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Family and Home Network

A podcast and more! Responses to our Wikipedia article

Published 5 months ago • 2 min read

May 22, 2024

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Dear Reader,

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Soon after we shared the news about our new article on stay-at-home mothers for Wikipedia, we heard from leaders of other non-profit organizations in the U.S. and internationally, as well as from doctors, professors, counselors, journalists, and at-home mothers!

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Lisa Reagan, Editor of Kindred Media, interviewed us - FAHN Board member Willow Duttge Tepper, who led our Wikipedia project, and me. We were honored to be interviewed by Lisa, who for decades has been learning and leading the way to a wisdom-based, wellness-informed society. Family and Home Network is a partner with Kindred, and you can learn more about their "New Story of our Human Family" and read Lisa's article about our project on their website. Listen to the interview on YouTube or SoundCloud.

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From Kindred:

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Our Wikipedia article was noted in the newsletter The First 1000 Days, written by international journalist Irene Caselli. The theme of this issue is "Thou shalt not judge..." and our project is the last item in the newsletter, with the heading "What's been inspiring me." Irene said about our project, "I would love to see more of this grassroots work to make sure that we contextualise the everyday language we use."

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Ironically, as I was reading Irene's "Thou shalt not judge" newsletter, I heard about a football player who created quite a ruckus by giving a commencement speech filled with judgmental condemnations of people who don't live in accordance with his beliefs. And he urged the young women graduates to focus on home and children rather than on their careers. As news got out about his speech, some of the people who spoke up in defense of working mothers couldn't manage to do so without disrespecting at-home mothers. We'll be writing more about that.

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This latest cultural squabble is another example of why we set out to ensure that at-home mothers have accurate, respectful representation on Wikipedia. As Willow explains: “I hope that moms who come to the Wikipedia page see all this information about the value of what we’re doing, and use it as a doorway to empowerment.”

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As Willow and I mentioned in the interview with Lisa Reagan, Wikipedia articles can be edited by anyone. Already, the article has been edited by Wikipedia editors, one of whom also sent us a note of appreciation for writing it.

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Our article included a section about how the government defines "employed mothers" for statistical purposes. A Wikipedia editor cut the following two sentences; the reason given was "removed essay-like content."

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For decades, the statistics have been widely misused to imply that all “working mothers" are employed full-time and in need of all-day child care and other policies crafted especially for them. This has serious consequences for millions of parents and children as they are left out of public policies.

We plan to rewrite the points we were trying to make in those sentences. We have the opportunity to try again to explain better (and probably more!)—with plenty of citations.

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I know this time of year can be so busy for families. I hope you're having a great week! Thank you for taking the time to read our news.

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Cathy Myers

cmyers@familyandhome.org

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P.S. We'll be posting possible additions to the Wikipedia article in our online community, Family and Home Community, as we write and edit. We'd love to hear your thoughts as we work through this.

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If you can share any of our posts—and/or forward this newsletter to family and friends, that would be a great help!

Family and Home Network, P.O. Box 72134, Durham, NC 27722
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Family and Home Network

Helping families spend generous amounts of time together.

National nonprofit organization offering affirmation, information and advocacy to parents, with a focus on at-home parents and those who spend (or want to spend) generous amounts of time with their children. Advocating for Inclusive Family Policies.

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