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mk  ·  4380 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Jessica Valenti: Not Wanting Kids Is Entirely Normal

I'm giving the study the benefit of the doubt, and considering that Valenti is just highlighting points. This was particularly interesting to me:

    Children who were unplanned were also subject to harsher parenting and more punitive measures than a sibling who was intended.

Although you can easily build a rationale for the behavior, it's not obvious whether or not 'surprise' kids get unequal treatment relative to their siblings. If the study has good controlled data for this, that is interesting. Some of my friends are surprises. Some of my friends have surprises. To me, it suggests that a family capable of support, or even one giving support, is not enough, and that we could gain a lot from increased access to birth control all around, vasectomies included (which Valenti doesn't mention).