Would that Mr. Ryan's solicitous concern for his domestic duties extended to improving the lives of his fellow citizens. Unfortunately, he seems totally unconcerned or even punitive in his regard for the less fortunate and the elderly.
30
I'm reaching for my puke bag. Ms. Miller lavishes praise on Paul Ryan as an exemplar for the make-time-for-my-kids dad and brushes right past his opposition to federal legislation that would allow American fathers of all income levels to do exactly that. Mr. Ryan gets no points from me for doing what's best for his family while using his position to block such benefits for the rest of us. I call that rank hypocrisy. And Ms. Miller says Ryan is talking about weekends only--while ignoring the fact that Ryan already has at least a full month of paid leave annually, the Congressional August off. Plus, an expense account that lets the taxpayers pay for his trips home.
I do give Ryan credit for his consistency in following the doctrines of his great guru, Ayn Rand, summed up in her seminal book, "The Virtues of Selfishness." His high regard for his own children contrasted with his attitude of I-could-care-less about other fathers' children, together with his position on the paid leave issue, exhibit selfishness on steroids. But all to the ultimate common good, Ms. Rand assures him--and us.
I do give Ryan credit for his consistency in following the doctrines of his great guru, Ayn Rand, summed up in her seminal book, "The Virtues of Selfishness." His high regard for his own children contrasted with his attitude of I-could-care-less about other fathers' children, together with his position on the paid leave issue, exhibit selfishness on steroids. But all to the ultimate common good, Ms. Rand assures him--and us.
53
Thank you SouthernView. That says it all. He cares about his children. Only.
15
"Whether or not you believe them"
Yes, "spending more time with my family" is not code for being forced to resign, it is (not "can often be") a euphemism for being forced to resign.
Yes, "spending more time with my family" is not code for being forced to resign, it is (not "can often be") a euphemism for being forced to resign.
3
Pardon my cynicism, but this family talk may be a tactic Ryan is using to negotiate with the House Freedom not to have to spend most of his time, as Republican Speakers have had to do. McCarthy was famous for for the money and potential Tea Party candidates he brought to light, so he would have been up for arm pulling and extensive travel that went into the job.
Despite the Republican talk for decades about Family Values and fatherhood, when it came to funding programs, the GOP has been AWOL.
Despite the Republican talk for decades about Family Values and fatherhood, when it came to funding programs, the GOP has been AWOL.
18
Michael: would it make a difference if they were two wealthy, privileged black guys? Or Asian guys?
1
Oh, golly gee whiz! Two wealthy, privileged white guys get to come and go from their jobs as they please to participate in their children's lives. Applause!
Gimme a break. This is not reality for most people, especially hourly employees. Let's not delude ourselves into thinking this portends a change of American work/family balance.
Gimme a break. This is not reality for most people, especially hourly employees. Let's not delude ourselves into thinking this portends a change of American work/family balance.
23
It’s important to remember that women as well as men contributed to that stigma.
4
Work-life balance? Does that really exist? http://blog.tdsbusiness.com/tips-advice/the-more-valuable-alternative-to...
It's cute to talk about, but we need to vote. We need to vote for candidates who support paid family leave for mothers and fathers who want both to help their peers and help their kids.
What I know for certain is that Hillary and Bernie will be strong and fearless advocates for paid family leave. Hillary has been working on this her whole life, she's a mother and grandmother, and she knows what it's like to juggle responsibilities. She was fortunate enough to "have it all" but that dream is still too far for millions of women. I trust her to change that.
Hillary for America.
What I know for certain is that Hillary and Bernie will be strong and fearless advocates for paid family leave. Hillary has been working on this her whole life, she's a mother and grandmother, and she knows what it's like to juggle responsibilities. She was fortunate enough to "have it all" but that dream is still too far for millions of women. I trust her to change that.
Hillary for America.
14
Joe Biden believes that everyone should have the opportunity to spend that time with family. Paul Ryan? Not so much.
31
The statistics and sociology of dads vs. moms in the workplace is unfortunately somewhat moot when the country as a whole suffers under pre-Cambrian ma/paternity laws. Biden's and Ryan's personal stories (and their likely use of 'family time' as a politically expedient cover for other reasons) are not very relevant, but their voting records and positions on the issue are. It is not just 'Democrats and advocates' who are concerned; anybody who cannot clamber into the top 5% or so of earners is left looking longingly across the border to Canada (or almost any other country).
11
"It can hurt men’s careers in the short term. But in the long term, if more prominent men talk about family, it could reduce the stigma significantly."
Stigma? What stigma? In my twenty years' experience as a working parent, I've seen men raised to a pedestal for setting aside work responsibilities in favor of family ones, but I've never seen a woman glean anything but resentment from her co-workers for doing the exact same thing.
It has been my personal experience that men cite family obligations at the office to avoid unpleasant assignments, whilst simultaneously citing work responsibilities at home to get out of unpleasant tasks at home. In particular, once a newborn baby is in the house, I noticed most working men finding excuses to spend more and more time at the office.
Please, let's not pretend there's no double standard when it comes to work versus family. I've lived in the real world too long.
Stigma? What stigma? In my twenty years' experience as a working parent, I've seen men raised to a pedestal for setting aside work responsibilities in favor of family ones, but I've never seen a woman glean anything but resentment from her co-workers for doing the exact same thing.
It has been my personal experience that men cite family obligations at the office to avoid unpleasant assignments, whilst simultaneously citing work responsibilities at home to get out of unpleasant tasks at home. In particular, once a newborn baby is in the house, I noticed most working men finding excuses to spend more and more time at the office.
Please, let's not pretend there's no double standard when it comes to work versus family. I've lived in the real world too long.
44
It used to be that kids activities took place on the weekend. Mainly, Saturday or in the evening. At least one or both parsnts could attend. Sunday's were always family hang out time. I don't recall parents having to deal with flex time or having to fanagle time off to be with their kds. It now seems structured around others schedules with little consideration to the conflicts parents are confronted witg these days. Way too complicated.
7
Not so, parents from my generation ( I'm 76) didnt have to juggle with flextime because it was NOT offered when the kids were little. My husband died 30 years ago and by the my youngest was a preteen and his company still had not began to offer flextime (mine did) .
Back then , even when it was offered it was mostly to allow for traffic or train delays that would have otherwise resulted in tardiness .
We had to take vacation time to attend school plays or graduations .
We didn't "juggle" because there was nothing offered for us to juggle with.
Back then , even when it was offered it was mostly to allow for traffic or train delays that would have otherwise resulted in tardiness .
We had to take vacation time to attend school plays or graduations .
We didn't "juggle" because there was nothing offered for us to juggle with.
7
Why shouldn't people use vacation time to attend school plays and graduations?
2
For all the talk of the importance of two parent families, I think it's great that very different politicians are framing the role of family in a positive way. I doubt seriously that speaking of 'spending time with the family' as a mark of forced retirement has benefited fatherhood in any way.
3
For women's equality at work, men must be full partners in a marriage. The two important take aways for me in this article are: 1. Many more men want to take advantage of flex time than are now; and, 2. the dozens of men of powerful women who are the lead parent. There is pent up demand for men to have flexibility, and there are more men who are the lead parent than most of us are aware. What every career-oriented women needs to act on is -- to quote Sheila Wellington (NYU professor, member of 2010 White House Forum on Workplace Flexibility), 'The single most important career decision a women will make is who they marry.'
5
Both of them are using their families as excuses to choose not to do things that they would otherwise have have a hard time explaining without losing face. Neither one is heroic. Both are trying to play on our sympathies.
9
When it comes to family and business, I cannot understand why men are preferentially hired in the first place. All they do is get married and then their wives become pregnant. Then, the men leave the company to take a higher-paying job so that they can make up for the drop in income when the wife stays home, plus the couple has the additional expenses of the newborn child or children.
Men are such disloyal employees. Always chasing the higher paycheck.
Better to hire a woman. She will accept a lower salary to begin with and, after a miserably short maternity leave, return to work. She will stay with the company, because her growing family needs her salary to pay for child care, etc.
What do you mean, you don't recognize this scenario?
Men are such disloyal employees. Always chasing the higher paycheck.
Better to hire a woman. She will accept a lower salary to begin with and, after a miserably short maternity leave, return to work. She will stay with the company, because her growing family needs her salary to pay for child care, etc.
What do you mean, you don't recognize this scenario?
31
I was a stay-at-home dad back in the 70's and 80's. (Actually, I worked while my kids were in school, 9-3)My wife's take on it was that I wasn't contributing enough to the family!
2
A guy who spends the whole week, every week, away from his family is crying about the sanctity of family time, and making a big show of it? I don't buy it.
16
Oh please! Stop putting Paul Ryan and Joe Biden on the same pedestal. I consider it an insult to Joe Biden. The VP had a successful career and was/is a successful man without making his family an excuse to not do his job well and he did it with a successful, working wife, Jill Biden who is a physician. Paul Ryan obviously is laying the groundwork for the inevitability of failure as the Speaker, ( not that I blame him ). This way, when he is forced to exit, his family priorities will seem a credible reason for his failure to unite a Party full of wolves.
31
Jill Biden is not a physcian. She has a Ph.d and is a professor. She is a doctor but not a physcian.
4
We ALL deserve that, but the working poor doesn't get that or they don't even get to have a family because they have to work many hours just to survive. And the ones that do have families get to hear how they should have deprived themselves of the basic human right to have a family because they can't afford it.
18
I wonder how much of this is from spending time with his family (which he only sees at weekends when Congress is in session. Mind you, Congress hardly every seems to be in session) and how much is hating having to fund raise? i.e. The current speaker spent 200 days traveling to fund raisers last year. I wouldn't want to do it myself.
6
For me Ryan seems to have the right idea. Voting against policies that promote what he's asking seems a bit strange though. Perhaps only politicians get to ask for these things.
7
"Even men in high-powered jobs take advantage of flexible time away from the office. They generally just don’t tell anyone about it. They tend to walk out unnoticed, join conference calls from the car or respond to email at home. Women are more likely to use official flexibility policies or ask their bosses for permission to leave early once a week for a child’s soccer game. When men go to the same soccer game, they often don’t ask permission"
The preceding statement is patently false. The inclination to "ask permission" is directly proportional to power, status and personality. In and of itself it has absolutely no direct relationship to gender. Workers of either gender are free to prioritize family vs career as they choose. They also are required to live with the consequences of their choices. No one is entitled to everything.
The preceding statement is patently false. The inclination to "ask permission" is directly proportional to power, status and personality. In and of itself it has absolutely no direct relationship to gender. Workers of either gender are free to prioritize family vs career as they choose. They also are required to live with the consequences of their choices. No one is entitled to everything.
2
How would you know? Have you tried to do all these things while being each gender (and in between )? Don't make preposterous assertions until you've got some data to back them up.
6
Did you click on the links in the paragraph you cited? They lead to evidence that supports this paragraph's assertions. Of course it's not "all men" or "all women" but this paragraph came from data, not out of nowhere.
1
Bully for Mr. Ryan that he's putting his family high on his priority list. Wouldn't it be nice if he used his position of privilege to advocate for policies--paid family leave, quality daycare, equal pay for women--that allow the rest of us to do the same? Sadly I do not expect him to change his current regressive policy positions. He will benefit, and no one else.
56
It's telling that the independent media frame the hypocrisy of Biden's and Ryan's talk about the importance of family time in the context of our politicians refusal to pass family leave legislation as class-based oppression.
The Times sees it as a gender issue. Of course, it is both, but mainstream media has a respnsibility to their corporate owners and brethren to avoid class-based analysis. With inequality increasing and job-killing trade pacts promoted, propelling our country in the direction of the third world, what little class consciousness is left in the country must be marginalized.
The Times sees it as a gender issue. Of course, it is both, but mainstream media has a respnsibility to their corporate owners and brethren to avoid class-based analysis. With inequality increasing and job-killing trade pacts promoted, propelling our country in the direction of the third world, what little class consciousness is left in the country must be marginalized.
10
You know what's going to reduce the stigma?
Laws.
Laws.
41
We have no idea why Ryan said that. If he meant it, he wouldn't have run for vice president. Being ready to take over the presidency at any moment is not a way to spend more time with his children. Go by his actions, not his words.
33
One wonders how Mr. Ryan's talk about reserving time for families affects his belief about family leave for fathers in the workplace at the lower echelons of society. One also wonders how, with his gold star health care plan, and guaranteed high retirement package he can speak against health care for other, and has tried to gut social security. It is remarkable how some of the privileged can believe that they deserve a lifestyle that they would debt of others.
Maybe he would support gym memberships for all.
Maybe he would support gym memberships for all.
60
MD, Ryan thinks he has earned what he has. Folks in lower level positions, not so much.
1
How many times we have seen a Presidential candidate talk about their families as driving factor for running (or in Republicans' cases God) but reality is as often not that.