People’s House Series: Paid Time to Care & What it Means to be Human
I’m Amanda. I’m the organizing director at TakeAction Minnesota. And I’m a new mama to Luz. She’s almost 7 months old. When she was born, I took almost 14 weeks of paid time to care for her this summer.
On January 2, Luz started daycare. She loves the other babies. It was a little bittersweet sending her off, but we were pumped about it.
A week later, she came down with a fever. She was fussy and she wouldn’t eat. My partner took her to the doctor. She had a viral respiratory illness. Luz doesn’t scream when she’s sick (am I lucky or what?), but she needs to be held a lot.
Between the two of us we took three days off work in one week. I used paid sick time. He used flex time.
A few days later, we got the worst news we could hear.
My father in law in Nicaragua passed away unexpectedly. We booked our international flights and were gone for a week.
In the moments of life, and death, and raising our families, one thing is abundantly clear: Life doesn’t get in the way of work. It’s the other way around.
As a working mama with good health care and paid time to care for myself and my family, I’m one of the privileged few. These basic tools–health care, paid family leave, earned sick time–means that I get to enjoy the highs and lows of motherhood, while working at a job I love that respects my dignity as a person.
What It Means to Be Human
This is not true for all working people, especially women and people of color. Hospital staff. Retail workers. Restaurant workers.
We can and must do better.
Paid Family Leave and Earned Sick and Safe Time can’t just be for the Sheryl Sandbergs of the world. Every person, white, Black, brown, and Indigenous – regardless of how they make a living, deserves paid time to care.
I’m fighting for Paid Family Leave and statewide Earned Sick and Safe Time because I can imagine a family-friendly economy in Minnesota where all of us, without exception, can be there for the people we love.
Where balancing work and life isn’t the exception, but the norm. Where we can all pay the bills and care for our loved ones, and can afford to be human: we get sick, we give birth, we raise families, we care for our loved ones in sickness and at the end of life.
By joining together, we have the power to all get free and build the Minnesota we dream of.
