BellaOnline Forums Relationships Married No Kids Your Particular Workplace and Parents

I'm probably old-fashioned on this, but if I had a kid(s), I would be a stay-at-home mom. If for some coo-coo-mainy reason I did work and have a child, I would expect my husband to pitch in on taking time off work and I would have only one child.

I also think that if you don't have a partner willing to pitch in evenly about taking time off work - then DON"T HAVE A KID _ have an abortion or give it up for adoption.

Parents should think about who is going to take time off from work to deal with children's needs before they go around having even a family of two and how they are impacting a company and its workers. It is so selfish for parents to not think about it.

One solution: Daycares need to have sick wards so the parents wouldn't have to leave work early to go pick up sick kid and stay home - which goes back to why it is good that all mothers of children under 12 be stay-at-home moms.

And what kind of impact is all this daycare business having on children? Makes me sad to think of moms leaving their six-week- to 12-week-old infants at daycares. I could never in a million years to that to my kid, which is one reason why I don't have one.

I have been dying to post about this for quite a few days now- but it seems I am always at work! Not a great place to express my opinion! I happen to work for a small school district with 3 high schools. I work mostly in the administrative offices since I am in charge of training teachers. Anyway- there are two ladies there who always get to bring their kids in to work! One of the ladies is the daughter of the superintendant (she also works there) the other is her best friend (who heads up our student services dept) The daughter will bring in her two kids if they have a day off from day care/school because of a holiday or whatever and it is completely ridiculous. One of the kids is about 2 and the other is 8 months- so I get to listen to this baby screaming and watch the other mongrel run unsupervised up and down the halls all day while I am trying to FOCUS and THINK- you know- do my job!!!!??? The sheer unprofessionalism and audacity of these people amazes me and all the while the rest of us are expected to go around saying how "cute" they are around the office. The whole point is that they don't belong in the office- EVER!

What really burns my [censored] is that other women in the company have had kids and have never been allowed to do that- so there is a whole system of inequality and some people getting priveledges because they are related to the big boss. It really sucks and I can't believe no one even says anything about it! Me- I am biding my time until another job comes along... God I hope its soon!!!

i'm a teacher, and i see people with kids getting the gold treatment quite often. i've had single coworkers "volunteered" for committees "because you don't have a child at home, so you have the time." i actually heard someone say this to the woman. ever since then, i've worried someone is going to say the same to me.

i'm tired of being asked to prepare baby showers for my coworkers. i'm tired of covering their classes for them when they have to leave to pick up their kids. i'm really tired of one woman who brings her pre-school children to school when they are too sick to be at day-care (then don't bring them to a school with 1,000 kids around to spread the germs!). actually, our boss put an end to that last one after she brought one of her kids every day for almost a month. yes, he was very ill, but isn't there a family leave program or something?

anyway, when "take your daughter to work" day came around, my husband took one of our female cats to his office. everyone loved it! i'd love to bring her to my school this year for it, but my students are junior-high age and very cruel (i don't trust them to treat her with respect).

anyway, it is kind of funny when we do our insurance enrollment. it's only a small amount more to add a spouse to your plan. but several hundred per month to add children. they complain about it and say it's not fair. but they don't realize they're going to make up for it with all the dr appts their kids seem to have. at least they leave work for dr appts. i wonder if they're really just going home for a nap before their kids come crashing through the door.

We have a woman here who was out for six months on maternity leave. When she came back, she had a hard time adjusting to being away from her kid so she spent a few weeks moping around the office, crying, whining to everyone...or on the phone with the daycare....or driving to the daycare to check on him....I think she was back at work for three weeks before she put in a full eight hour day. And a few months later, when the powers that be were determining our PERFORMANCE BASED year-end bonuses, she had the nerve to say, "I better not be penalized for having been on maternity leave. That's discrimination."

Her kid is a couple years old now, and she still rarely puts in a full week because he constantly either has pink eye or an ear infection.

<img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

I work in an office environment. Note that this is not a child-friendly environment, and it's the kind of work that is much easier with silence.

I have actually advocated for some of the single mothers on the floor. In a meeting we were all discussing absences. I quoted a statistic I had seen that said that children get, on average, 12 colds per year(!). I said that our absence policy was not consistent with this, and asked if there was anything the company was doing to help people in this sort of situation.

In reality, I asked this because I would much rather that the moms stay home more instead of spreading their children's germs to all the healthy people at work. I would much rather be at work than be sick.

The part that ticks me off most here at work is that people are actually permitted to bring their children in to work to "visit." I think this is sick, mainly because people always bring the little buggers in during cold and flu season. It's certainly not safe or fun for the kids. Also, I think little kids spread germs horribly, and as I don't want to get sick, I don't want to be exposed to them. As described on the "intros" thread, I actually have a "restraining order" against any children or babies that are brought into the office to visit.

Another part that ticks me off: my boss was gone from the office for MONTHS on maternity leave last year. When year-end reviews came, she deducted points on ME because of my few absences! (I was gone sick 8 and one half days the entire year, as opposed to 3 months.) The worst part is that it was classified under the "teamwork" section of the review. She seems to have forgotten that I am on a number of committees that organize events to boost employee morale, and that I single-handedly organized and did the work for the big December Luncheon for my department. She also ignored the tons of overtime I did last year. Let me tell you about teamwork...teamwork means not abandoning your department for months while you waste your time at home, and it also means acknowledging the things your team has done to help each other.

People in my department are not given special license to be absent just because their kids are having issues, so from this aspect, things are relatively equal in my department. However, the maternity leave issue still ticks me off...that I would be penalized for illnesses that were absolutely, positively not my fault, versus someone being given tons of time for a personal choice they made. Did I mention my manager was on maternity leave just weeks after being hired here? IMO, my manager should have put off finding a job until AFTER the baby came to avoid wasting everyone else's time.

Sorry for ranting and raving...I just wish this kind of dumb stuff didn't happen at work.

We get two weeks worth of sick time a year here. I don�t really ever get sick, so apart from the occasional doctor or dentist appointment (or vet appointment) I always have a load of sick time leftover at the end of the year, which I then roll over into additional vacation time (3 hours to 1 � rip off). One of the mommies � who runs out of sick time midway through the year because her kid is a walking germ magnet � said to me, "It�s too bad we�re not allowed to donate sick time to each other because then you could give all your extra time to me." Yeah � that�ll happen about the same time I offer to babysit.

I am SO glad that at the place I work, none of the employees are of the age to have kids. We're all either in college (my two coworkers) or, in the case of my two bosses and I, have just graduated. All of my coworkers have girlfriends I think, but I'm pretty sure none of them are even engaged yet so it'll likely a few years before any of them start having kids. No baby angst in my workplace!! WOO!

Sofie--there's nothing quite so yummy as somebody who assumes that because you have something and because they have kids, you should give them that something.

If you ever have money left over at the end of the month, don't tell HER about it!

This is the childfree topic that gets me the most riled up by far. I have always worked in advertising/marketing agencies, which are fast-paced and deadline-driven environments. The moms always skip out of work and leave the bulk of it to those of us that can actually work past 5.

My current employer doesn't even have a sick leave policy - if you're sick, don't come to work. But what happens is if peoples' KIDS are sick, they skip out too. I think it should count as a vacation day, because the rest of us get screwed.

<img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />