Post Written by Michelle Noehren for WorkingMother.com
Working Mother Media recently launched their campaign to gain paid parental leave in the United States by 2015. In honor of this important campaign I’ve taken to a little poetic doggerel.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks a lot for the unpaid leave.
Unfortunately, it’s only a minor reprieve -
We’ve got bills to pay and mouths to feed
And losing our income makes us quite frenzied.
-
If family values are what our country supports
Then why aren’t we cohorts
Working together to enact paid leave?
Seems like a no-brainer to me.
-
Our paid parental leave should be in harmony
With France, Germany and Hungary.
But instead, the U.S is at the bottom of the list
And working parents suffer (if you get my gist).
-
Taking time off to care for a newborn
Should make us feel happy, instead of torn.
But here we sit in 2011
Questioning our society’s misdirection.
-
It’s about time our country fell in line.
I’d really like to see paid parental leave become a reality in my lifetime.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michelle Noehren is the Events & Special Projects Manager at the Connecticut Permanent Commission on the Status of Women and is the founder of www.ctworkingmoms.com, an online community for Connecticut working moms. In addition to her career, website, husband and baby girl, she was recently appointed co-chair of the National Mothers & Caregivers Economic Rights Advisory Committee.
Related Posts
The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of MomsRising.org.
MomsRising.org strongly encourages our readers to post comments in response to blog posts. We value diversity of opinions and perspectives. Our goals for this space are to be educational, thought-provoking, and respectful. So we actively moderate comments and we reserve the right to edit or remove comments that undermine these goals. Thanks!