are deeply political… not unlike parenting itself. Parenting is complicated, now more so than ever. In the best of circumstances, it’s a two-way relationship with a person who didn’t ask to be here. So what can we expect from our children? Gabrielle Blair, founder of DesignMom.com and author of Ejaculate Responsibly, joins us to make the case that kids aren’t bound by blood to do, or be, anything. If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can now email the show: [email protected] Podcast production by Maura Currie You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Hear Me Out.
0:02.6	I'm your host Celeste Headley.
0:04.5	As we enter the summer months already, it means we're also approaching two kind of
0:08.8	fraught holidays for lots of Americans, Mother's Day and Father's Day.
0:13.5	Now, you might think of these holidays as silly or superficial or commercialized beyond
0:18.6	belief, but their origins are deeply political.
0:21.7	And parenting, whether you like it or not, is political as well.
0:25.6	To be a parent means being in a really complicated relationship with a person who didn't necessarily
0:31.2	choose to be there.
0:32.8	So in the best of circumstances, is bringing a kid into the world a selfish act if they
0:37.5	can't consent to be here?
0:39.5	Consider this.
0:40.5	Maybe kids don't owe their parents anything.
0:43.0	Yeah, you deserve a day off, but the idea that your kids owe you that, no, you owe your
0:47.4	kids.
0:48.4	It's hard to be alive and you force them to be alive.
0:51.0	Writer and influencer Gabrielle Blair joins us on Hear Me Out in just a moment.
0:55.6	Stay with us.
0:59.3	Welcome back to Hear Me Out.
1:00.9	I'm Celeste Headley.
1:03.9	You know, Mother's Day is often celebrated these days with fancy brunches, flower deliveries,
1:08.7	maybe some hallmark cards, but its origins in the US actually date back to the mid 1800s.
	...

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