A Blog is Born

Why is this blog different from all others?
The first answer is that it isn't, but I realize that that's no way to sell a blog.

I would like, hypothetically, to write a blog that talks about real parenting issues, and real not-parenting issues. And not-real parenting issues, as the case may be.

So here we go.

This week, the Israeli parliament (the Knesset) passed a joke of a maternity-leave law in its preliminary reading by a truly overwhelming majority. I'll try not to go in to the law so much (if you really want to, here's the link:
Maternity Leave Bill Won't Change Much), but the point is that MKs think that its good political ground to extend maternity leave. Good enough political ground that they're willing to fool the public in order to get them to think that they extended it, even when they haven't.

For all of you Americans and Australians out there, who come from backward, third-world countries where maternity leave is pendant on your ability to save up leave days over the course of half-a-decade or so, I'm sorry if this posting makes you drool. Or makes you write hostile letters to your representatives, asking why women in such enlightened states as Afghanistan and Algeria have rights that you don't.

Here, however, the game is to pretend to extend it. And (political) death to the MK who dares oppose any such bill. In this case, it was MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) who said that extending maternity leave would make employers think twice about hiring women. He then met me in the basement, and spent a while explaining to me how his wife - after each of her seven children was born - went right back to work, no gripes or questions asked. To which I say, good for you. But then again MB-A doesn't really have to worry about his pro-working-woman credentials, coming as he does from a party that won't allow women to run on its list.

And here I should add a few points to make the Americans and Australians feel better. Yes, we do have paid maternity leave for 14 weeks. And I enjoyed every post-partum-depressed minute of it. Workaholic that I am, I never, not once, said "wow, I wish I was at work right now". And I was busy. I don't know with what, but I definitely was.

But, on the other hand, I'm not sure in America it would have been so easy for a (government) would-be employer to politely inform me that for "operational" reasons, I could not become pregnant for my first six years of employment. For instance. Or enjoy the Israeli anachronism in which it seems to be common to put on one's resume "married +1". Thank God they don't expect me to write the truth: "married+1 and hoping for another +3 if only you pay me enough to subsidize them all".

So I'm not sure where I'm going to go on this one. Given a choice between a country in which discrimination on the basis of motherhood (or potential motherhood) is completely routine, but where I can enjoy 14 weeks of paid motherhood that doesn't come at the expense of 5 years worth of vacation days, or a country where I'd spend six, very short weeks at home, and have no chance of squeezing into my pre-partum pants before my glorious return, but where at least I'd know that my +1, +2 or +7 status wouldn't be a consideration in being hired for the job that I'd still presumably be in no hurry to return to.

Any thoughts?
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