With Father's Day nearing, Dove Men+Care wants to cultivate advocates for paid paternity leave through a newly created forum on social media. The grooming products company, a longtime outreach partner with City Dads Group, has launched Advocates for Paternity Leave, a closed Facebook group. In this digital space, DM+C hopes expectant dads, families and other individual and business allies will find inspiration to help change federal laws regarding paid family leave, engage with other like-minded activists, and learn how to advocate for the cause, according to company spokespeople. As … [Read more...]
Giving Time, Not Money, Priority for a Healthy, Happy Family
Even before becoming a dad, I always thought my role as a father was to be the family’s provider. I grew up in an environment where undoubtedly that was the case, and it was reinforced by the corporate environment where I started my career because the culture there highly valued money over time. Therefore, it’s no surprise that I grew fascinated with focusing on my career and making as much money as I could, even at the expense of my personal time. Then -- boom. My wife and I had to deal with a series of health issues. First, it was mine: a serious case of shingles that evolved into … [Read more...]
Paid Paternity Leave Pledge, Grants Offered by Dove Men+Care
Disclosure: City Dads Group received compensation from Dove Men+Care. Paid parental leave is a major cause for City Dads Group, in particular, paid paternity leave for new fathers. Despite some progress in recent years, many men still face ridicule and diminished career prospects whenever they chose family over work even for something as momentous as the birth and upbringing of a baby. Our longtime partner Dove Men+Care aims to push the conversation forward with a new campaign asking for individuals and businesses to take a Paternity Leave Pledge to encourage the creation and use of … [Read more...]
Paid Family Leave Movement Gaining Some U.S. Momentum
The United States is the only industrialized nation without a federal paid family leave law, but that might be changing -- albeit slowly and only at the state level. Four states, mostly recently New York, have added laws to make sure private employers allow workers to take time off with at least partial pay so they may care for a new child in the family or for a sick loved one. Washington state passed a law years ago but never enacted it because of funding issues. Connecticut's legislature introduced bills in 2017 that only received symbolic debate in the state's capital, though Democrats … [Read more...]
Could Social Security be a Key to Universal Paid Parental Leave?
An intriguing idea to finally bring paid parental leave to all working moms and dads in United States has come out of Washington, D.C., just not from the government. An opinion piece in the Jan. 25, 2018, issue of The Wall Street Journal floats the idea of a parent's future Social Security benefits being used to fund time off to care for a new child. If a parent uses any of his or her benefits for leave, the parent would be delayed in receiving Social Security payments upon retirement. The opinion piece's authors write that the delay in payments received later in life would be shorter … [Read more...]