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    Socks Are My Favorite ClothesHillary Crosley Coker
    8/18/15 7:31pm

    I do not disagree with this. We must do a better job with paid maternity leave in America. But....I wonder what percentage of women go back to work because they want to. They exist. I am one. My best friend was one. And it wasn’t because we were afraid to lose our jobs. It was because we were both pressured to become mothers - “that’s what women do and that is how you fulfill your womanhood” - and within 2-3 weeks realized that we really really REALLY wanted to go back to work and be a mother in the evenings. Again, I’m not trying to discount the dire need for paid maternity leave; it is essential to a healthy work force and life-saving for those who need it. I advocate for paid maternity leave in my company every week. But that 1 in 4 isn’t always crying when she returns to work.

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      Kim Jong's AngstSocks Are My Favorite Clothes
      8/18/15 7:37pm

      I think that is what is so cool about Netflix’ new maternity/paternity policy. They’re basically saying come back anytime in the first year, at whatever amount of time you can handle. If you want to come back and work 2 day a week 3 weeks after you give birth, that’s fine. If you want to stay home for 365 days, that’s cool too. A friend of mine gave birth to twins and was begging her MD to clear her to come back to work earlier than 6 weeks (c section) because she was going crazy without any adult interaction or having any deadlines to meet (she may be a biiiit Type A). I think she may be the exception rather than the rule though.

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      Kris-the-Needlessly-DefiantSocks Are My Favorite Clothes
      8/18/15 7:38pm

      In most countries maternity leave can be given to either parent, so dad can stay home with the baby if mom wants to go back to work.

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    cakepiecakeHillary Crosley Coker
    8/18/15 7:25pm

    Damn, this is sad and stressful to read about. How do people do it?? Can I even think about doing it??

    Etc., etc. ...

    How much do you want to smell that model baby’s amazing, perfect head though? As much as me? Doubtful.

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      RuthSlayderGinsburgcakepiecake
      8/18/15 7:48pm

      You just know that little noggin smells like unicorns and rainbows. YUM.

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      eugene levy's eyebrowsRuthSlayderGinsburg
      8/18/15 8:10pm

      Fresh baby head is the best, most intoxicating smell.

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    Bridget101283Hillary Crosley Coker
    8/18/15 7:24pm

    I just checked Bernie Sanders stance on this and I’m sorry but 12 weeks is not enough. This country has to do better. It has to.

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      Kim Jong's AngstBridget101283
      8/18/15 7:31pm

      I agree, but at least it is something. Right now, if you work for a company with less than 50 employees and/or have worked at your current job for less than 12 months and/or don’t work in a city that mandates paid sick leave (most of America) you are entitled to ZERO days of time off for pushing something the size of a watermelon out of your vagina, let alone paid leave. My sister in law is about to give birth, and when she does she will have been at her job for 11 months, just one month shy of qualifying for FMLA which would allow her to take at least 12 weeks off. Her office is “generously” offering to allow her to take 6 weeks unpaid instead. It is totally fucked up. I would gladly take the 12 weeks paid over the 0 days off or 12 weeks unpaid (if you’re lucky) that we can get now.

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      Hairy AngstromBridget101283
      8/18/15 7:47pm

      Indeed, lets continue to shit all over Bernie for advocating for more than is even reasonable given the current political landscape. He’s a guy that is running a campaign that I’m convinced he knows is going to fail so that the progressive agenda gets at least lip service for some period of time and he’s making responsible demands so that he gets to stick around as long as possible. He’s not perfect, and he’s not a martyr to be praised, but he doing good. And although I agree with you that this country has to do better,(;) I assure you it will not. (As an aside, should that last comma have been a semi-colon?)

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    imaginaryfriendHillary Crosley Coker
    8/18/15 7:22pm

    How did George Carlin put it? “If you’re preborn, you’re perfect - if you’re preschool, you’re fucked” or something like that?

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      DangerZone8imaginaryfriend
      8/18/15 7:30pm

      That’s the worst part to me. Given their way, these Republicans would force every woman who becomes pregnant to carry that pregnancy to term. But when they would want time off to be with their new baby that they were forced to have in the first place? Fuck ‘em.

      Family values my ass.

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      Kris-the-Needlessly-DefiantDangerZone8
      8/18/15 7:39pm

      Because in a Republican utopia, all women should be thrilled to be a stay-at-home mom to their multitudes of children.

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    Ladyheatherlee 2016 EditionHillary Crosley Coker
    8/18/15 7:29pm

    I can't even fathom this. I was barely walking at that point after my first was born. And not that I'm anti-bottle feeding, but the whole breast choice is kind of fucked in this scenario.

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      RuthSlayderGinsburgLadyheatherlee 2016 Edition
      8/18/15 7:47pm

      Seriously. I had a c section, two weeks later I was fully doped up on Motrin, hormones, and sleep deprivation. Any professional email I sent at that time would have read like Martian poetry.

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      Ladyheatherlee 2016 EditionRuthSlayderGinsburg
      8/18/15 7:52pm

      I was chasing a a toddler within two weeks after my section (I think I am remarkably lucky), but the episiotomy stitched up by some dumbass student who should probably rethink his career choice? I could not walk. I could not sit upright. I just could not. Do. Anything. And compared to what some women I know went through, that was mild. Uterine prolapse, anyone? Shudder.

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    DrSmartyPantsHillary Crosley Coker
    8/18/15 7:50pm

    These Republican assholes are not pro-life. They are pro-birth. If they were pro-life they would be supporting paid parental leave, expansion of health care for families, initiatives to end hunger, and so much more.

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      funnymonkeyDrSmartyPants
      8/19/15 11:59am

      Pro-life would also mean supporting abortions for rape and the health of the mother. Most of the current republican hopefuls do not support any exceptions, even in the case of the life of the mother. So, that 9 year old girl in Brazil who was raped by her stepfather would be forced to carry twins to term, which would kill her. Her mother and the doctor who performed the abortion were excommunicated, but not the step-father who raped her. That’s what most of the current candidates support. It’s pretty far from pro-life.

      I get really worked up about this. Not just because I’m a human and a woman, but also because they are so fucking hypocritical. They want to end big government, to get government out of your business (when it comes to money),etc. But they want to get between me and my doctor. Get the fuck out of my uterus and my bedroom and go do something worthwhile.

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      DrSmartyPantsfunnymonkey
      8/19/15 1:42pm

      Yep. And “pro-life” to me, in a real sense, would mean supporting a woman’s right to her own bodily autonomy and treating her existing life as more valuable than the potential life of a fetus. Not treating her like an incubator and a servant. All this is why I don’t these people anti-choice rather than pro-life. There is usually nothing pro-life about them.

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    XofHillary Crosley Coker
    8/18/15 7:27pm

    “It’s plenty of time, further more these “babies” shouldn’t be sitting at home being unproductive, they are old enough to get a job and support themselves. Bootstraps!”

    -Donald Trump

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      Cakes, Pies, LiesXof
      8/18/15 9:17pm

      Oh but not those immigrant babies. Nope, those babies can just GTFO. Trump 2016, this message approved by the White Murican Babies To Elect Trump Committee.

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      imaginaryfriendXof
      8/19/15 8:40am

      I think u got him mixed up with that other multi-marriage moralist, Newt Gingrich. :P

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    notfromvenusHillary Crosley Coker
    8/18/15 8:31pm

    It’s really a travesty that this happens in the US. It’s awful.

    So I have a question for people who might know more about this! What’s the best way for a small business to offer paid parental leave? My fiance and I own a business. Right now it’s just the two of us working there, but we’re hoping in the next year or two to hire more people and eventually open other locations, so I need to start thinking about this stuff.

    If I’m paying someone for parental leave and also paying a temp worker to do their job, that’s a lot of money all at once for a small business with limited cashflow. So my idea is to set up a savings/escrow account and every month pay $X per employee into it. Then, when they need to take family leave, they get paid out of that fund.

    My other question is, from the perspective of the person receiving the benefits (I’ve never had kids) - is it better to get X weeks at full pay, or 2X weeks at half pay?

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      erelongdonedodoesdidnotfromvenus
      8/19/15 12:44am

      Short term disability insurance. That’s how my company pays maternity leave.

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      Hell on Heelsnotfromvenus
      8/19/15 1:21am

      This is why it makes far more sense to fund maternity leave through a short term disability-based payroll deduction like in California. Nearly everyone pays into it and pregnancy is treated the same as any other short-term disability. I am about four months into my almost six month maternity leave and the only portion of that time that my company has had to pay me for were the two and a half weeks of vacation I will use to offset the last six weeks of my leave, which will be unpaid.

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    JisabirdHillary Crosley Coker
    8/18/15 7:36pm

    When bills have been debated in states, Republicans have been so vehement that paid leave is bad for business and a “job killer” that legislation at a federal level has been assumed to be a no-go.

    In California the Paid Family Leave is paid for with tax deductions (called SDI) from the employees check. No jobs were killed in the making of my maternity leave. If you deliver via c-section you get an additional 2 weeks tacked on to the 6 weeks. Both dads and moms get the same amount of paid time off.


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      Hell on HeelsHillary Crosley Coker
      8/18/15 8:01pm

      I’ve said this before on other maternity leave-related posts, but CA’s Paid Family Leave program allows for six weeks of paid leave (plus an additional six unpaid if desired) that only begins after a separate pregnancy disability leave (short term disability funded via payroll tax) is completed. So if you give birth, you are entitled to at least 12 weeks paid leave with your baby, and a total of 18 weeks postpartum. You are also generally entitled to begin your PDL at 36 weeks of pregnancy...

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        opinionsporvidaHell on Heels
        8/18/15 8:45pm

        That’s awesome and yet still not enough time off

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        KikilakaHell on Heels
        8/19/15 1:27am

        I don’t know what I would have done without California’s paid leave. The job I had when I got pregnant was a 1 year fellowship and Babylaka was born 10 days after that job ended. I couldn’t have timed things better if I tried. Thankfully he wasn’t born any earlier, or I would have been at that job for less than 1 year and wouldn’t have qualified.

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