The AAP officially called for federal paid family leave & now I am full of hope and feelings

In a nice way!

Did you see that the American Academy of Pediatrics will be releasing a policy statement calling for national paid family leave in the November 2024 issue of Pediatrics? I totally missed it yesterday when the news broke (which is ANNOYING — much like how the surgeon general’s policy on parental stress barely got coverage) but hey! It’s still cool. These can be really lovely to read (at least to dorks like me and maybe you), and I have to believe that they matter. At the very least, these kinds of things feel like really important stepping stones. Here’s an excerpt (the bolded bits are my emphasis), if you’d like to have a good policy statement-induced cry (my favorite kind!):

“The U.S. is the only industrialized country without universal paid family and medical leave (PFML) regardless of financial, racial or ethnic background when adding a new family member or when a close family member becomes sick. This is despite the well-known positive effects on the physical and mental health of infants, children, adolescents and their families….

The AAP recommends that PFML be available to all families, which will require action by pediatricians and other health care professionals, public health officials, businesses, nonprofit organizations, and state and federal policymakers.

Federal and state legislation will be needed to finance and deliver a national universal PFML policy.

Federal PFML policies should be available for parents of newborns and adopted and fostered children; workers caring for loved ones who are seriously injured, ill or disabled; and workers with serious health problems. Policies should be accessible and job-protective. They should provide for leaves of at least 12 weeks and longer for medical complexity. Policies should ensure equity and inclusivity and include special considerations and protection for small businesses.

When I was on staff at Romper, it was easier to push to cover these kinds of statements. If I really loved a topic, I could write about it (thank you, Liz) despite the fact that “new policy statement” doesn’t make for a very clicky headline (the AAP’s validating, heart-felt statement reflecting on the pandemic, for example). However, as a freelancer, this stuff just does not sell. I guess the thinking is that the news that thousands of pediatricians spent many months agonizing about how to carefully word a statement like this (so that it makes a really carefully built case for change at a federal level and is also really, really hard to argue with, regardless of political affiliation) doesn’t compete in the infinite scroll TikTok-dominated internet universe.

Anyway, I am excited about this statement (the election-linked timing sure is interesting and undoubtedly purposeful, right?!?!) and I bet you’re excited, too. That kind of non-clicky, actually-meaningful stuff what this place is for. The parenting stuff that’s absolutely not going to compete online in the way anyone with pageviews to count needs it to be, but that people — you! me! — still really want to know and think about. So tl;dr, thanks for being here, for thinking and caring with me.