Debating Pluses, Minuses of Work Policies That Benefit Parents

Many thanks for addressing the issues of inequity when it comes to the way workers with children are treated at work, in relation to those without (“Do Childless Workers Get the Short End of the Stick?,” March 13).

There is another facet of “family values” that also warrants the attention of employers. The same amount of consideration should be given to workers who seek to assist their elderly parents during illness or end-of-life situations. Instead, caring adult children often face resentment by their otherwise enlightened employers when they ask for time to be with family members in need who don’t happen to be children.

--ELLEN STERN HARRIS

Beverly Hills

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Can somebody please tell Elinor Burkett to quit her complaining? If Burkett wants to reduce our children to tax exemptions and dollars, please consider that bringing a child into the world increases the tax base in this country, and the financial benefits to the federal, state and local government, not to mention sales taxes, are far greater than the measly returns we get at the end of the year.

Furthermore, if the U.S. is so blatantly biased in favor of families and children, why do we have such a major shortage of qualified and licensed (not to mention affordable) child-care facilities to choose from? In regard to all those employers who bend over backward to accommodate parents’ schedules, can she provide a detailed list for those of us who are trying to find one? That alone would be worth my spending money on her book.

All I’ve experienced since having my child are corporations with no flextime or work-from-home policies, markets and restaurants with no family-friendly bathrooms or shopping carts, establishments that frown at you while you nurse your baby.

I even lost a job opportunity that would have allowed me to work from home when the employer found out I had a child. So if there is an abundance of employers who cater to working parents, I’d sure like to know who they are.

Right now I am a stay-at-home mom with a college degree and tremendous work experience who cannot find an acceptable, affordable child-care center or an employer with on-site child-care facilities, and I refuse to leave my child in the hands of unqualified individuals while I go to work for a company that raises an eyebrow at me when I walk in five minutes late or get an emergency phone call from a day-care center.

It seems to me that Burkett and friends are really reaching to find something to whine about, and are probably better off not having any children.

--VICTORIA BALLESTEROS

Los Angeles

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Perhaps your article could be summed up by saying people want to know the companies they work for respect their lives and their families, whatever their structure, on an equal basis with other employees. “Family” is much too important a word in our society to have such a narrow definition as “household containing minors who need love, care and financial support.”

Adults need these things as well, whether they live in pairs or on their own.

--JODIE LEWIS

Studio City