Paternity leave Bill Garlick

Boston Celtics center al horford Missed game on Monday to be with his wife for birth of child Blasted by media personality for missing game opining he should have hopped on a private jet Organization very supportive Returned to practice Tuesday NBA player missed one game to be with his wife Radio personality stated he shouldn’t have missed the game and should have hopped on a flight to play Celtics organization emphasized family first and backed it up Was at practice the following day (Weiss, 2016)

LCC Director Bill Garlick Took two weeks off to be with family after birth of child Criticized by no one and could not afford a taxi ride from house to work Organization very supportive Took off two weeks to be at home

Importance of paternity leave Increased father engagement1 Better development outcomes such as behavior and mental health1,2 Father more involved nine months later1 Reduce work/family balance conflict3 Mothers increase their employment3 Listing out the many benefits of paternity leave: Increased father engagement, more bonding done with the child/children from the start, opportunity for higher satisfaction and long term bond. Better developmental outcomes such as fewer behavioral problems and some increase in overall cognitive ability as well as mental health Father more likely to be involved with child care nine months later and beyond Department of labor survey showed that work/family balance is important, paid leave makes it easier to balance work/life being able to focus on family Fathers taking paternity leave showed an increase in mother’s full time work. 1(Nepomnyaschy & Waldfogel, 2007), 2(Huerta, et al., 2013), (U.S. Department of Labor, 2015)3

Paternity leave statistics3 DoL survey shows that roughly 9/10 fathers take some sort of leave Also shows that of the ones who took leave 70% took 10 days or less. From the research, it seemed more of the benefits came from longer leaves from work. Fact remains that for both mom and dad, most workers in the U.S. have no access to paid parental leave. “most workers have no access to paid parental leave at all” (U.S. Department of Labor, 2015,p. 2) (U.S. Department of Labor, 2015)3

Family medical leave act (FMLA) Federal law allowing 12 weeks unpaid leave per year to deal with family matters. Fathers can take off for birth Employer must continue health-care Guaranteed to have the same or equivalent position when they return Highly compensated key employees could be denied FMLA allows for parents (male and female) to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave from work. Must continue healh-care, and a guarantee to have the same or equivalent position when they return. Some states have paid paternal leave – Michigan is not one of them. States can also provide other leave options such as paid leave (Aamodt, 2016)

My personal experience Homebirth Two weeks of leave (vacation time) Had to perform my job every single day so far Difficult to balance home, work and school Homebirth – My role as dad even more important as there is not a team of doctors and nurses to take care of my wife, also having a large role along with midwife. Two weeks of leave taken, I had to use my vacation time that I had saved up in order to take it. I would have liked to take a whole month off. Still had to work – Every day had something I _had_ to do. I would have preferred to not have that additional stress because it affected me quite a bit. Still difficult to balance home, work and school commitments while trying to be at home for my family. Hazel Elizabeth Garlick

References Aamodt, M. G. (2016). Industrial/organizational psychology: An applied approach (8th ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning. Huerta, M. d., Adema, W., Baxter, J., Wen-Jui, H., Lausten, M., RaeHyuck, L., & Waldfogel, J. (2013, January 13). Fathers' leave, fathers' involvement and child development: Are they related? evidence from four oecd countries. Retrieved from OECD Social, Employment and Migration: http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration- health/fathers-leave-fathers-involvement-and-child-development_5k4dlw9w6czq- en Nepomnyaschy, L., & Waldfogel, J. (2007). Paternity leave and father's involvement with their young children. Community, Work & Family, 10(4), 427-453. U.S. Department of Labor. (2015). Retrieved from DOL policy brief: Paternity leave: https://www.dol.gov/asp/policy-development/paternityBrief.pdf Weiss, J. (2016, November 29). In defense of Al Horford, common sense and respect. Retrieved from SB Nation: http://www.celticsblog.com/2016/11/29/13785112/al- horford-baby-leave-michael-felger-boston-celtics-brad-stevens-paternity-miami- heat-atlanta