Working With Kids

Parenting in the Workplace Submission to Google Contest

This is the 30-second YouTube video about Parenting in the Workplace that I submitted to Google's Project 10 to the 100. 

Google's Project is a "call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible." Over the next few months, Google will be choosing the top 100 ideas from the submissions and then opening the contest up to worldwide voting on January 27, 2009, to select the top 20. A team of experts will choose the best 5 ideas from there, and Google will then devote 
ten million dollars to funding the organizations that are best positioned to successfully implement the ideas.

My overall description of the concept (for the Google submission) is:

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Concept Idea:
Helping and encouraging businesses to set up sustainable, low-cost programs in which parents care for their children at work while doing their jobs.

There is growing evidence that millions of today's jobs can be done successfully while parents are simultaneously caring for children. At least 100 organizations in more than 35 states in the United States (and several in other countries) have established programs allowing employees to bring their pre-crawling babies to work every day, involving more than 1,300 babies to date. Baby-friendly businesses (which range from 3 to 3,000 employees in more than 20 different industries) have discovered that, within a well-structured program, allowing babies in the workplace costs an organization almost nothing and provides extensive business benefits, including employees voluntarily returning to work earlier after a baby's birth, higher workplace morale and long-term productivity, increased retention, better recruitment, and higher customer loyalty.

These businesses have demonstrated that babies thrive and are highly content in structured workplace programs and invariably end up creating a community parenting dynamic in which many coworkers bond with the babies and voluntarily assist in their care for brief periods. These programs have proven successful even though many people were highly skeptical of their viability prior to implementation (these same people often became staunch supporters of structured programs after seeing how well they worked in practice).

The keys to widespread implementation of these programs are (1) grassroots and media outreach to mitigate skepticism about program viability and to provide education about program benefits for businesses and (2) assessing and disseminating information and resources to businesses (on a worldwide scale) to enable effective program implementation. The first component is already happening considering that, just in 2008, baby programs have been discussed in Time Magazine, People Magazine, USA Today, and U.S. News and World Report, as well as in media pieces in Australia, Hungary, Denmark, Brazil, India, the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, and Canada.
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Views of and comments on the video are appreciated, to help illustrate that this concept does have widespread interest!

 

The Next Logical Step

Parenting in the workplace is the next logical step in the progression of our society. 

PROGRESSION OF FAMILY AND WORK

Prior to the industrial revolution, people lived in small towns and villages.  Women would often spend time together, helping each other with various household and societal chores and with emotional and physical support in child-rearing efforts.  There was a communal feeling in neighborhoods; people felt invested in helping to watch over each other's children.  By the mid-1900s, the norm became men going off to work in companies and leaving their wives behind to handle domestic responsibilities; family and work were two distinct worlds divided by gender. 

The feminist movement that followed this period saw millions of women enter the workforce over the following decades.  As both parents entered the workforce, a new industry was created to care for young children.  Daycare, usually provided by people outside the family, became the standard for generations of children--for many, starting when they were babies.  Although so many mothers in the workforce led to men becoming more invested and involved with their children, concerns were raised about the effects on children of spending so much time away from both their parents. 

SEPARATION CULTURE

So many parents today are exhausted trying to balance working and raising healthy children.  If a woman has her children young, she risks severe setbacks to her potential income and opportunities.  But thousands of women who decided to focus on career first and then have children discovered that, when they were finally ready to have children, they had become infertile.  Breastfeeding rates have plummeted, largely due to so many women being separated from their newborns, which has caused a huge increase in minor ailments and major diseases.  Post-partum depression has become common as women are either home alone all day while most of their friends are at work, or else they have to return to work just days or weeks after their babies are born.  Drug use and similar problems are affecting kids at younger and younger ages, and lack of time with parents has been identified as a key risk factor.  Some families have decided the stress just isn't worth it and make painful financial sacrifices to allow one spouse to stay home with the kids--causing companies to suffer high turnover costs and lost productivity as they lose valued employees.  The costs of our "separation culture" on families and on society are becoming too large to ignore.

NEW OPPORTUNITY

But it turns out that  the work world is more flexible than ever before.  Instead of physically-demanding factory jobs, millions are now using computers for much of their day, talking at length with coworkers about projects, and switching frequently between various tasks.  Creativity, cooperative problem-solving, multitasking, and innovation are highly prized skills.  In light of this, combining parenting and work--just as our ancestors did as they raised children while performing various tasks of survival--has become feasible again.  Just look at the huge numbers of employees who work from home--raising their kids as they do their jobs.  Parenting in the workplace is just the other side of the equation.

Parenting while working sounds far-fetched simply because it's not yet the standard in our culture.  But people have been raising kids while they accomplish other tasks since the beginning of humanity.  When most people become parents, they learn very quickly how to multitask and get things done much more efficiently.  Given the chance to have their children with them at their jobs, most parents will go far out of their way to make it work.

Given the increasing number of companies allowing babies or older kids at work on a semi-regular or regular basis, the argument of, "Well, it's just not feasible," doesn't work.  It is feasible--and often extremely successful for the business as well as employees--when carefully implemented.  And it could represent the answer to the "Mommy Wars" and many of the traumas suffered by millions of families.

Parenting in the Workplace

WHO I AM:

My name is Carla Moquin.  I am divorced and raising two daughters, Alpha (5) and Echo (15 months).  I have a bachelor's degree in psychology, a master's-level certification in mediation and facilitation skills, and attended three years of an online law school.  I work full time in a law firm as a legal secretary.

BABIES IN THE WORKPLACE:

In October, 2005, while trying to write articles for extra money, I stumbled onto a concept that transformed my view of parenting and work. It turned out that there are dozens of companies that allow parents to care for their babies at work every day for the first several months of life.

After a lot of research, I found and interviewed people from over thirty-five companies with current baby programs--including credit unions, law firms, schools, design firms, and public relations firms. They all raved about how many benefits these programs had for the company, the parents, the babies, and the other employees. Over three hundred babies had come to work at these businesses, and nearly all of these babies were incredibly content while they were at work.

As I did research on “normal” baby behavior in other cultures, and I learned from Echo as she learned about her world, I realized that the concept of parenting while at work has the potential to revolutionize our culture and the lives of millions of families.

I wrote most of the content for a book about babies in the workplace.  However, spare time is extremely limited given the nature of my life.  I realized that finishing the book, finding a publisher, and getting it published could take another year or more.

So, I turned to the internet to get these ideas and information out now. I want to help other people learn how to bring their babies (or older children) to work. I want businesses to understand how beneficial this can be for their workers and for their bottom line. I want to help them see that employees are more loyal and productive when they feel good about the well-being of their families.

GOALS:

This blog will include stories about these work babies, commentary and discussion of issues related to parenting at work (of babies and older children), tools to help parents and businesses to integrate jobs and kids, and other information and ideas about how we can integrate our children more harmoniously into society for everyone’s benefit.  I also plan to share thoughts on being a single parent, raising children, integrating children into society, and life in general.

I welcome your suggestions and thoughts. I envision turning this into an interactive community working together to break down the unnecessary walls that currently divide building our economy and raising our families.