M: Maternity & Paternity Leave

Great news this week -- thanks to your hard work, New Jersey is poised to become the third state in the nation with paid family leave. The NJ State Senate passed the bill 21-15 after receiving over 63,000 (yes that's 63 THOUSAND) letters as part of a major MomsRising campaign. That's what I call "naptime activism" in action!

Learn more about the campaign behind this success story here on MomsRising.org, and I also wrote about it on my Mojo Mom blog

In New Jersey, a broad coalition of organizations including MomsRising is in the final stages of passing Family Leave Insurance. This is terrific news that has important national implications.

On International Women's Day Saturday, I started thinking about moms around the world and then moms in our own United States of America. As the mother of four children, I've spent a lot of time over the years breastfeeding babies, and so I wondered: Why do moms in the U.S. still lack a guarantee of some paid maternity leave so they have time to bond with their bundles-of-joy?

A few days back I was talking with a working mom who is newly pregnant. She's someone I really like and respect. Anyway, I asked her what she intended to do regarding maternity leave and she told me she expected that she would take a few weeks off from work.

Cookie magazine laid out all the federal and state protections for parents who must take leave for a new baby. Admittedly, it isn’t much, but it is something every new parent should know:

"Family and Medical Leave Act

In case you are new to my blog, which will regularly appear on this MomsRising homepage (so check back in often!), my husband and I are wearing the MomsRising.org t-shirts everyday until Paid Family Leave is passed in Washington State. My hope is that it will raise awareness for MomsRising.org and garner support for the passage of Paid Family Leave in Washington. Now let me take a moment to properly introduce myself and illuminate why I am taking on working for Change here at home: I am now an activist. It's not how I'd have classified myself a month ago, but my recent pledge to consider democracy as an action, as opposed to a concept, has me viewing myself differently. I am thirty-three years old. I was raised in poverty by a mother who fled an abusive husband and turned to the state for help after her self-esteem and self worth were beaten out of her and her five children. I say poverty and I wonder if you, the reader, know what I mean. It is a widely used word, and brings to mind many pictures, I want you to see mine. Poverty was living in a school bus that was converted to be our home...