Paid Family Leave

January 10, 2007

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...

yvonnemonique

Paid Family Leave

December 31, 2006

Have a New Year's resolution to share? An inspiration for the next 365 days? *Share your resolution by clicking the blog title above or "Read full post" link below, then scroll down to the end of the blog text and Post a Comment. Speaking of inspired, check out what two MomsRising members, Yvonne and Ken, are doing for their New Year's resolution in the text below. *A New Look for a New Year by Yvonne and Ken: "At the end of every December, our family picks themes to represent our upcoming year. The theme is a way to help each of us focus on something we want more (or less) of in our lives. Last year Yvonne's theme was "Start no new projects." Ken's was: "Better balance between time spent at work and time spent at home." At the end of the year, we keep looking ahead and find something new to work towards. 2007 brings us the first unified theme since our marriage. After seeing the Motherhood Manifesto DVD in December we both were inspired to get involved. Neither of us has spent much time in political activism beyond merely writing a check or signing a petition so this year we pledged to go from passive activism to full-time, every day, social change animals. We will accomplish this by becoming human MomsRising t-shirt wearing billboards until paid family leave passes in our home state. Yep, we each will wear a MomsRising t-shirt every day, until a paid family leave bill is passed in Washington State.

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

Paid Family Leave

December 7, 2006

Do tell! Please share your ideas for what MomsRising should e-mail out to members as a holiday greeting here! *To share your ideas, click the blog title above or "Read full post" link below, then scroll down to the end of the blog text and Post a Comment. The holiday season is a great time for making people smile, and also for helping grow the size of our movement. You, our members, are the key source of great ideas and power behind the dynamism of MomsRising.

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

Paid Family Leave

November 22, 2006

We have exciting news on this front: You all are amazing! Last week in response to news that a ticket agent forced a mother off a Freedom Air flight run by Delta Air Lines for breastfeeding on-board, MomsRising put up a petition and you responded (and can still respond!). In less than a week the petition gathered over 20,000 signatures telling Delta Air Lines that breastfeeding mothers should be supported, as well as supporting the Breastfeeding Promotion Act before Congress. Over 20,000 signatures! Emails and calls from MomsRising members, as well as regular updates about the high number of petition signatures, pushed both Delta and Freedom Airlines to issue statements underscoring their commitment to allowing women to breastfeed onboard planes. Freedom Air also noted that the incident would serve as a training opportunity for all employees.

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

Paid Family Leave

November 16, 2006

Can you believe a woman was recently kicked off a Delta airlines flight for discreetly breastfeeding her child!? Please share your own breastfeeding tales of triumph and embarrassment here (*Click the blog title above or "Read full post" link below, then scroll down to the end of the blog text and Post a Comment)! And don't forget to sign the petition to tell Delta Airlines to get a clue and be supportive of breastfeeding mothers, as well as tell Congress it’s time to pass the Breastfeeding Promotion Act, which amends the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect breastfeeding mothers.

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

Paid Family Leave

October 18, 2006

Hey all -- We're testing out turning on the ability for folks to comment directly on each blog post starting now. So here's the first test. Comment away! Got an idea you want to share? Test your comments here.

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

Paid Family Leave

October 9, 2006

Crossposted from Playground Revolution The New Republic last week published an essay about three books on motherhood with the inane title: "Mommies, Mommies, Mommies: Meow Mix." I'm not making this up. I couldn't make up a title with such a high cringe factor if my life depended on it. I won't link to it, because, a, you have to subscribe to TNR to get to it, and b, because if all of us smart annoyed moms start clicking their website, they win. Their hit numbers go up and yes, that's good for them. Mother snark has become a tried and true way for magazines and newspapers to ride our rage and rack up sales. We must resist. Glance at a copy on a newstand, then announce loudly to everyone in hearing range that this magazine is snarky and mean to mothers. But don't buy it. Sadly, I've already been in contact with an editor at TNR who seems to think it was a fine piece, and funny. She didn't respond to my charge that their standard for journalism on women's issues is astoundingly lower than their standard for covering other issues in the magazine. She sidestepped it. Snark is clearly okay when it comes to us gals, especially gals with kids at their side.

Miriam

Paid Family Leave

July 1, 2006

Up online now for all to read is Chapter 3 of the Motherhood Manifesto, "O: Open, Flexible Work Options." Then after you read Chapter O, share your thoughts with others on the MomsRising forum . Contrary to what some believe, flexible work options aren't a utopian ideal. In fact, many companies are finding that when they stop managing by the clock, and start managing by work results, as Best Buy did, they see better employee job performance, better employee retention, and lower training and recruitment costs. It can be a win-win situation for all.

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

Paid Family Leave

May 25, 2006

We just posted Chapter "M", about maternity/paternity leave, online. To read Chapter "M", click here. And, we opened a new forum so you can discuss these issues with others. Check out the forum here. Join us online. Read the chapter. Tell your maternity story. Hear others' stories. Pass it on!

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner

Paid Family Leave

May 14, 2006

Happy Mother's Day! Here's a piece I just wrote in response to some of the reader comments about Joan and my posts on www.HuffingtonPost.com . Yes, I'm venting a bit. A woman can’t open her mouth these days about motherhood issues without getting called cutely naïve or politically incorrect. It drives me nuts.

Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner