Sick day with Daddy...and the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act of 2006

Eli has had a low fever since Monday, around 100 deg, but we weren't terribly concerned since he didn't have any other symptoms besides his perpetual runny nose. This morning he had a fever around 104 degrees, and he had a smoker's cough in addition to the yucky nose and was obviously miserable. Justin didn't want me to have to take precious sick leave on my 3rd day on the new job, so he stayed home with Eli and took him to the pediatrician. Turns out Eli has the beginnings of an ear infection (only his 2nd or 3rd time), but it's never affected him this much before - very fussy and losing his balance. Poor Eli. So I went to work with my mommy guilt and the boys stayed home.
Hopefully he'll feel better tomorrow, or else I'll have to dip into my 3 whole days of sick leave I've finally been able to save up, thanks to my coming into work like death warmed over everytime I caught a bug. At this rate Eli will be in college by the time I save up enough leave for him to have a sibling! (not that I am in a huge hurry, so don't read anything into that!)

>>Dragging Soapbox<<
I work for Uncle Sam, who is generally an ok employer when it comes to leave and benefits, but isn't so great when it comes to parental leave. While paid maternity leave isn't exactly standard among all private sector employers, it is increasingly common, but we feds don't get it either, and we also don't get short-term disability, which many private-sector employees do get. In order to take a paid maternity leave, we have to save up our sick and vacation leave, and we get 13 days a year of each (although the vacation leave does eventually increase after a while). Assuming you take any vacations or ever get sick, it can take years to save up a reasonable amount of time off. I have been pretty cautious with my leave ever since I started, taking vacations as long weekends over federal holidays, and only taking sick leave when I felt like I was at death's door, but after 4 years I was only able to save up 2 months of paid maternity leave. While that is more time off than many moms get, it's not exactly optimal either. I was breastfeeding, which made it more challenging to return to work so early, and I had almost no sick leave left and not a lot of vacation leave remaining. Eli brought home illnesses almost constantly from daycare, so I had to take sick leave to take care of him, although sometimes when he was marginal I had to give him a shot of Tylenol and drop him off at daycare and cross my fingers he would feel better so daycare wouldn't call me to pick him up (talk about mommy guilt!). While he was eventually able to fight the bugs off pretty well as his immunity increased, I didn't, but I couldn't the take off time to rest, so I spent most of the winter dragging myself to work like death warmed over, infecting my coworkers. DC is an expensive area, with very expensive child care costs, and while most feds make decent money (although many of us could be making more in the private sector), those of us of childbearing age aren't exactly rolling in disposal income either, so LWOP (Leave Without Pay) isn't always a financially feasable option for those wanting to take more time off than they have been able to save. Additionally, we can only use sick leave for a limited period of time, 6-8 weeks, the time period we are "medically incapacitated", but any time for "bonding" has to be vacation leave (or unpaid). I realize the situation is so much worse for blue collar moms who have no options for paid maternity leave, but if Uncle Sam wants the best and brightest to replace the retirement tsunami, he's going to have to consider the needs of a generation of new employees that care about work-life and family issues. So, write your Representatives in support of H.R. 5148, the Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act of 2006.
>>Stepping down from soapbox<<