Combining Family, Career, And Children
By
on
October 19th, 2006
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I'm a huge supporter of benefits that give families and children a good start in life. My simple philosophy is that by giving children what they need at an early age I believe they will require less support, care, and money later in life. At least from a government point of view. I mean things like good basic health care and some parental leave to give the family a good start during the first chaotic weeks or months. I think it makes perfect sense both morally and financially. I was happy to read about this in yesterdays Washington Post and I blogged about it over at The Blogfathers. The system is a copy of the Swedish system except not quite as great. It's a good read and a nice wake up call for people in most countries. If Sweden, France, and other countries can come up with solutions where families can combine children with a career, why can't more countries do it? Head on over to The Blogfathers and check it out.
I'm encouraged by this article and also the one below where I discussed the article from New York Times. It seems like people and countries who are focusing on families are getting more attention. The key is perfect that more people are looking at how to combine family, children, and career more effectively.
This article really makes me want to immigrate to France or Sweden! My husband and I have been struggling to spend quality time with our lil’ Erik and we try not to be the “19 minute” parents from your previous post. I don’t think we’re that bad but definitely know that after a long-day at the office, sometimes, we just need time to ourselves and wind down. Because of that, we’re sometimes just not as energized as we could be when we’re with Erik. Wish we could have this kind support system in the U.S!! Here in the west coast, a good childcare costs between $900 - $1200 per month per child! It’s outrageous! I’m just thankful to have my mum-in-law as Erik’s primary caregiver while we work during the day.
For once I couldn’t agree more with my wife – we do spend a lot of time with Erik every day after work. More time than we actually have (6-10) and then we fight over which side Erik sleeps he faces mommy or daddy – in the end the boob with milk supply always wins.
But getting back to the topic on hand – that’s amazing to have this kind of system in place – that help people who want to start and have a family. The other amazing aspect of this whole equation is that no matter which party of the government is in place they support the cause. The main reason or one of the reasons for this effort by the government would probably be the aging country. No matter what – families all over France are probably enjoying these benefits.
Something like this would never happen on our side of the pond. Are we capable of having it yes do we have the money probably. We live in California and we do enjoy some better family benefits than the rest of the country. But still nothing close to what people are enjoying in France or where you reside. We’d love to have more kids – I wish I had Erik sooner.
That’s it we need to work on moving to a new country. (was going to write more - but going to leave my political rants somewhere else) PS: what type of flash plugin are you using to display your pictures.