Lauding Firms Who Aid Working Parents

* A big applause for the companies you have featured recently that cater to working parents and their children. What a great contribution those companies are making to our future generation.

I now work for the Ventura County district attorney’s Child Support Division that for two years was doing a good thing for its employees. We had a day shift that ended at 3:30 p.m. and an evening shift that ran from 5 to 10 p.m. The evening shift was perfect for mothers or fathers who desired to be home to raise their children but still needed to work. And the day shift was great because parents could be home when their children got out of school or pick up the young ones from day care early.

As of Sept. 11, we went back to the Stone Age working 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., five days a week. Our children now are being shipped off to day-cares, baby-sitters, after-school programs, wherever we could find to put them, while we spend more time at work than at home. Despite complaints and notices of the hardship this is posing on us and our families, management ignores us and remains completely unflexible and unconcerned.

The ironic thing is that we are an office that supports children, except when it comes to our own.

Stephanie E. Swain

Ventura