The Blogfathers

There’s an interesting article in Washington Post today regarding family benefits. It’s titled “As Europe Grows Grayer, France Devises A Baby Boom” (free registration required) and is written by Molly Moore (also here without registration). It talks about the tremendous family benefits in France and how much this simplifies life. I have the same low opinion of the French people as everyone else but this an excellent article about the possibility to combine a healthy family life with career and children. The interesting aspect for me is that the French system basically is a carbon copy of Sweden’s well known system with a priority on children and families. Except our economy is blooming and we don’t have any social unrest. Having lived in Sweden for the past 3 years, and seen a large baby boom, I know that the French benefits are nice and almost rank as high as the family friendly Swedes. I talked about the excellent parental benefits at AdventureDad a month ago since I’m appreciative of how much the family program has helped us with our two small children. Call me crazy but I’m convinced more countries will strive to implement drastically improved family benefits in the years to come to help families and companies combine work, family, and children in a more effective way.

A healthy country needs new babies to survive but this can be difficult when many families have to make a choice. It’s often a financial decision, career of children. Birth rates in a famous large family country with poor benefits like Italy is now the lowest in Europe and will cause tremendous problems down the road. Family benefits may not be enough of an incentive to have children but it doesn’t hurt as the article points out.

“I don’t know if the French system encourages women to have more children,” said Barbeyrac, whose husband is a documentary filmmaker. “But people don’t stop having children because of money concerns.”

I won’t bore you with a lengthy description of the Swedish system but it makes it relatively easy to combine a career with children. And it’s obvious that many use that possibility today. The parks, playgrounds, and sidewalks are alive with strollers and toddlers. The extensive benefits here do make a huge benefit in everyday family life. 480 days paid parental leave per child (many times up to 85% of you real salary regardless of amount), free health care, free high quality school from day care at age 1 to University, paid days at home with your sick child, and an overall flexible work environment that puts children first are just some of the benefits. Perhaps the best gift to our children is the possibility to split the parental leave between mother and father any way a family wants to. This means that a father like me has the chance to stay at home, get paid, and get to know my children even though I have a “career job”. Many fathers enjoy this perk but it’s also a huge benefit for women who can stay home for 6-9 months and then head back to work with the children in a fathers safe hands.

The French system also fosters different attitudes about working mothers. French working moms say they feel far less guilt than friends in the United States or Europe because French society recognizes children are well cared-for while mothers are at work.
As a result, French women are not only having more children than their European counterparts, but far more of them work outside the home than in most European countries. Three-fourths of all French mothers with at least two children are employed.

I’ve said this before and I will say it again. And again. We need women to be even more involved in the work force. They offer different, intelligent, and refreshing views and I’m totally confident that society, companies, and government will be much better off if the women play a more prominent role. But without better family benefits this means a choice between career and children which is not a good idea for any family. I’m sure more companies in the U.S. would benefit from more satisfied employees, higher productivity, and less sick days if they family benefits were better. Especially in the first six moths of a baby’s life.

“In Mediterranean countries and Germany, it’s work or children,” said Marie-Therese Letablier, research director of the Center for Employment Studies. “In France, it’s work and children.”

It would be naive to expect everything to change overnight in most countries but perhaps some baby steps here and there will lead to larger things when the employers and government realize that investing in families also make sense financially. A couple of suggestions is more paid parental leave for mother and fathers and some kids of subsidized health care for kids. Perhaps with some simple conditions to avoid cheating. Having the government spend money on a small baby may not sound like a bright idea but a good start in life will most likely lead to dramatically lower cost later on in life. I understand if the government doesn’t want to prioritize families but maybe they will think differently if they also save lots of money in the long run?

It’s hard to explain to someone how it feels like to live in a family friendly environment. To have an employer that actually understands and supports a good family life. It’s something that has to be experienced. To return to work free of worry, emotionally and financially, is a feeling that all parents deserve to experience at some point in their life. What do you say about taking just one percent of the defense budget and putting it to work in family benefits? Wouldn’t that be a good investment for the future?

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