Making the Case for Kids
At UVa tonight, plus with Emily Oster
Just a quick note for any Virginians: tonight (Nov 13th) I’ll be speaking at UVa’s Blue Ridge Center. I’ll be speaking to Vox’s Rachel Cohen as part of what they’ve termed “The Future of Abortion in the United States: Not-A-Debate.”
Rachel and I obviously disagree deeply on this issue. I’m grateful to have her as my interlocutor because she’s an excellent reporter—and that requires a deep curiosity and patience with those who disagree.
I think everyone here would really enjoy https://www.vox.com/policy/379309/child-care-affordable-germany-motherhood-kita-daycare. (As you might expect, “guaranteed” merits some scare quotes). It puts more emphasis on facilitating part time work.
Rieger, like most moms in Germany, works part time, sending her kid to day care until 3:30 in the afternoon. By contrast, more than half of mothers in the US work full time.
“Without day care I couldn’t have worked at all, or rather, a lot less … I can’t even imagine how it would have worked,” Rieger said. “But day care does not enable you to do your work as before … so I think for a lot of people the decision is still, ‘Do I want to have a career or do I want to have children?’ because there’s a difference between working and having a career.”
Meanwhile, I was thrilled to be a guest on Emily Oster’s Raising Parents podcast. She’s been exploring questions about parenting (screen time, nutrition, gender dynamics) and I joined her for the question under all the questions:
Should You Have Kids?
Finally, for the wonks worldwide: next Tuesday (Nov 19) I’ll be part of a panel sponsored by EPPC on what pro-family tax policy may look like in the wake of the recent election.
And one big shoutout to the Blue Ridge Center, who planned the event around my needs as a working mom, travelling with a nursling baby. We’ll see if he makes it to the stage.
A good follow up to my own days quietly eating cheerios in a pack and play alongside my dad’s desk while he had office hours with students.
I used to have latitude to allow nursing mothers on my team to be primarily WFH until they had day weaned (coming in for special meetings might still be necessary, but not for day to day work). Unfortunately, my company no longer gives me that discretion, which is really frustrating.
Edited to add: we give almost 6 months paid leave, so this only helped women who day nursed past six months, but I did have 2-3 employees who took advantage of this and it was huge in terms of their job satisfaction, retention, and productivity.
With 5 children, 2 of whom I birthed and reared through undergrad and grad school, I have seen and experienced many accommodations for parents and their children. But for some reason, the one that comes to mind now is the extra wide, close to the destination building, right next to the handicap ones, parking spots, complete with signs specifically designating them for families with young children. I’ve seen this in exactly 2 places ever and I LOVE it. Not sure if I’d actually rank it as the *best* accommodation for families, but certainly one of the most unique ones I’ve seen to date. It proclaims loud and clear, “You are welcome here and moreover, we want you and your children to not be dead.”