Are families important in America? You would have to look pretty hard to find anyone who says they aren’t. Families nurture children, support parents and partners, and care for elders. We can outsource some of this, but without the support of a family, none of us can feel secure and do our best. Many, both men and women, will say that their families are their highest priority. So how far should we be willing to go to foster healthy families?

Many of us remember families in which the man of the house went off to work while the woman remained at home. But, as I have written before, this is actually the model created by the industrial revolution: before that, craft families and farm families stayed together. Now, there is no going back to either of these models. Today’s families usually include two working adults, at least during normal economic times. Where does that leave the needs of families?

Family needs don’t fit into the after-work hours. There are parent-teacher conferences to attend, doctor’s appointments to keep, sick family members to care for, prescriptions to pick up, and the list goes on. With no good choices to cover these needs, women often take on these responsibilities, establishing a reputation at work for undependability while in fact they are the dependable ones for the family. What was that priority again?

It is time to give more than lip service to healthy families. Currently, Georgia’s HB 37, the Parent Protection Act, which would provide for unpaid leave from work to attend school conferences and take children and parents to medical appointments, is in committee. A Healthy Families Act is also under consideration at the federal level, which would require employers with 15 or more employees to provide a minimum number of sick days annually which can also be used to care for sick dependents. Everyone has families, even single people and couples without children. Therefore, it is important for elder care to be included.

AAUW OF ROME (American Association of University Women) is interested in approaching the issue of healthy families from the other side by recognizing businesses that have adopted family-friendly policies. We believe that if we publicize and honor good examples, other businesses may see that indeed they can remain profitable while making it possible for both men and women employees to take care of their critical family responsibilities.

Here are some examples of family-friendly policies and how they can help families:

Employees who can use sick leave for other family members can keep a sick child at home (also keeping germs at home), take a parent to the doctor, or attend a parent-teacher conference.

Employees who have flexible working hours can take a late lunch hour to pick up a child from school every day.

Employees who have on-site childcare can bring that child back to the workplace, perhaps even taking breaks to nurse a baby. Not enough employees for on-site childcare? What about a cooperative arrangement with neighboring businesses?

Employees who have job-sharing choices or part-time employment with proportional benefits can structure their lives at times when their family responsibilities grow, such as with small children or elderly parents.

If you want to learn about the state of the art in family support or support for working mothers, workingmother.com honors companies that provide flexible schedules, health benefits to part-time workers, telecommuting, discounts at child-care facilities, networking with other parents, and 16 weeks of leave to birth or adoptive parents. But Working Mother awards are limited to large companies. We would like to find smaller companies here in Rome that offer policies that help make families healthier.

IT IS IMPORTANT that family-friendly policies be actual policies and not ad hoc arrangements, because they should be available to all. Employees should not have to beg for them, or wonder if they have the job security to ask for special favors. When a person takes a job, she or he should be informed of the family-friendly policies of the company, and their availability should not be limited to certain classes of workers. Employees should be able to plan for these benefits, and not have to hear about them by word of mouth (“Well, they let Janie Smith take a late lunch hour so maybe I can get that, too.”)

If you know of a local business that is family-friendly, e-mail me at patdewitt@shorter.edu. We will collect information on a standard form, compare them, and make awards in the spring.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Patricia DeWitt, a Rome resident, is state president of American Association of University Women and assistant vice president for Institutional Effectiveness at Shorter College.