Activistas

Protesting With Your Kids: Would You? Have You?

Despite my strong opinions on most things (no!) and apparent urge to share them, I continue to surprise myself by failing repeatedly to attend protests.  I also don't post political signs in my yard.  Not for any good reason I can think of - or recall, anyway.  Recently, though, I've been considering changing my ways - mostly to allow my children to experience protesting, to let them see how it can feel to strongly object to something the larger society supports, to stand up for their beliefs, and to exercise a freedom that I don't appreciate nearly enough.

I thought about it some more one morning this week when we noticed peace supporters waving anti-war signs (OK, giant bed sheets) about this weekend's peace protest on the Morrison Bridge.  It took my 4 & 1/2-year-old son less than 10 seconds to start pumping the questions:  Mama, why are those people holding those signs?  What do they say?   So we discussed the whole thing, right there on the #15.  Which, incidentally, is where we seem to hold most extremely controversial and alarming conversations; where I have - truly -  honed my now phenomenally tactful and PC explanations on a wide variety of touchy subjects.  Thank you, Tri-Met, for putting those 'opportunities' in our path.

The bridge protesters have already served a great purpose, simply by evoking a conversation with my son about protesting in general and how I feel about our country being involved in 'battles.'  At 4 & 1/2, battles are on the tippy top of the fascinating topics list, even above police cars/ambulances/fire trucks and monsters.  But I'm unsure of taking him to a protest at 4 & 1/2.  Having attended so few, I can't  accurately assess the pros and cons.  Have you attended a protest with your child?  How did it go?  What age seems appropriate? 

Read on for specifics about the protest this Saturday, September 29th.

The Blazers & PPS: Logos Underfoot?

Remember when Nike resurfaced all those outdoor courts in the parks?  Here we go again.  Most urbanMamas probably already have an opinion on this - you either hate the idea of branding schools to get needed funds or you can see beyond the downsides of commercialism in schools because you think accessing the funds is more important.  Valid points on both sides.

There are a number of issues to be made on the topic of these 'recognition opportunities,' not the least of which is the actual brand - what it stands for, what it sells.  And I'd eat my hat if someone thought the TrailBlazers is a good brand for high-school athletes.  These guys are in the back of a Rose City police car more often than at the free-throw line.  Good for kids?  I like a smooth surface on a school basketball court as much as the next mama, but I also like role models, and, well, one has to draw the line somewhere.  Or not, according to Tribune sports writer Dwight Jaynes in his interesting article supporting the gift.

So the question here, now, for PPS parents is: where is that line?  Where should PPS draw it?  Because apparently, it hasn't been drawn yet.  The article in today's Oregonian, Blazers Gift to School Scrutinized, says that the PPS school board policies don't specify how corporate logos can appear in school facilities (no really).  Should they?  Or should it be left open for a case-by-case approach?  The local Coalition for Commercial Free Schools has a lot to say on this topic, as you might imagine.  One of its representatives testified before the school board this week and described it as "talking to a wall."  Not encouraging. 

Where do you stand on this?  Is it school funding verses commercialism?  Or is there a better way, as some suggest: Take the gift but how about a nice plaque, guys?  Or maybe, just maybe, if our schools were fully funded, the basketball courts would be so smooth and so shiny that no Trailblazers money would be needed, thanks?  Not that I'm opposed to a little corporate contribution here and there mind you.  I mean, it's a good use of their money, right?  Let's just keep it low-key, fellas.

Feel like telling the School Board how you feel?  E-mail them at: SchoolBoard@pps.k12.or.us.  And if you ever want to attend one of its meetings, check the schedule and show right on up!

Resources for that Elusive Work-Family Balance

It's like the land of milk & honey.  Work-family balance.  We're all seeking it, but who has it?  And what, exactly, is it?  I have recently become somewhat obsessed by this topic, by the limitations of today's workplace for working parents, and my own effort to define and then attain not only balance, but perfection, in the half-changed workplace.  Judging by all the media attention and blogging on the subject, I ain't the only mama with such dreams. 

In my obsessive quest I have stumbled across some good resources lately, but know I'm missing many others - especially personal advice from the mamas who've reached the promised land.  Aside from telling me I can have it all but just not now, all at once (wahhh), what's a workin' mama to do to find that perfect flex schedule?  I admit to adding several books to my unread bedside pile: The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube and Mothers on the Fast Track:  How a New Generation Can Balance Family and Careers.  And then there's WorkOptions.com, a resource-packed web site that helps you get the flexible work arrangement you want at your current job.  The Jobs and Moms Career Center is pretty inspiring, too, and has some great ideas if you're ready to make a career shift to get the balance you need.

If you, too, dream of a different work set-up, check out U.S. News & World Report's How Moms Get on Track post.  It's, well, right on track.  And don't forget to commiserate (always a favorite pastime) with other endlessly juggling urbanMamas.  If we can't change our own situations, at least we'll know we're not alone.

Got any resources to share with day dreamin' mamas seeking the workplace of milk & honey?  I know I haven't exhausted the options yet - though I've sure exhausted myself trying!  And as for trying to change more than your own situation, check out the Family & Workplace Balancing Act of 2007 in a previous post.  It might not be passing anytime soon, but at least someone on the Hill is thinking along these lines.

Breadwinner Wives & Stay-at-Home Dads: A New Set-Up

I know there are more stay-at-home Dads these days, especially in Portland (natch), which obviously means more workin' mamas who bring home all the bacon.  As someone who brings home only part of the bacon, I had never given much thought to how stressful it might be to be the sole earner, the one covering all the bills.  I can swing some, but all??? 

And about these stay-at-home dads: how do they feel about this whole business?  What does society think of them?  Do they care?  How does it affect the balance of power in the marriage?  I know, I sound like a therapist.  But this is all part of the puzzle of the new parenting paradigm, the myriad ways people combine work & family these days.  So much has changed.  Much as the working mothers who came before us (bless their padded shoulders) subverted the norms and forged the path for todays' working mothers, today's stay-at-home dads are doing the heavy lifting, they're going first.  Men in the generation before us simply did not grocery shop on Wednesday mornings with a 1-year old in a sling. 

If you didn't see the NYT article, Breadwinner & Mother: Adjust to It, a few weeks back, check it out.  What occurred to me, but wasn't mentioned, is how these families handle unpaid maternity leave - I mean, who pays the mortgage when the sole breadwinner is home, UNPAID, feeding a baby every three hours and getting no sleep??  Yikes.  I am hoping, so hoping, that we come out the other side of all this craziness with some balance to offer our children when they attempt this work-family feat.

S-CHIP: Bring It On In, Mamas

OK, OK, I'll share the good news first: the U.S. House of Representatives just passed new legislation that extends S-CHIP, an essential and successful national children's health insurance program.  And, better yet, it looks like our Senators are ready to pass it, too.  That just about wraps it up, huh?  Well...

Which brings me to the bad news: Not surprisingly, President Bush continues to threaten to veto the bill.  As you may have read, the debate over this bill grew larger than the program itself, essentially pitting those who support universal health care (like me!) against those who don't.  Opponents see the extension and expansion of S-CHIP as a step toward government-run health care, and they'll do anything to prevent that, including deny health care to millions of lower-income children. 

That's where we come in. President Bush may have an opinion, but if his mamastituents don't like it, and they tell him how very much they don't like it, well, maybe, just maybe, in this democracy of ours, we'll convince our representative to, uh, represent us.  So hop on it, mamas.  You don't have much time and there's not much time left to let Mr. Bush know how you feel, to tell him NOT to veto this important bill, to not let politics get in the way of kids health.  I mean, really George.  Send this quick but important e-mail message prepared by the National Partnership for Women and Families.  As they say and we know well, Activistas, Actions Speak Louder Than Words.

To learn more, or remember what you already learned (who me, forget?), check out our previous posts on this topic.

Family Values at Work: It's About Time

Not that you have loads of reading time or anything.  And not like a report titled Family Values at Work: It's About Time would, say, make you put down your Wonder Time or Brain, Child magazine (or The New Yorker if you didn't cancel it like I did to prevent the 3-foot high bedside pile-up!). 

That said, you really oughta read it!!  It was just published by a group with the inspiring name MultiState Working Families Consortium (eight forward-thinking states - not Oregon!!).  And it's all there.  The whole conundrum: The problems with caring for sick children, the embarrassing state of maternity leave in our country, the lack of workplace flexibility, the fact that U.S. policies haven't adjusted to the fact that June Cleaver took her apron off and has a corner office now, and on and on.  An overview of the report should lure you in:

"Family Values at Work" documents the consequences on workers, families, businesses and the nation when family values end at the workplace door. The document details the wrenching stories of workers suffering from the lack of family-friendly work rules, summarizes key research, and lays out a policy agenda modest compared to that of other advanced nations yet urgently needed by U.S. workers and their families. These policies include a minimum number of paid sick days for routine illnesses as well as a family leave insurance fund to provide income during longer-term leaves for a new baby or serious health condition.

Most importantly, mamas, the report defines a minimum standard for workplace flexibility with four priority recommendations.  And our favorite part, it includes a report summary for those who like it short and sweet - oh, right, that's all of us! 

As the report says in conclusion: If we believe in family values, it's time to value families.  And as I've said before (so eloquently): Ye-ha!

Progressive States Network: Pushing the Mamagenda

We love this group!  The Progressive States Network has a Valuing Families campaign (nice twist...) that is excellent.  Here's how the Network describes this campaign - couldn't have said it better myself:

We need to help families provide their core economic needs:

• We should make dramatic reforms in Health Care to restrain costs and to make quality care available and affordable for every person and family in our society.
• With housing the largest expense for most family budgets, we should redouble efforts to make Affordable Housing available for all families across the country.
• We should promote the rebuilding of workplace-based Pensions and provide families with additional Asset Building opportunities.
• All school should receive equitable funding to assure Quality Education for each child, and we should make sure that college education is affordable for all families.

With the rise of two-earner families, single parenthood, and "blended" families from divorce, we need to help families Balance Work and Family demands:

• We should provide help with Child Care costs and expand Pre-Kindergarten programs to improve early childhood development.
• Workplaces should offer adequate paid time off for Family Leave.
• In order to promote workplace equality for women, we should defend Reproductive Freedom and contraceptive equity.

If you like what they have to say (I sure do!), check 'em out, sign up for their "stateside dispatches," twice weekly e-mail newsletters with state policy news & analysis, or donate some money to keep them doing good work on our behalves!  It's always heartening to find out that someone out there has got their minds on us mamas & us mamas on their minds.

Get a Running Start with PPS Parent Involvement

New to PPS?  Not sure how to navigate the hallways?  The Chalkboard Project has a great parent training in Portland on Saturday, October 20th.  This is the latest in a series of trainings Chalkboard is holding this year to better connect schools and families.  Here's the invite:

Chalkboard invites Portland-area parents who want to better communicate with their children's teachers and other school staff to a special Running Start session on Saturday morning, October 20th in the Portland metro area. We'll use our Running Start parent toolkit materials to provide you with essential information, such as how to make the most of a parent-teacher conference.         

To sign up, please contact Kristin Bryant for time and location information at kristin@chalkboardproject.org.

Never heard of Chalkboard?  It's a fantastic resource for Oregon public schools.  Here's the skinny:

Launched in March 2004, the Chalkboard Project exists to inspire Oregonians to do what it takes to make our K-12 public schools among the nation’s best. Chalkboard aims to help create a more informed and engaged public who understands and addresses the tough choices and trade-offs required to build strong schools. The independent and non-partisan group offers all Oregonians a voice and a role in making key decisions for their schools.

The organization's web site has loads of info to wile away all those empty (!) hours, including:

• The Parents Center, home of the Parent & Community Involvement Initiative,
• A Take Action page (host a house party!  write a letter to the editor!), and
• The very interesting Open Book$ page, where you can see just where your taxpayer dollars are going, all $4.5 billion!!  Central Admin?  Principals?   Plus, you can see spending by district  - how does PPS measure up?   
• A summary of 2007 legislative accomplishments.

Check it out, mamas, there's a lot at stake.

Townhall Meeting with Our State Reps ~ 10.03.07

For those of you keeping tabs on the effort to pass a paid family leave bill in Oregon, you probably know that the issue is likely to move forward again in the February 2008 short session.  If you want to hear a wrap-up of the 2007 session and get the chance to share your hopes & dreams for the 2008 session (read: pass paid family leave now!), then you're a prime candidate to attend the October 3rd town hall meeting with Rep. Diane Rosenbaum - District 42 (yes, the very one who introduced the paid family leave bill last session), Rep. Carolyn Tomei - District 41, and Senator Kate Brown - District 21.  They wrote:

Diane, Carolyn, and Kate invite you to join them for a Town Hall discussion of State issues. Learn more about the successful and efficient 2007 Legislative Session and upcoming February Special Session, as well as, share input about issues that affect you.  Don't miss this chance to meet with your legislators!

When: Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 6:30-8pm

Where: Milwaukie City Hall - 10722 SE Main Street, Milwaukie

This is a great opportunity to put a face to a name (or learn a name!), make contact for future communications, and generally move the mamagenda forward.  Don't pass it up, mamas!  If they don't know what we want, we won't get it.  Just like Santa....

If anyone is interested in carpooling, lemme know in the comments section.  I aim to be there, but we'll see what the husband says after spending the whole day with two kids under five while I sit alone, peacefully, sipping foo-foo coffee in my cube!

Election '08: Enough Attention on Mamastituents?

Barack, Hillary, Rudy, Dennis, John, Bill, and so forth and so on!!  As you know, there's a good long list of candidates for President on both sides of the fence.  And while I'm not a single-issue voter, I am a voter interested in seeing that the mamagenda gets some attention, some time in the spotlight. 

So who's gonna give it to me?  How am I gonna know?  Anyone have a candidate they think is the bomb on urbanMama issues?  Someone who's (finally) going to provide some national paid family leave, someone who can offer some real health care options so we're not all stuck in our 9 to 5 lives just so we can get our kids to the doctor?  Someone who gets the fact that childcare is bankrupting the middle class?  That child care providers are making next to nothing to raise the next generation? 

Brain, Child mag ran an article in its most recent issue on the '08 election and Soccer Moms, which states that: "Quite contrary to the idea that mothers become depoliticized by their motherhood, we found women motivated to a wide variety of political actions because of their motherhood."  Hear, hear.  And if the candidates are listening... I'm here to tell them that I don't just want to leave the world a better place for my grandchildren (lofty a goal as that is), I want to make it a better place NOW.  Yesterday.  Who's got time to waste?  The clock is ticking and I plan to do something about it.

OK, so we already know that I'm political, that I'm all riled up, and if you're reading this, likely you are too.  So what do you think?  Who's the best one to push the mamagenda, who's gonna make our politics real??    Who's gonna actually DO something about our issues?  Do we need a woman in the White House, or no?  Do we need a parent of young kids in the White House?  Or are we a loud enough, strong enough, powerful enough voice that we can force the candidates to answer us in order to get to the White House?  Oh how sweet that sounds!  November 2008 may seem like a long way off in pre-school years, but in national politics, mamas, it's just around the corner.  Let's put out thinking caps on and get this train our of the station and on into the Oval Office.  Ye-ha.