As someone working from home before and during COVID ... I don't want this fantasy of my kids being at home when I need to work.<p>The mishmash of priorities and need to focus on work is just horrible. I love my kids, I like my job... but they don't mix well enough to do a great job at both.<p>Even with a live in family member... how many people have the space for that? Even just space enough to have the kids far enough away to focus (my son is currently attending school remotely at a desk less than 6' from me)?<p>Much of this seems like a dream for people with substantial means and jobs that are highly interruption tolerant.
I think you generally have to read the entire article, and perhaps see the world from the perspective of a person of a different identity who has a different sort of job than most of us on HN do, to appreciate what the author is saying.<p>I think you also have to be fortunate in terms of your situation. There will be some families for whom this new reality is a trap. For instance, families whose elder members need assistance in terms of daily skilled care.<p>A lot of those family members went to some form of senior housing or assisted living pre-Pandemic. But the reality of how some states handled recovering COVID-19 patients was that spread rates were high in those settings, and a lot of families with the space and the means took their elders out of those facilities.<p>No matter how fortunate a family may be in terms of space and financial resources, a great deal of pressure ends up on the younger or middle-aged adults, as they are caring for both children and parents in quite a few situations.
A very interesting question. The technology makes previously impossible arrangements possible.<p>There will be repercussions, changes in work and family habits, but how far reaching they will be is unsettled.<p>This, as of now temporary arrangement, does give workers options. There can be more even sharing of parental responsibilities, more options for work and more options for education for those who have kids.<p>For those with kids there is the possibility of more traditional oversight (fewer kids coming home to an empty dwelling) maybe greater parental oversight of curriculums.<p>So we’ll have to wait and see how it pans out.<p>I don’t think families will have four kids again, but some who struggled wit one may have two instead.