Children and Career
(Read Kathryn Cramer and then head to Lean Left for some comments...)
Kevin: "so I don't think she outta line in wanting some recognition that her family is as important as her work."
Exactly. I speak from experience (3 children 25, 16, and 2) as a double income parent, stay-at home dad, single parent, and double income parent again. By making it difficult to balance family life and professional life many companies have either lost or slowed the advancement of some of their best employees.
Why? Because of a frankly outdated notion that children don't belong in the workplace. That's an Industrial Revolutionary idea that should be junked. Children have always been a part of the workplace. For example, they participated in the growing, gathering, and preparing of food.
Give a good employee a flexible schedule, on-site child care, and some empathy and you'll develop a loyal, energetic, motivated, hard-working employee.
(Note: I know not all careers can allow children. Editor certainly can.)
(Additional note: For every complaint a father has about this subject you can triple it for working mothers.)
Note: I changed the link to Kathryn Cramer's article. For some reason it is no longer on her site. The link now points to the Internet Archive copy of the article. (August 26, 2006)
