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OCR Page 1 of 56NATIONAL PARENTING ASSOCIATION
America's 62 million parents make up a vast proportion of the nation's electorate - yet fail to weigh
in on issues they have a deep stake in because they lack an organized voice. From measures like
regulations to keep guns out of the hands of children and taxes to discourage teen smoking to aid
for education and policies to adapt the workplace to the realities of two working-parent families -
special interests exercise immense clout while parents wield little influence.
The reasons are many. Busy working parents have little time for civic and political action. Parents
do not identify themselves as a group that can be an effective force for change, as say, the aging
have done. In an era of job insecurity, parents have not banded together to demand flexible hours,
part-time options and alternatives to lock-step career paths. Voter turnout is low. Only half of
citizens in the prime early parenting years, ages 20 to 44, voted in the last presidential election and
only two-thirds of them were even registered to vote. And it is no wonder parents are disengaged.
The "family values" agenda, captured by the Far Right, focuses on ideological hot buttons, rather
than the real daily struggles facing parents. What's missing is a counter-balancing voice for
mainstream concerns, issues that could unite parents across race, income and gender in support of
policies that would truly help mothers and fathers succeed in the important work of nurturing our
future citizens.
The National Parenting Association (NPA) aims to change this.
Here are a few of our plans:
Changing the Way We Work to Give Parents Time for Their Children
First, we want to launch a campaign to focus national attention on solving the family time
famine. Parents torn between the demands of work and raising children cannot do well at
either. We need to promote changes in the way we structure our work lives so that parents
can support their families without neglecting them. While middle-class parents struggle hard
to balance their home and work responsibilities, the obstacles facing single parents, those in
low wage jobs or mothers leaving welfare make it nearly impossible. Twenty percent of
mothers hold jobs that offer no paid leave for sickness or vacation. That figure rises to 40%
of working mothers who received AFDC for more than 5 years in the past. (Paper prepared
for NPA by S. Jody Heymann, Harvard) Out of 120 nations, the United States is one of only
6 that fail to provide paid maternity leave (1998 report of the International Labour Office,
Geneva). Family-friendly work policies, as traditionally conceived, are at best a partial
solution. They tend to free a parent to put in more hours at work, as opposed to more hours
with their children. Moreover, programs like subsidized child care or emergency care for sick
children, carry a hefty price tag and have become benefits for large corporations rather than
for the small firms that fuel our economic growth and employ average parents.
Our primary focus will be on promoting
solutions that make sense for small businesses - by emphasizing flexibility and
imaginative management rather than costly benefits,
NATIONAL PARENTING ASSOCIATION
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