1. Paternity leave
Bill Garlick

2. 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)

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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)

7. 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

8. 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: 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), U.S. Department of Labor. (2015). Retrieved from DOL policy brief: Paternity leave: Weiss, J. (2016, November 29). In defense of Al Horford, common sense and respect. Retrieved from SB Nation: horford-baby-leave-michael-felger-boston-celtics-brad-stevens-paternity-miami- heat-atlanta