3,120 new moms tell who gets it, who doesn't, and what it's really like during the time away from work - Parenting.com
Copy and paste this letter and e-mail it to your state representative - Parenting.com
American voters, at least, don't need to be convinced of the importance of paid family leave. Seventy-six percent say they want it, even at the cost of a small tax on their paychecks, according to Celinda Lake, president of Lake Research Partners, a prominent polling firm based in Washington, DC. Yet year after year, proposals to expand maternity leave languish while wave after wave of new mothers are forced to leave their babies too soon.
Okay. You're ready to march into Congress and force lawmakers to get in gear. But first you need to take the baby for a checkup. Then gulp down a few bites between nursing sessions. And squeeze in enough sleep so you can start over at 5 a.m. tomorrow. How can you get Uncle Sam to start doing right by America's families without neglecting your own? Try these super-easy strategies:
E-mail the presidential candidates. It's a cinch, thanks to MomsRising, a nonpartisan organization with 140,000 members dedicated to advancing family-friendly legislation. Just go to MomsRising.org and click on the "Campaigns" link, then click on "MomsVote '08: E-mail the Candidates." The next window provides a sample letter you can modify or just send off as is to Senators John McCain and Barack Obama. The MomsRising site also has a sample letter for the Republicans' VP pick, Sarah Palin, asking her where she stands on paid maternity leave and other family issues.
E-mail your state reps. It's important to contact state officials because there's a better chance that change will be enacted first at the state level (see "Spotlight the States," below). We've posted a sample letter and provided a list of all the Democratic and Republican state party websites. You can find links to your federal, state, and local government representatives at these sites, then copy and paste our letter into their e-mail forms.
Show up at voter events. The more moms the candidates hear from directly, the more they'll realize that we mean business! Your state party website will have links to each elected official's own website, so you can find out if they are planning town-hall meetings or voter forums nearby. Go and ask about paid maternity leave.
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