Interview with Holly Hamilton-Bleakley Part 1

SV: As someone who was in graduate school, while also starting a family, could you tell us what that experience was like and any advice you might give to someone who is in school or considering going into school while also raising children?

HHB: Honestly, it was really, really hard.  I’ve spoken a bit about my experience in a few of my posts, (http://philosophyforparents.com/2014/02/18/baby-induced-depression-aristotle-and-me-a-reply-to-amy-glass/;  http://philosophyforparents.com/2014/06/24/is-parenting-a-political-activity/).   Looking back on it now, I think I probably suffered from something like post-natal depression.  But I think my difficulties came, too, because I struggled with how to balance looking after a baby/toddler, and also pursuing my studies.  I felt a lot of pressure to make progress on my thesis, and then found myself feeling frustrated by the time-consuming demands of parenting, especially the parenting of small children. I would want my daughter to sleep so I could work, but she wouldn’t sleep.  Or I would put her on the floor to play while I worked, but that would only last for 15 minutes or so before she needed my attention, and so forth.

Of course I knew it was important to take care of her, but the panicky thought kept coming to me that it was more important to work on my thesis.  So I would resent the interruptions my daughter would make to my work, rather than just let myself enjoy her during that special time.       

Yet, through all that frustration, something creative and productive started to happen.  I started to see with new eyes not only the demands of parenting, but also how as a society we take parenting efforts completely for granted.  I realized I was taking my own parenting for granted, and that explained, at least partly, my view that my academic work was more important than my parenting.  Parenting was supposed to be easy, something anyone could do, something that just happened ‘on the side’, but academics was a serious career that needed time, thought and investment.  And yet, caring for my child was one of the hardest things I had ever done.  Mind you, it wasn’t one of the hardest intellectual things I had ever done, but it was one of the hardest things I had ever done that involved my whole soul – my mind and my emotions – my character, I suppose.  Through a lot of soul searching and prayer, I came to see that it wasn’t caring for my child that was the problem; rather, it was the message from society – which I had internalized - that caring for a family is not an important way to spend one’s time, particularly if you are woman.         

Starting a family in graduate school was very hard, but perhaps it doesn’t need to be if you have the right mindset.   Children are not a burden, they are a blessing.  However, they may slow you down in your graduate work.  I went to a career seminar for academics once where the presenter was saying that because he had children – and he only had 2 – he would never be at the top of his field because he wanted to be home for dinner every once in a while.  And he wasn’t even the primary caregiver! 

To my mind, this is all very tragic.  Children are a lot of work, but being a parent opens your eyes to so many things that you just didn’t see before.  Do we really want the majority of our top academics – our thought leaders and researchers – to be childless, or uninvolved parents?  I remember going to a professional dinner once where I was the only parent at my table, and I had a much different perspective on government policy and current political ideas than my childless colleagues. 

So, my advice to someone who is in school whilst also raising children is to go for it, we need your perspective!  Yet, you must also be prepared to go slower than others around you.  Having said that, don’t let the demands of parenting frustrate you.  Rather, be assured that your parenting experiences will give you a depth of character that will serve you well in your work. 

SV: Some of us may not immediately see a direct link between Plato or Aristotle and parenting. Could you explain what the connection is, and why philosophers/philosophy is important in raising children?

HHB: I think there are several different ‘links’ between Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy and parenting.  For me, the main relevance of these philosophies comes down to the interest that both Plato and Aristotle had, in their different ways, in the concept of the ‘human good’.  In its simplest terms, the idea of the human good means that there are certain ways of being that are better for humans than other ways.  For Aristotle, especially, the human good means that there is such a thing as a human nature.  To achieve the human good is to ‘flourish’ as a human being, and this can only be done when one lives in accordance with one’s human nature.  Aristotle thought that man’s nature was defined by his ability to be rational, and this rational ability enabled man to be moral.  So, living in accordance with human nature means, among other things, to develop one’s capacity to reason about, and to understand, what is right and what is wrong.

Plato and Aristotle were also very interested in the concept of the human soul.  Both saw a kind of division in the soul between the rational and the irrational parts of the soul –that is, between our reason and our passions.  Both stressed in their own way the need to control or govern our passions with our reason.  So, on this model, the human being has thoughts or feelings that might not always be ‘right’; we can be deceived by our desires, or let our passions rule over our reason in a way that we don’t think clearly about the concepts of right, wrong, good and bad.

Now, as a parent, I find this all very fascinating, because I’m in the trenches, raising some little human beings, and I like to think about just what it is I am trying to do here.  What exactly am I trying to achieve with these little ones?  What kind of potential do they have as human beings?  Also, and very importantly, how do you raise a human being to be good?  How do you raise a human being to be happy?  I think Aristotle is good to ‘think with’ on these kinds of questions.  We don’t have to agree with him, but he can offer us some important insights that will at least help us think more deeply our roles as parents.

But it’s not just Aristotle that is good to ‘think with’ – other philosophers take up this idea of the human good in one way or another.  Many philosophers, especially modern philosophers, have rejected the idea of the human good.  Many have rejected the idea of a ‘human nature’.  This kind of philosophical skepticism has huge implications for us as parents, because we have to raise our children in a world that often tells us there is no meaning behind ‘being human’ beyond the meaning that we choose to give it ourselves. I disagree with that idea.  But it’s important to understand the philosophical background to that kind of skepticism, if only to realize how it might be influencing us as parents.  

SV: What do you think are some of the greatest challenges/obstacles are for parents raising children today, particularly for parents coming from faith traditions? How might we overcome these challenges?

HHB: Where do I start? 

First, I think as a society we are developing a rather distorted view of freedom, which is impacting parents significantly, most especially parents from faith traditions.  This is a radical concept of freedom where the most important value seems to be ‘choice’, and it is choice itself that makes an action right.  The problem is that this radical concept of choice does not sit well with other philosophies which do not exalt choice as the highest value.  Take abortion as an example.  The pro-abortion argument is a pro-choice argument – a woman should have the right to choose what to do with her body.  But for someone who is pro-life, the question of when it is morally right to take a human life is a more important consideration than the concept of ‘choice.'  Euthansia is another example – should someone be able to ‘choose’ when they die, or is it morally wrong to take one’s life?  The proponents of choice say that one should be able to do with one’s body as one sees fit; but there are others that think the sanctity of life is more important than individual choice.  Transgender issues are another example – should you be able to choose whether you are a man or a woman?

In all these cases, when choice is the highest value, it becomes the cuckoo in the nest that drives out all other values, all other considerations.  And often, the person who suggests that there are other values besides choice is seen as a hateful, backward person who wants to implement some kind of tyranny.  Thus, you declare a ‘war on women’ if you are pro-life; you are heartless and cruel if you do not think people should be able to choose when to end their own lives, or choose their own gender.

The problem is that there are other values in that nest with the cuckoo of choice – indeed, those values are what should inform choice.  As the British philosopher Roger Scruton puts it:  ‘Freedom is of no use to a being who lacks the concepts with which to value things, who lives in a solipsistic vacuum, idly willing now this and now that, but with no conception of an objective order that would be affected by his choice. We cannot derive the ends of conduct from the idea of choice alone.’

Because politically we want to protect choice, we often do not speak publically of good choices and bad choices.  But as parents, we are the ones who teach our children what kinds of reasons and values need to guide their choices.  We are the ones who teach the difference between a good choice and a bad choice.

This is our right, and our duty, as parents, but there are times when I feel this right is slipping away.  Just recently there was a story in the news about a teenage boy who wanted to become a transgendered girl, but his parents were Christians and tried to dissuade him.  He committed suicide, which caused an outcry in the transgender community against his parents’ efforts to help him accept himself as a boy.  Yet, the parents had a right to teach him Christian values, which assert the sanctity of the body, and the importance of the body for one’s identity. 

Coming from a faith tradition myself, I am particularly concerned with the increasing hostility toward religion in western society.  This hostility seems to be linked to the idea that religions do indeed have a concept of the human good which therefore constrains individual choice.  Sadly, it is this hostility which is leading to an increasing suspicion of parents who want to raise their children in a religious way. 

Another challenge, of course, is social media.  Social media can be wonderful and indeed it has revolutionized the way we do things.  I do think it presents a challenge, however, in that our children can spend much, much more time with their peers ‘virtually’ than we ever did in the flesh.  It is true that you become like the people you spend time with, so the problem with social media is that if your child is on it all the time – and I do mean all the time – then you really have no idea who they are socializing with, what they are saying, or what is being said to them.

It comes down to a question of influence, I think.  As parents we have less of an opportunity to influence our children if we let our families get sucked into the never-ending world of social media.  Thankfully I think it is a challenge that can be successfully met if you set limits on when and where your child can have access to the internet, etc., but prepare yourself for an on-going battle, particularly through the teenage years.

Another challenge I must mention is the rise of pornography.  I see this as another area in which parents are not only losing influence, but also are being shouted down by those who see no problem with pornography.  Ten years ago we were all up in arms about how to protect our kids from internet porn; now, we have government ministers suggesting that kids can turn to porn to learn about sex.

I’ve written about porn in the past (http://philosophyforparents.com/2014/03/04/impeding-the-development-of-our-childrens-moral-reasoning-the-case-of-porn/); my wholehearted disapproval of it is no secret.  I think it gives all the wrong messages and teaches all the wrong lessons about sexual behavior.  It trains our passions to desire a certain kind of sexual experience which is selfish, violent, and ultimately lonely; it teaches us to treat the ‘other’ as an object, not a person.  It is incredibly addictive and trains us to need new images in order to get aroused, thus inhibiting us from achieving fidelity in a committed relationship like marriage.  It completely desecrates the sacred union between a man and a woman, and is thus of special concern to parents from faith traditions.  Exposure to porn at a young age literally hijacks a child’s sexuality and passions.  Yet, the ‘freedom culture’ tells parents they are controlling and backward if they try to protect their children from encountering these monstrous images.      

Holly Hamilton-Bleakley writes at philosophyforparents.com. She has an MPhil and PhD in Intellectual History and Political Thought from the University of Cambridge. She is also a mother to six children.