Michelle and Joe are both doing medical residencies and are expecting their first kid this summer. It's hard to imagine more intense, demanding jobs, even in NYC, but it's easy to imagine the discussion about paternity leave that Michelle posted on her weblog, The Underwear Drawer; it's a conversation that almost every new set of parents has to have. And sometimes you have to have it several times.
Paternity leave [the underwear drawer]
I just thank God my husband and I both work at VERY accomodating workplaces. I was able to be at home until my son was 6 months (I worked via a vpn connection most of that time), and my husband was able to be at home for the first 2 weeks, and just worked part-timeish remotely. Yay for technology and cool bosses.
[you sure you're not Canadian? -ed.]
Even in the US, one can have cool bosses. Shhh, if the Bush administration finds out, they might invade those workplaces...
Academic folks have the ability to plan flexible schedules, which is what my husband did. Baby arrived just before finals. Hubby was able to be home with us for a couple of weeks until summer session. After that, I went back to work half time and he was home full time until fall semester.
He planned a 2-day on campus schedule in the fall and I fit my schedule around his (my boss is way cool). At 9 months, baby started part time daycare, and now at 13 months she's in there most of the work week, catching every bug, slime and virus out there. Meanwhile, we can pay our bills, we both have jobs we love and baby gets to play with heer pals all day.
It's family values on a small scale. We just have to go for it one family at a time--you know, if the people lead, then the leaders will follow.