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The United States is so behind the times. We do not support our families to thrive. I am a mother of two, who works for a company in Oregon who does pay a 6-week leave. With my first child, we planned as best as two young, (early thirties) people who have never had children or raised a family could. However we ended up running up debt which took 3 years to pay off. My husband was laid off when i was 8 months pregnant. We could not have planned for that. I took the full 4 months leave, 2.5 of which were unpaid. Thanks to a lot of hard work and diligence in paying our debt we are now debt free, but it was not easy and it was painfull. Who gained? The banks who we had to pay interest to for those years on our debt.

I want to make the point that even I, who had the support of my company, family and friends, run into trouble. I would like all listeners who oppose this bill to think of not your situation or how good you planned but rather for the single mother, or the waitress, or the women who is in a violent relationship, how much more hardship it adds to not know how they will pay the bills, the rent or even get food to their family. Think about the babies going into childcare at 1 week or 2 weeks. Think about the women who go back to work after a few weeks post-partum without allowing their bodies to recover.

And lastly, life does happen, paying the tax insures that if you ever have to care for a family member, it does not have to be a child, you too will be able to take advantage of this bill.

posted 4 years, 1 month ago
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