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Maternity leave is supposed to make moms' lives easier -- and their babies' lives better. But if you've ever had a co-worker drop a snide comment about your time off after giving birth or dealt with a boss who hemmed and hawed about giving you your legally protected leave, you know it's hard out there for moms who take maternity leave. And a woman's unusual break from work is about to make it even harder for all the moms out there.
Tanya Oliva is on maternity leave .... for her puppy.
No, this is not a story out of a supermarket tabloid. Oliva did not give birth to a canine.
She has, however, convinced her bosses to let her take time off to spend with her new "four-legged child" (her words, not ours). As Oliva told a Canadian TV station,
I believe in making sure every man, woman, child, animal has the best chance in life, and by taking maternity leave for my puppy, he is going to be just a great dog.
As if women don't have it hard enough justifying sometimes as little as a week or two off from a job to recover from the painful and exhausting labor and delivery, establish a good breastfeeding routine, and try to help a new human being get settled into life? Not to mention doing it all on little to no sleep?
Sorry, folks, but this goes beyond ridiculous and straight into insulting, even for moms who love their doggies. We are talking about creatures that eat their own poop and can legally (and morally!) be left in a crate for hours on end.
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Oliva is generating a lot of jokes on the Internet for her days off for doggy, but for mothers -- especially moms here in America -- this is no laughing matter. Only 16 percent of employers offer fully paid maternity leave. More than 40 percent of moms end up taking unpaid leave, while nearly 50 percent end up cobbling together a leave by using up their sick, vacation, and personal days in order to stay home with their baby.
And why do we do it?
It's not because babies are cute, folks.
It's because scientists have proven maternity leaves are crucial for the health of a mother and health of her baby both, from lowering the risk of postpartum depression to increasing the chance that a mom can successfully breastfeed.
We're talking about successfully changing the lives of human beings. And Tanya Oliva wants to equate that with cuddling a puppy?
Let's just call this what it really is: vacation. Not maternity leave.
What do you think of Oliva's stunt? Is this insulting to "real" moms and their fight for fair leave?
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