Federal Employees Closer To Paid Parental Leave : NPR

Federal Employees Closer To Paid Parental Leave : NPR.

Was listening to the Republicans ranting about paying federal employees for 4 weeks of parental leave - while some touted the benefits of early bonding between mother and child, others whinged and moaned about that and complained that they'd be setting a precedent for paid leave for ALL employees of ALL employers to have 4 weeks paid parental leave.

My from-the-gut immediate response to this debate: If our government and our employers got behind families and actually PAID for both parents to spend the first month of an infant's life with them and with one another, we'd have much better outcomes with our families, our children, and our employees.

My husband - a federal employee - was hard-pressed to take 1 week of leave after our daughter's birth 3 years ago because he hadn't yet accumulated enough paid leave. I know that his presence may not have prevented the post partum depression I was sucked into, however, that first month could have been more family-oriented and bonding-oriented for all of us.

I feel deeply scarred by those early weeks post partum - emotionally and spiritually. I ended up taking a very long maternity leave - from my own company thus unpaid because I was incapable of doing the work and maintaining my sanity.  We took a huge financial hit because of that.

Federal Employees Closer To Paid Parental Leave : NPR.

What do you think about paid parental leave?

Comments

[cathy]

after a long campaign, we have just achieved universal paid maternity leave here in australia (18 weeks at the minimum wage), for any woman who was in work before her baby was born.

i'm afraid that leaves only the US in the OECD not making this investment in mums and babies.

i know americans think very differently from other countries about state-funded anything, it's a different culture from other countries where i've lived (UK, netherlands and australia). but it seems SO important to let mums be at home with their babies in those early months, for breastfeeding, bonding and peace of mind.

i really hope women in the US get to enjoy this too at some point in the future.