[HPforGrownups] Re: Working mothers, was Did the Slytherins come back

[Lynda Cordova]

No: HPFGUIDX 181946

montavila47:
And then there's Tonks, who bounces in all pink with her
super metamorphagous skill. But everything she is just falls
into the dung heap once she hits HPB. She doesn't become
deeper for her grief over Lupin (and maybe a bit of Sirius). For
Harry, she simply becomes annoying.
And then, when she gets happy again, she nearly fades away
completely. It's like she's a Victorian women who must go
into confinement during her pregnancy.

Lynda:
I always read these threads with a bit of apprehension, being one of those
working women who always wanted kids but never had any. My closest friend
fits into this category as well.  We manage quite well without them,
but "borrow" other people's kids fairly often. Most of my friends both work
and have kids. They aren't high-powered superwomen. They are often tired,
overworked stressed-out, although they will all state resoundingly that they
would give up neither motherhood nor their jobs. My two friends who don't
work, well, they are also often tired, overworked and stressed out, and
wouldn't go to work outside of the home for what they believe are very
concrete, logical reasons. So I don't see that writing a series of books in
which some of the women who have kids stay home to raise their families
rather than go out and work is a problem. Babysitters get expensive. I
should know. I've been a nanny or a babysitter in some form for most of my
adult life. I cost less than daycare, but more than a lot of dual income
families can easily afford, and since I make more than $14.00 an hour at my
regular job in the schools I'm not easily snaggable anymore. Perhaps this is
a case of Rowling being practical. Could the Weasleys really have afforded a
babysitter? If Tonks had lived, maybe she would have gone back to work.
Come to think of it, she did!

Lynda


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