Last day of Parents Day Out till next fall. The boys’ class is planning a picnic lunch outside so I packed their PB&J sandwiches in paper bags today and gave them a little flair.
I think they were both a little excited to have “Lightening MaQueen” on their bags.
Published via Pressgram
​Last week I came across an article from Forbes that focused on where Millennials want to work. (tl/dr: The article hinted that it's got a lot more to do with company values and reputation than a salary.)
Today, NPR has an article on what men really want when it comes to work.
The article highlights a growing desire from men to have paternity leave as a benefit from their employer.
​Eighty-nine percent of men say paternity leave is hugely important to them, says a new Boston College study to be published in June.​
​I find that really fascinating – and hopeful.
So often we hear about dead-beat dads who don't do anything to help raise their kids – or dads who are far too focused on their careers to take time away for their kids (even in those vital first few months). But if this statistic is true and genuine, it could show a shift in our way of thinking, both as men and as a society.
One of my favorite sessions at SxSw was How Online Dads Raise Kids Offline. And one of the topics the panelists brought up was paternity leave.
Several of the panelists were fortunate enough to take extended paternity leave and they noted the benefits and how it's impacted their relationship with their children.
On the topic, the panelists noted:
​Only 1 in 100 men take maternity leave.
If you don't spend time with your kid early on you'll find it harder to spend time with them later on.
Women spend 30 hours a week with kids while men spend 10.
I was personally blessed with opportunities to spend roughly a month of paternity time at home when my twin boys were born and when my daughter was born.
It was all vacation time ultimately, but it was a blessing to have the ability to do it and I think it's made me a better dad as well.​
I've also been blessed with great bosses who really see the value in family and keeping family a priority.
So for me, I'll be forever grateful for that time off and I'll always keep that in mind if I'm ever in a position to grant it.
But I'm curious as to if others see the same value in paternity leave for men – either as an employee or manager role.
And/or do men and women see the value differently?
What do you think?
“This is fun” – IDiddy
The ancient Greek philosophers, and later the early church fathers, spoke of three prime virtues: truth, goodness, and beauty…
Early Christian theologians located the source of these prime virtues as proceeding from God himself—truth, goodness, and beauty are virtues because God is true, good, and beautiful. Thus this trinity of virtues becomes a guide to Christian living as we seek to believe what is true, be what is good, and behold what is beautiful…
But it is this third virtue, the virtue of beauty, that has been most marginalized in the way we understand and evaluate Christianity. As a result, Christianity has suffered a loss of beauty—a loss that needs to be recovered. With an emphasis on truth, we have tried to make Christianity persuasive (as we should). But we also need a corresponding emphasis on beauty to make Christianity attractive…
That the Roman cross, an instrument of physical torture and psychological terror, could ever become an object of beauty representing faith, hope, and love is an amazing miracle of transformation. Every cross adorning a church is in itself a sermon—a sermon proclaiming that if Christ can transform the Roman instrument of execution into a thing of beauty, there is hope that in Christ all things can be made beautiful! This is precisely the claim that the Christian faith makes concerning what Jesus accomplished in his death—and it is an astounding claim!
– Brian Zahnd
Beauty Will Save the World: Rediscovering the Allure and Mystery of Christianity
