In this month of November, we are expecting the births of a new grandbaby together with our very first great-niece or great-nephew. We already know that the grandbaby will be a boy. But the parents of the other newest family member have chosen not to know, or at least not to make public, the gender of their baby. That is exactly the way it used to be when I had my own babies - and I am one who actually liked it that way. But to each his or her own. We are still very thrilled about the imminent arrival of both.
Our newest grandson will be younger brother to our very special Prince Tyger. The Tyger's world will likely turn somewhat upside-down when his Baby Brother arrives. Prince Tyger is used to having the undivided attention of all the adults in his family, so we'll see how things go when he learns that, important as he will always be, he now will have to share the limelight. Those of us who were "oldest" in our families all learned that lesson - at least to a greater or lesser degree.
In light of these impending events, I was interested to read an article in last Wednesday's Tribune de Genève discussing a new initiative that is being proposed by la Commission fédérale de coordination pour les questions familiales (COFF) (the Federal Coordination Commission for Family Questions). The proposal would introduce a paid parental leave of up to six months for working young parents - to be split between mothers and fathers. Under this proposal, each parent would receive a minimum of four weeks of paid parental leave in addition to the regular paid maternity leave. Although the proposal doesn't describe "paternity leave" as such, it would have the effect of validating it.
When I worked with international organizations (IOs), both paid maternity and paternity leaves were part of the benefits packages even though, while I was working there, I was long past the age where I needed them. Several of my young male colleagues, however, especially those working fathers who were sole wage-earners for the families, used the month-long paternity leave (as contrasted with the four-month paid maternity leave for new mothers) to help bond with their newborn children, to give their wives an occasional break and also to help with routine chores (e.g., grocery shopping and cooking) usually performed by their wives who did not work outside the home while the new mothers got used to their new status and responsibilities. I personally believe that both are wonderful ideas - especially if one truly believes in "family values" and doesn't merely pay lip service to them. Such leaves are investments in people and in the future.
The sticking point for this proposal, of course, is the financing. The COFF has proposed raising fees and increasing the VAT (value-added tax) slightly. The right-wing UDC party is totally opposed to parental leave; the left is very favorable. But neither left nor right likes the added costs. Extraneous or tangential issues such as creating more space in day-care centers and after-school activity centers and working flexible schedules are also factors in the debate.
In its print edition at least, the article also provided a table showing that Switzerland is less generous than other European countries insofar as parental leave is concerned. While the table used Iceland and Germany, at nine months and 14 months respectively, as bases for comparison, the article concluded that the Swedish model is the most generous. In Sweden, 16 months of parental leave is the rule and the leave can be divided between both parents, although for the first 13 months, the leave is paid at only 80 percent of the gross salary. The leave can also be taken part-time.
My own country, the United States, is the only Western country not to mandate paid parental leave. In fact, it was only in 1993, under the administration of President Bill Clinton, that an unpaid leave was mandated. Before then, parents had to take vacation or their own sick leave days for such. While it is true that some private employers in the US do provide paid parental leave among the benefits offered to their employees, IMO, these employers are too few and far between. We certainly lag behind Western Europe in this respect. And Europe is certainly economically competitive with us as well.
Rather than for my country to continue to invest in endless war, I believe that I am part of the overwhelming majority that would prefer to invest in people, in families, in education, in infrastructure, in universal health care, in improving our environment and in providing for a future where all children are valued as the wondrous creations they are, not simply as future consumers, serfs to provide obscene profits for corporate overlords, or cannon fodder for the warmongers.
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