Thread: My baby boy is dead -- I'm a proud conservative and I believe we need paid family lea

My baby boy is dead -- I'm a proud conservative and I believe we need paid family leave to prevent more deaths

By Ali Dodd
9 hours ago

I’m a bereaved mother from a deep red state who is a proud conservative and advocate for paid family leave. I came to this place in life after my infant son, Shepard, died in his sleep at a state-licensed day care facility in Oklahoma when he was just 11 weeks old. Unfortunately, the manner of Shepard’s death happens too frequently in America.

A U.S. Senate subcommittee will examine the importance of paid family leave for American working families at a hearing Wednesday. This will be the first time paid family leave has been granted a congressional hearing in the history of the United States.

American families have a long list of problems that they encounter that no other parents in any other developed country face, including the absence of a federal policy requiring paid parental leave policy.

The Department of Labor recently found that one of out every four American women return to work within two weeks of giving birth because their families can’t afford to go without a paycheck. When these parents do return to work, child care options are expensive. Quality and safety of this industry varies wildly from state to state.

The words “America First” invigorated the Republican base in the 2016 presidential election and gave a voice to those who felt forgotten and unappreciated. Yet the American family is still forgotten. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that between 3,500 and 4,000 babies die in their sleep every year in the U.S. This horrifying number has earned the U.S. the highest infant mortality rate of any developed country.

New life is precious and irreplaceable. A total of 90 percent of the 3,500 infant deaths occur before 6 months, and the very height of infant mortality comes between 2 to 4 months after birth. It is during this time that the majority of working families are already separated and their infants are forced into group care.

In my state of Oklahoma, one person can be legally licensed to watch up to five infants at a time in a home day care. Of the 3,500 infant sleep deaths that occur annually, 20 percent of those occur outside of a parents care.

As a Republican, if I were to pick one issue that supersedes all others it would undoubtedly be life. So paid leave should have always been a Republican issue.

It is difficult understanding why our friends on the left have had a monopoly on this issue for so long. We are the party of family, of a child’s right to life and of personal liberty.

The parental paid leave policy proposed by the Independent Women’s Forum checks every box. It would allow parents to make a choice to collect early Social Security benefits, enabling them to stay home with their infants during the most vulnerable time in their lives, in return for deferring benefits on retirement for a few weeks.

This policy would provide more support to lower income families who live paycheck-to-paycheck so they could actually afford to take family leave, and it wouldn’t stop businesses from offering their own paid leave programs. Finally, it wouldn’t make government any bigger; it would just use a program that we already have in a better way to serve Americans who are brave enough to start a family.

If I were so bold as to speak directly to the Republican majority in Congress, I would say: let’s give these babies and families a better chance. Let us come together, not as Republicans or Democrats, but as mothers, fathers, and grandparents to give American families more choice and more freedom. Let us as a nation reap the proven benefits of paid leave.

In 2016 a University of McGill study found that with each additional month of paid leave, infant mortality can drop up to 13 percent. Paid leave has also been associated with increased vaccination and breastfeeding rates.

What if families were allowed extra time to learn to bond and to love each other better? Allowing family members to focus on their families when they are needed the most can only strengthen our country for generations to come.

This historic policy is worth the struggle. It is worth the effort. I ask you to please remember the 3,500 babies that will die this year in their sleep. These babies are dying and American families are being torn apart at the expense of the status quo. We can do better. We should do better.

The privilege to watch your children grow up should be afforded to every family. I would hope that on behalf of 75 percent of Republicans who support paid leave, Congress will act to save lives and keep American families together.

Ali Dodd is a mother, paid leave and safe sleep advocate, and founder of Shepard’s Watch.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/...re-deaths.html

No, paid family leave won't prevent these deaths. 80% of the deaths by your account occur in the home, not at day care centers.

Please, no more government mandates. STOP. We just got rid of the individual mandate, we're still trying to get rid of employer health insurance mandates. Now you want to add paid family leave to stay home with the baby? I'm sorry, but, no. I'm so sorry for your loss, but if your child died from SIDS, there is nothing you or anyone else could do. It's a terrible event, no one understands why it happens, or what the cause is, but paid family leave paid for out of SS funds will not stop those deaths. Please, STOP.

We have senior citizens living on a stipend because SS benefits are so low compared to the cost of living. To ask this fund to advance payments to people in their 20's 40 years ahead of schedule reducing even further the amount available for Seniors is just so wrong and so self-centered, it is astonishing. It's one step behind grave-robbing.

Unfortunately there is a difference in the costs of healthcare for women and men. Putting the burden on employers makes them less willing to hire women. That's reality. There would need to be a compensation to insurance companies to make the cost for women and men equal. Likewise, family leave would almost have to be a taxpayer supported benefit to cover everybody, not just those working for big companies.

But this moves into socialism. Maybe we need family insurance where a couple planing to have kids buy a policy to cover such expenses. No insurance? Use birth control!

What she's talking about is paid family leave, so a woman who works and has a baby can take time off from work to be home with the baby and still collect a paycheck. We have a law that already guarantees I think it's 6 weeks of maternity leave so they can't give your job away while you're at home but you don't receive your paycheck during that time period. What she is proposing and I guess others is delaying their Social Security benefits for the time period they take off to be home with the baby and have SS pay them a paycheck during that period of time. SS is for retired and disabled workers. Being home with the baby is so far outside that purpose, it's ridiculous.

What they could do is something like you suggest and create some family leave insurance policies that people pay into and then use according to those plans, whether or not that's economically feasible, how you would structure it so it was worth it, how many times you could do it, how many years you would have to pay into it before you could use it and how many years after you use it, what it would cost and still produce a profit for the insurance company, someone would have to work that out, but it could be a nice purchased insurance benefit for those who want it. But government needs to stay the hell out of it, no taxpayer money involved, and no mandates.

Thinking some more about this, it could be an option on your health insurance policies. If it was included as an additional benefit say for 3 months pay, you choose the amount not to exceed your actual pay scale, and pay into it while you have maternity coverage then it wouldn't cost very much. If the Senate would finish passing the repeal of the McCarran-Ferguson Act exemption for health insurance, then wise insurance companies would see this as additional easy benefit that would prove quite profitable for them and address this issue through the private sector.

NO PAID FAMILY LEAVE!

SAVE UP YOUR PTO TIME AND USE THAT.

YOU SAVE AND PLAN FOR A FAMILY YOU WANT!

THAT MEANS USED CARS, NO FANCY CELL PHONES, NO EXPENSIVE NAILS DONE, NO EATING OUT.

WHAT ABOUT THE EMPLOYEES WHO ARE LEFT TO PICK UP THE SLACK AND DO YOUR JOB WHILE YOU ARE OUT FOR 6 MONTHS! THEY ARE GOING TO RESENT THIS AND YOU. WHAT ABOUT SINGLE PEOPLE OR ELDERY THAT DO NOT HAVE OR WANT KIDS? WHERE IS THEIR 6 MONTHS PAID TIME OFF???

THAT IS NOT FAIR TO THE EMPLOYER OR THE EMPLOYEES!

PEOPLE HAVE EXPENSIVE CARS, VACATIONS, ALL THIS STUFF.

SO THEY TAKE OFF 6 MONTHS...COME BACK FOR 4 MONTHS, GET PREGNANT AGAIN AND TAKE MORE PAID TIME OFF? NO WAY!

Originally Posted by Judy

We have a law that already guarantees I think it's 6 weeks of maternity leave so they can't give your job away while you're at home but you don't receive your paycheck during that time period.

I had three big rigs. It took me a week to train a driver. So if a driver took off for a month, that rig would be parked. But the costs for insurance, registration and other expenses continue. What employee is going to train for a week, driver for three weeks, then get laid off? Many small businesses face that problem. So not everybody can get paid for not working.

Originally Posted by Judy

What she is proposing and I guess others is delaying their Social Security benefits for the time period they take off to be home with the baby and have SS pay them a paycheck during that period of time. SS is for retired and disabled workers. Being home with the baby is so far outside that purpose, it's ridiculous.

That would be a cut in their standard of living for many.

Originally Posted by Judy

Thinking some more about this, it could be an option on your health insurance policies. If it was included as an additional benefit say for 3 months pay, you choose the amount not to exceed your actual pay scale, and pay into it while you have maternity coverage then it wouldn't cost very much. If the Senate would finish passing the repeal of the McCarran-Ferguson Act exemption for health insurance, then wise insurance companies would see this as additional easy benefit that would prove quite profitable for them and address this issue through the private sector.

I suspect most small businesses couldn't afford to lose an employee for 3 consecutive months.

Let them deduct money from their paychecks each month to put into a "savings account".

You want a baby, YOUR choice...pay for it out of the money you put in your "savings account" and take all the damn time off YOU want with YOUR money.

Employers are not in the baby making business, they need to run a business and rely on staff to conduct that business. Now what employer in their right mind is going to hire women that "may" have children. Will probably pass them over and give the job to the elderly or a man.

This is not fair to the employees who have to do their job while they are out on extended leave.

And keep their paws off Social Security! How much have they paid into it? And then when they retire, will that be DEDUCTED from their benefits?

What if they get paid leave and do not come back.

Another government mandated big can of WORMS.

Can't afford a kid or time off...WAIT to have one.

It is not your right to force taxpayers, employers and employees to foot the bill for YOUR personal choices in life.


Good grief, quit taxing us to death, cut off ALL foreign aid, defund refugees, TPS, illegal aliens, asylum and every other bloodsucker on the planet and WE would have money in our paychecks to afford a family and time off paid for by OURSELVES!

NO MORE FREE STUFF!

Do not forget that these people with kids get Child Care Tax Credits!

Do not forget that tax rates are lower when they file 2018 tax with MORE money in their pockets

Do not forget that most people will DOUBLE their Standard Deduction and the tax brackets are all changed, some pay 0 percent on the first $25,000 of income.

NO IVANKA...NO PAID FAMILY LEAVE UNLESS IT IS PAID 100% OUT OF THEIR PAYCHECKS!

STOP STICKING IT TO THE EMPLOYERS AND THE EMPLOYEES WHO CHOOSE NOT TO HAVE A FAMILY! STOP STICKING IT TO SINGLE PEOPLE AND SENIORS!

SET UP A "FMLA" ACCOUNT WHERE THEY DO PAYROLL DEDUCTIONS TO PAY FOR IT BEFORE THEY HAVE A CHILD!