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A Student’s View Of Paternity Leave In The United States

Written by Melissa Regalado — 

O’NEALS — The most valuable thing in life is time. Our lives are surrounded by the limit that time represents. Everything we do is measured in time: our birthdays, our milestones, our jobs, and our memories.

If time is so important to us, why are we not investing time in the most valuable aspects of life?

Becoming a parent can be one of the most life-changing experiences in a human’s lifetime. It is important for parents to socialize with their child as much as possible to create a lasting bond that will determine important traits of the baby’s character and emotional well-being.

This is known around the world, and that is why many first world countries take action and give both parents the opportunity to interact and care for the child through paid leave.

Why is the United States not doing the same for its people?

In many European countries, it is common to have the same amount of paternity leave as maternity leave. They view the father’s influence on the newborn or newly adopted child equally as the mother’s.

There are many stories about how “daddy issues” can often impact a person’s life more than “mommy issues.” This is possibly due, among other reasons, to the fact that a child knows a mother has the instincts to want to care for them and love them because of the hormones released at birth.

This is different when it comes to fathers. A child needs to connect with their father during the first days of life because they need to feel the acceptance that is not instinctual for the father to care for the baby. It is a fact that a newborn usually looks like the father so he will not reject it when seeing it for the first time. There are many reasons why a father should be able to form a relationship with his baby, but the sad truth is that, here in the United States, work is getting in the way of this connection.

When analyzing this on a large scale, family is the base of our society. If we promote unity and balance, we promote a stronger country, as has been proven by observing the countries who put family values first. They are happy and successful countries. In the world, at least 81 countries offer paid paternity leave as well as maternity leave, while the United States has yet to offer a nationwide secure paid leave.

Giving parents enough time is not enough; in order to make people’s situation a possibility, our country should guarantee a certain amount of paid leave. One should not be required to have a special type of insurance to be able to care for their child.

I conducted a survey with about 82 people in our mountain community. Out of the results, 43.2% of people are single, 22.2% are in a relationship, and 34.6% are married. I asked whether they believed men should receive any kind of leave, paid or unpaid, or not and 84% believe they do, 4.9% believe they don’t, and 11.1% had no opinion.

This shows how people know that, some way or another, it is important for men to stay home, help, and connect with the child when it is born or newly adopted. Our community acknowledges the importance of parental roles and the majority believe that society should work towards a more accessible solution.

There are other reasons why having a longer paternal paid leave is important. Fathers can help out with house chores when the mother is healing from childbirth. They can help the mother with other children that may be in the household and get them to their daily activities.

Single fathers can spend more time with their child. Gay couples can spend the necessary leave time off work to situate their new child and not have to put the baby in day care right away. People need to realize that paternal leave has a purpose and it is definitely not just an excuse for fathers to get a longer paid vacation time.

Time is everything to us, we need to spend it wisely on the important moments in life. Our country should work together to create a balance between work and families that benefits everyone. Allowing people to have a better life situation will improve overall working performance and create a more successful country through healthier families.

Melissa Regalado is a Minarets student enrolled in Creative Writing

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