What to Do About Swine Flu

Last year, on the last day of school before spring vacation, a little boy at my son’s school threw up as he was filing into school in the morning. Word quickly spread among the parents waving goodbye to their kids.

I was furious at first. “How could the boy’s mother not have noticed he was sick this morning? How selfish of her to send him too school. My kids better not get sick during vacation.”

And I like to think I’m a feminist. Hah! My response was horrible. Human, but horrible.

For starters, I automatically placed responsibility for the child’s health on his mother. Sure, it’s mostly mothers dropping off at this school. But that doesn’t absolve fathers from parenting responsibilities. Next, I don’t think you can predict vomit. And finally, maybe that mother, like 57 million other Americans doesn’t have any paid sick days.

Or maybe she does have paid sick days, but she was saving her days off to spend time with her kids during school vacation.  Or maybe, she had used up all of her sick leave when the flu went around the school a few months earlier. I know my kids and I were knocked out for days in that round. And maybe, like so many workers in this economy, she was afraid to call out of work for fear of losing her job. Or maybe, she simply didn’t know her child was sick. I don’t know why she sent her son to school that day. But I do know this.

• As friends and neighbors we need to practice some compassion this flu season because it is threatening to be a nasty one. And most corporate entities aren’t known for compassion.
• As working parents, we need to plan ahead for when our children get sick. That means lining up the grandparents, sitters, friends, neighbors, sick-daycare services now so we always have a Plan B.
• As citizens, we need to tell Congress to pass the Healthy Families Act requiring employers with 15 or more full-time employees to provide at least seven paid sick days a year.

We know that an estimated 22 million women do not have any paid sick leave. We know that women handle up to 53 percent more time than men on household activities including childcare. And we know that women occupy more of the lower earning jobs where working from home is not an option. Hello Ladies, we need to rectify this.

Start by clicking here to send a letter to your Senators urging them to support the bill.

Be Sociable, Share!

• 

Tags: H1N1, Healthy Families Act, Swine flu, work life balance, working mothers