My cousin and her husband are both professors in Toronto and they each take 6 months (12 total) with each baby. So Cindy is home for the first 6 months, then Rob is. And their universities "top up" the mat/pat leave so they're at like 95% salary for that time. Very civilized.

yay for FAQ Update!

In France it's even more generous, I think, and I know all pre-natal care is covered by the government.

Just about every European country is more civilised on that score than the Americans, I think.

I had 6 weeks before the due date and 8 weeks after the birth as maternity leave on full pay and full health insurance (well, natch). After that I could take up to three years without pay and be sure that my job was being kept for me. Nowadays German parents (either father or mother are eligible) also get money for up to a year after the birth - 67% of last paycheck - if they don't work during that time.

Plus the state gives us child benefit of about $250 per month per kid until they are 18.

Yes, PC.

Yes, PC.

Wonder Woman with a Joan Jett shag just seems so right.

And their universities "top up" the mat/pat leave so they're at like 95% salary for that time. Very civilized.

Is part of that civilization having some kind of loyalty to the employer as well? Because, while I think that the US can be truly awful for leaves of any kinds and taking care of actual people, USians also tend to ignore that real people own companies and employees who are there for the benefits and then leave are also problematic. Basically that they feed each other in a bad way.

I am pretty socialist when it comes to taking care of people and I really think that spreading the benefits and the pain (like insurance) works. Barring global care, I think that countries should do it. And that they benefit from this by having a healthier population.

That is pretty seriously awesome.

Wonder Woman with a Joan Jett shag, I mean. Canadian maternity leave is also awesome, but in a completely different way.

My current haircut is leaning Joan Jett shag itself. It's supposed to look like this but it never quite gets there. Plus then I put on glasses and don't have that awesome dress.

It's supposed to look like this but it never quite gets there.

That's a lot of layers. It's funny how certain hairstyling techniques are perfected and abandoned in each decade. Finger waves in the thirties, pin curls in the fifties, bouffant hairstyling in the sixties. Anyway, seventies hairstyles are all about layers and nowadays people just don't cut them as precisely and with such fine gradations. It's all about razor cutting, and that's a different technique and a different look.

To do that kind of proper layering you have to take almost quarter-inch sections. Nowadays you're lucky if they take one inch sections.

Yeah, I have my awesome buddy back in Indianapolis, and much like how I never quit going to my Indianapolis optometrist, I'm going to carry the picture to him and see if he can get there. He's so great. I used to just let him do whatever with my hair and it always looked amazing. No stylist has ever lived up to that since then.

Cass, in my cousin's case, they're both tenured, so they ain't going nowheres!