I am very closely involved with a woman and her six children where I live. I am the main father figure these children have in their lives. I pour much of myself into them – and the mother – for no financial remuneration. I spend a lot of time with each child; I help them with their school work; I have taught each one to read; and I finance just about all the household bills – complementing what the mother gets through child benefit.
Do I do this because I am a great guy? Or is it because I am a member of a voluntary group; a group that nearly always has a positive effect on its members; where there is genuine give and take; where it is sometimes hard to spot who is the ‘volunteer’ and who is the ‘service user’? Sometimes, indeed, the whole group does voluntary, unpaid work to help outsiders.
