Katy Tur resumed her position as anchor of the 2 o'clock EST hour at MSNBC today, and she had some wisdom and perspective to share about her new reality.
How much do we love the frank and non-judgemental way she frames the fact that yes, caring for a baby is work, and for many people — WOMEN, even, some of them! — look forward to going back to their jobs as a day OFF from caring for that same newborn that is nonetheless the center of their universe and holder of their heart. She gave us real talk about the difficulty of the delivery (an unplanned c-section, incision infection, and the need to constantly breastfeed an underweight baby) and the state of near delirium it induced.
(Well, I mean, who among us HASN'T been convinced their mother-in-law was hiding under the bed at some point or another? But I digress.)
Tur continued on about how frightened she was to come home from the hospital, and how much help her husband was for the first month. See, he was off for an entire month. Paid. And she was off for another four months. Paid. And THAT was the main focus of her segment.
Parents need time with their babies. Babies need time with their parents. And moms need support. And if that support is coming from a partner, that partner should get equal time off. PAID time off. Emphasis on "paid." Family leave supports babies, which supports us all.
She ended the segment asking the people in Congress why they haven't managed to make paid family leave the law of the land in this country. She invited any of them on to her show to discuss it, and even threw in an invite for the First Daughter-Wife, Ivanka.
It is absolutely shameful. The United States is one of only FIVE countries that does not mandate paid parental leave as a national law. The others are Lesotho, Liberia, Papua New Guinea and Swaziland. Is it any wonder maternal mortality rates are increasing rather than decreasing?
We missed you, Katy Tur. Welcome back to work.
