Working Mother

You’d think that so-called digital natives would be smarter.

I recently heard of a twenty-something who was fired from her job. One of the reasons: She posted “My job sucks” and “I hate my job” on her Facebook and linked Twitter accounts. You see, she may have thought she was simply venting to her peers, but she forgot she was also “friends” with her boss’s boss.

It seems that she failed to extrapolate to her own situation the warnings to college applicants that admissions officials check Facebook for photos depicting unseemly behavior and the admonitions to fresh grads that some companies use alums to do an online vetting of job candidates.

“I’ve had to individually take aside staffers after a weekend and tell them that they can’t post a certain photo or comment on Facebook,” says a marketing executive whose Facebook friends include a range of ages, including some of her Gen Y employees.

I’m not sure of the reason for this lack of judgment among young workers. A disconnect seems to exist between what some young people think Facebook is and the social networking site’s evolving place in the real world, including the workplace. Says my marketing friend: “The more I think about this, the more I feel for this generation that has all these new means of expression but no filter, no judgment. They’re pioneers, charting new territories without the maturity to establish the boundaries between public and private.”

Clearly that’s a huge learning curve, and I wonder how my Facebook-using15-year-old will negotiate it. In the interest of her education and many others like her, do you have Facebook workplace stories that might teach young people how they might be a little bit smarter?

One more thing: There are advantages to the boundaries-crossing accessibility afforded by the Web. Take a young man I know, a conceptual artist and a recent graduate from Rhode Island School of Design. He’s not on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and actually has deliberately erased himself from such sites. You can call him an anti-social networker. Out of the blue, he was invited to show in galleries in Turin and Naples—and he hadn’t even heard of them until they contacted him. Ironically, they found his work on his one Web site.

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Even if the recession is over, the outlook for job seekers remains bleak.

I asked Tory Johnson (pictured here), who is chief executive officer of Women For Hire and author of Fired to Hired, to offer her career advice in an unsettled economy.

Question: Unemployment figures show that more men are out of work than women. What are your thoughts on this trend and how it is impacting workers?

Answer: The industries dominated by men have been hardest hit in this recession—manufacturing, construction, financial services, for example. The fields adding jobs—such as healthcare and education—attract women.

More importantly, however, is the strain this has put on families. If Dad loses his well-paid construction job—along with his benefits—but Mom keeps her lower-paid position as a home health aide, that’s a burden on their household.

When the man of the house loses his position and is dealt a severe blow to his ego, his spouse and children are important. This challenging job market has been an equal opportunity offender in that regard. It’s difficult on both genders.

Q: What does the recession mean for Women for Hire? Are you getting flooded with resumes now?

A: Yes, we’re bombarded with resumes and pleas for help from jobseekers. We’ve ramped up our availability on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, to offer advice to more people. And I’ve gotten involved with MomsLikeMe by creating this online job club, not only to answer members’ questions, but also to encourage members to help one another. That collective career coach can be awfully powerful and everyone has something to offer to the group.

Q: What’s the smartest way for working parents to broach work-life topics, such as job flexibility or eldercare, when they are looking for a new position?

A: This topic shouldn’t be your opening line. Research the employer online. Typically if it’s an organization that values flexibility, it’s touted on its website.

Ask simple, indirect questions such as, “Can you tell me about the culture?” Ask about your potential boss’s management style. Inquire about the turnover among employees. Typically an organization with relatively low turnover treats its people well and that likely includes flex options.

Once you receive an offer, this is the time to ask about specific benefits. You can review the company policy manual and/or ask how such issues are handled internally. Remember that it’s not only the company’s policies that matter; rather it’s the policies and management style of your boss that will matter most.

Q: Are working moms treated differently than working dads in the workforce?

A: This depends on where you work. There’s most definitely a perception that moms have special needs. This could range from denying her a promotion based on an assumption that the new position requires travel and she won’t want to leave her kids to resenting her if she leaves early to attend a soccer game with her kids.

In certain environments, dad is a hero if he leaves for two hours to coach little league, whereas mom is more devoted to her kids than her career. Fortunately, however dads are more involved in their kids’ lives today than ever before, which means dads are speaking up for flexibility too. It’s not a mom’s issue by any means. Frankly, it’s not a parenting issue either.

Given eldercare demands or the desire to pursue some kind of personal passion – i.e. you want to train for a marathon or play in organized sports – the need to flexibility is greater than ever.

Q: What’s the best job search advice anyone ever gave you?
A: People have often said, “Oh you do such good work helping people get jobs…you must sleep well at night.” While I appreciated that, the reality is I have many sleepless nights wondering and worrying about the emails that I didn’t respond to as thoroughly as was probably needed.

I worry a lot about the people who emailed for help who I knew needed hand-holding to find a job, not a few bits and pieces of advice and direction in a written response.

I asked Diane Sawyer about this since I assumed she has to had the same concerns–only magnified–about the people and issues she’s covered. She told me, “Our joy is our fuel for changing the world. We cannot let the work wear it down.”

She encouraged me to keep doing what I was doing—and to trust in a higher power that those who needed the extra dose of help would get it, and not to lose sight of the love I had for the good work I was doing. If I allowed myself to be beat down with excessive worry over things I couldn’t control, I’d stop being effective in what I was good at. Given the volume of requests today, I think about her advice so often.

Q: A reader asked about getting online resumes noticed on Job Club with Tory Johnson chat. What’s your advice for getting noticed?

A: Too many people do what I call spray and pray. They send out tons of resumes—and they pray one will get noticed. Sadly, it doesn’t usually work that way.

You have to do more than just apply online. You have to find someone with whom you can follow up. Make a cold call to the company to figure out who’s responsible for filling the role. Find an internal referral who’ll introduce you to the hiring manager. Use LinkedIn to network with people at that company. Whatever it takes to bring attention to your resume instead of hoping it’s found in the big black hole of the internet.

Tory Johnson is an award-winning job search guru, national network television contributor, popular speaker and New York Times bestselling author. She is the CEO of Women For Hire, now celebrating its 10th year producing high caliber recruiting events attended by more than 25,000 women annually. Tory is the workplace contributor on ABC’s Good Morning America and hosts a national online Job Club on MomsLikeMe.com. Dubbed the “workplace fairy godmother” by Glamour magazine, Tory speaks frequently about career advancement nationwide. Her new book, Fired to Hired, follows her 2008 New York Times bestseller, Will Work From Home.

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This item was written by Savita Iyer-Ahrestani. She is a freelance financial journalist who guest blogs for Working Parents.

Saturday morning in a town in Central New Jersey, not too far from New York City: I’m walking with my family down the main street, and all around us, we see children kitted out in soccer gear. Even the tiniest ones sport cleats and knee pads.

Later that day, I look out of my window onto the backyard I share with my neighbor. I see her small grandson learning how to score a goal. In the house next door, a couple of older kids are also kicking a ball around.

The first question we have been asked by just about every person we have met since we moved to this place 10 days ago is: “Do your children play soccer?” No one has wanted to know where we came from; what we do in life; why we are here; whether we need some help figuring our way around. Soccer, apparently, is the only thing that counts.

The boys in my son’s class had no interest in the fact that he has completed a rigorous, nationwide swim program in Holland – one that required him to dive fully clothed into a large pool and swim its length 12 times using a variety of different strokes.

“Swimming isn’t a real sport,” one of them sneered.

Hello Michael Phelps, are you reading this?

One mother I meet among the droves planning their childrens’ weekend soccer activities tells me in not so many words that soccer is a passport to social acceptance in this town. Doing it or not doing it will determine whether you meet people or you don’t. Whether you make friends or you don’t. She is elated that after several years of trying very hard for it, her husband has finally been bagged a position as assistant coach for her daughter’s team

Left to myself, I wouldn’t care less about this. But I have children for whom the move from a cosmopolitan European city to a suburban town in the U.S. is proving tough enough. As a parent, I want to do everything I can to make my children feel comfortable and secure in their new environment. To make them feel a part of their surroundings. If contact sport is the key to acceptance in the suburbs, then, my conformist side believes we should make a try.

My five year-old daughter is interested in joining the Saturday soccer training. But my eight year-old son has never really liked the game. In Europe – people are soccer crazy there, but in my experience, whether we played or not had nothing to do with our being part of a community – he enjoyed playing casually with his friends, and many have said he’s a decent player. But he never showed any interest in joining a team. And that was not a big deal: He still had friends.

I personally believe that there is a lot more to a person than their athletic prowess. But this is a new place, though, and he needs to make new friends. Over an ice-cream, I tell him a little bit about how important team sports are in America and their social meaning.

“You’re a pretty good player,” I remind him. “Do you want to join up?”

“No,” he replied firmly. “I don’t. I really don’t”

We talk a bit more, but he is resolute. He will not play soccer.

I am proud of my son. I will support him in his decision to not do soccer but to continue with his swim training and his violin lessons. I will sign him up for the art class he wants to take.

But in not doing what everyone else does, how large is the risk of not being known? Of my son perhaps not getting any birthday party invitations or playdates? Of my husband and I being viewed as reluctant community members?

Suburban parents, should you push your child to do what all the other children do? How great are the consequences if you don’t?

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With the future of my world at BusinessWeek uncertain, I’m easing myself out of another job: parent volunteer. A newly elected vice-president of our high school parent teacher organization (PTO), I resigned even before the school year began when my work outlook changed, and joined the ranks of Americans cutting back on volunteering while we grapple with realities of the recession. “You’ve got to take care of business,” agrees a friend, whose grant-dependent work is tougher now because of cuts in state funding. Part-timers, we had devoted hundreds of hours in more robust times to our public schools—from tapping local police to read to first-graders to helping the middle school plan its annual goals to campaigning for a referendum to renovate our high school. But now, time once spent volunteering is devoted to trying to ensure job security—and save for looming college tuitions.

Common wisdom, backed by a government survey that showed volunteering held steady during the economic crisis last year, was that the growing ranks of the unemployed would turn to volunteerism while they searched for jobs and waited out the recession. But the latest findings of America’s Civic Health Index, an annual survey published by the National Conference on Citizenship, tell a different story: 72% of survey respondents say they have cut back on their time engaged in civic participation. “The economic crisis has triggered civic foreclosure,” said Michael Weiser, the group’s chairman. “The good heart of Americans is still very evident, though, as they refocus on basic needs.” Although volunteers aren’t giving as much of their time, 68% said they would be willing to provide food to those in need.

My largely nocturnal job has allowed me to be at home four days a week helping with homework, chauffeuring kids, cheering athletic events, managing the house—and volunteering, whether as a writing coach at the middle school or a parent helping out with class parties. Through the years a core of tireless women in our town have held down the essential jobs of the PTO, which raises thousands of dollars for the schools, while I’ve joined a supporting cast of others who float in and out of availability depending largely on the labor market. What’s all that time worth? Nationwide, according to the Independence Sector, volunteers’ time was valued at $20.25 an hour in 2008—make that $24.48 an hour if you live in my state, New Jersey.

But now, with BusinessWeek on the auction block, it seems reckless to pledge time to a volunteer activity. Commit to regular meetings when your schedule is in doubt? Spend time online with volunteers when social networking is the activity de rigueur for endangered workers? I confess, I haven’t kicked the volunteer habit completely: I’ll remain an outspoken but welcome parent representative at the high school through its ongoing accreditation process. With two years of monthly meetings behind us, much of the work can now be done online. In times like these, that suits this volunteer just fine.

Reader, have you had to curtail your volunteer activities as your family deals with fallout from the recession?

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This post was written by Diane W. Frankenstein, who is author of Reading Together: Everything You Need to Know to Raise a Child Who Loves to Read

Although my children are now grown, September conjures up memories as the most ambivalent month of the year for me. As a working mom, the excitement and anticipation of the beginning of a new school year also brought the daunting reality of new schedules and responsibilities for my children as well as for me.

This juggling act required of working parents can feel overwhelming. On top of that, along comes a survey by The Michigan Department of Education that says, more than budgets or teachers, parental expectations are key to a child’s academic achievement and social adjustment. Parents want and expect their children to love reading. But in today’s wired world, with video games, iPods, cell phones and countless other digital distractions, youngsters are plugged into everything but books. So, how do parents turn their expectations for their children to become readers into realistic goals? There is no magic answer, but it can start with a simple equation: Read a Book. Ask a question. Start a conversation.

The best thing about this formula is that it’s not another assignment for parents; it’s a fun way to spend time with their children. And in our fast-moving, media-saturated world, reading with children and having thoughtful conversations are more important than ever before. Conversations are where children first learn many of the skills they need to learn to read. Talk with children about the story, the pictures and their reaction to the book.

Winnie the Pooh’s advice on conversation is my rule of thumb when it comes to talking with children about the stories they read: “It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like, ‘What about lunch?’”

Some other thoughts for parents who want to make reading with their children enjoyable:

• A child’s desire to learn to read comes from being read to

• Enthusiasm and passion for stories are contagious. Parents needn’t waste precious time trying to convince their children of the importance of reading; they can just read them good stories

• Children need confidence to be good readers and confidence comes from understanding a story

• Be creative and find other times in a day – not just bedtime – when reading can happen. How about a poem with breakfast? How about a short story with a snack? How about one chapter with dessert after dinner?

• A child’s reading will improve the more he or she enjoys reading

• Offer children books that speak to both their reading level and their developmental readiness for the story

• Expect children to love reading and support that expectation by helping them find their “home-run” books – books that tap into their curiosity and interests, stories where they care about the characters and what happens to them

• Keep the love of story alive. While children hone their reading skills, encourage them to return to the picture books and early reads they loved when they were little; you are never too old to read a 32-page picture book!

• Don’t interrupt the reading of the story with explanations or editorials. A child can easily become annoyed and frustrated with too many interruptions

• Slow down. Encourage children to read fewer books and know them well. Children need comprehension – not speed – to be good readers

• Take the “assignment” out of reading to children and put in the pleasure of getting lost in a story together.

Last but not least – a good story and a cookie always go hand-in-hand.

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Back-to-school season means that it’s time to start making school lunches again. In search of some lunchbox inspiration, I asked Pierre Foods Chef Jimmy Gherardi for advice on spicing up the school lunch menu.

Q: What’s the best way to get kids to eat healthy lunches at school, especially when parents aren’t around to supervise?

A. Parents need to go over the school menus with their children and help them to make informed choices. They also need to discuss what is offered a la carte in the cafeteria and vending machines. Parents and kids need to learn about the school’s nutrition policy. Usually the “Daily Plate Lunch” is the best way to go nutrition-wise.

Q. What are the best healthy lunches for kids? Create a few menus.

A. The best healthy lunches are the ones that are low salt; low fat; no or low sugars; contain whole grain; and have the proper amounts of protein and carbs. Added benefits are lunches that are natural and contain no preservatives, artificial ingredients or colors.

For packed lunches, keep them fun and interesting. Go beyond the standard two slices of bread sandwich. Wraps, pita bread, cut up cooked meats and vegetables with dipping sauces are all things kids love.

Pierre Foods has a great-tasting, healthy line of foods that are served in schools including mini sandwiches which come in different varieties, Chicken Drummies, Beef and Chicken Dippers which encourage kids of all ages to play with their food again! As their Chief Culinary Advisor, I have partnered with food service directors around the country to develop recipes for sauces and dips that are nutritious and young people will enjoy.

Q. They say variety is the spice of life, but my kid seems to want the same lunch every day. How can I get my child to try something new?

A. Children are super tasters! Certain foods do not taste good to them, For example, broccoli can taste very bitter to them. One way to get them to try it again is to add a dip to help mask the bitter taste and divert them from eating just the broccoli. Start serving variations of their favorite foods.

Example: A grilled chicken patty burger in place of beef burger with lots of great healthy toppings and that “secret sauce” which I created to go with Pierre Foods Drummies and Dippers which are served in schools.

Research has shown that it takes 10 to 20 introductions to a new food for a child to accept it.

The history of foods also get kids’ attention and can add a sense of adventure. Did you know that in England people thought that tomatoes were poisonous and would only use them as ornamental plants until about the mid 1700s? Or explaining something that sounds exotic: Couscous is just teeny tiny pasta.

Q. One healthy (ish) food is peanut butter. But now so many schools ban peanut products. Any good substitutes?

A. Sunbutter, which is made from sunflower seeds, is a great substitute. It is lower in fat and higher in vitamin E, fiber and iron than peanut butter. Some schools are peanut-free, while others have peanut-free areas and tables in the cafeteria.

Another substitute: a cream cheese and jelly sandwich is also very appealing to kids. I created PBJamwiches and Grahamwiches which put a twist on a classic sandwich favorite and are offered in schools. Both are made with fruit jellies and creamy peanut butter to create a homemade taste kids love.

Q. Are school gardens prompting kids to eat more vegetables?

A. Absolutely! Kids that plant, tend, nurture, and harvest their own vegetables love to eat them. Another way to get kids to eat vegetables is to include them as part of the preparation in the school kitchen.

If a second grade (class) grew the steamed green beans with ponzu being served today, a sign saying so is a very good thing. Michelle Obama and family are really helping out here. Since the planting of the White House vegetable garden and the resulting publicity, schools around the country are jumping on the garden wagon.

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Over at the New York Times’ Motherlode blog, there is an incredibly sad and disturbing guest post. titled Terminating An Adoption. It’s by a women who adopted a baby boy from South America when he was about a year old, and then 18 months later gave him up to another family because she didn’t think she could ever properly attach to him.

The mother, Anita Tedaldi, already had five biological daughters and a husband who was frequently deployed by the military. But she had always wanted a large family and both she and her family went through the extensive screening required by US adoption agencies. As for the boy, he had some developmental delays and suffered from attachment disorder, although with the help of therapy and a very dedicated social worker, was making progress. Nevertheless, Anita came to realize she just did not feel about this admittedly challenging boy the way she did about her biological children.

His social worker, his pediatrician and his neurologist all told me that he had come a long way, and that attachment issues were to be expected with adoption. But D.’s attachment problems were only half the story. I also knew that I had issues bonding with him. I was attentive, and I provided D. with a good home, but I wasn’t connecting with him on the visceral level I experienced with my biological daughters. And while it was easy, and reassuring, to talk to all these experts about D.’s issues, it was terrifying to look at my own. I had never once considered the possibility that I’d view an adopted child differently than my biological children. The realization that I didn’t feel for D. the same way I felt for my own flesh and blood shook the foundations of who I thought I was.

Eventually, a new family was found who had already dealt with attachment issues with their adopted daughter and was more than willing to take on the boy. Anita writes achingly about her decision to give him up and how incredibly painful it was for her, but she ws convinced it was the best choice for him. As an adoptive mother, it was also painful for me to read, and I admit to initially being horrified by her decision.

But then I re-thought my reaction. One of the main lessons Anita learned from her experience, and sought to impart to others, is that we all should be much more careful about sitting in judgment of other people’s parenting choices. My daughter was a charmer from day one–who’s to say how I would have reacted if she had major emotional or physical problems. I’m pretty certain I would rise to the occasion, but none of us really know what we will do in a crisis until we are tested. And I don’t have five other children to deal with.

As for the many commenters to the blog who pointed out that Anita almost certainly would not have given up a biological child with such issues–well, maybe more biological parents should do just that. I am often infuriated by social workers and judges who decide that a child should be reunited with his or her biological parents whenever possible, no matter how abusive or neglectful. Surely many of these children would be better off with a family that would properly care for them and love them. Again, as an adoptive parent, I do not believe that biological ties trump all.

That said, it still makes my stomach churn that someone would give up a child they adopted under the circumstances Anita describes. It particularly bothers me that this will play into the perception too many people have, that “adopted” children are somehow not the same as biological offspring, that adoptive parents are not “real” parents. And I agree with those commenters who in part blame the adoption agency, which appears to have done a poor screening job.

Read the essay and then tell me, what do you think?

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This entry is written by BusinessWeek contributing editor Mark Hyman who is the author of Until It Hurts (Beacon), a book about impact of parents, coaches and other adults on youth sports.

As part of my research for Until It Hurts, I spent a blustery December morning in Boston locating the office of Lyle Micheli (pictured here). My hands were numb and my ears about frozen when I arrived but it was worth it to see Micheli, one of the nation’s top docs for injured youth athletes.

Micheli has been treating such patients for decades. In 1974, he and several associates started the first sports injury clinic for kids in the U.S. at Children’s Hospital. He’s still there. And on a hectic day, he might see dozens of patients.

Micheli also has a reputation for straight talk, especially about the problems percolating in youth sports. That was true the day I visited.

I asked Micheli why parents are emotionally invested in the sports lives of children. He explained that there is a lot at stake for the adults, more than many admit or appreciate themselves.

And it’s not all about winning and losing, he said.

“In a mobile society, if your child is on a travel team, you suddenly have 30 new people who are your best friends,” Micheli told me. “You’re going to barbecues with the soccer team and so on. Participation on the team gives the family social entrees, social prerogatives, it would not have.”

Micheli spoke of parents so emotionally involved in their kids’ sports lives that they’d seemingly forgotten why they signed up their sons and daughters in the first place.

“I had a physician’s family come in,” Micheli said. “The mother was an emergency-room doctor. Her son had Little League elbow, which I operated on. The first question out of her mouth in the recovery room was, ‘When do you think he can play again?’ Not, ‘How did the surgery go?’ Or, ‘How’s the elbow going to be?’ The loss of perspective was amazing.”

I was intrigued with the idea that kids’ sports can hold such power over adults and made it a major part of my book.

Then this month, sport researchers at Purdue University published a study in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology that examines how youth sports changes the lives of the adults on the sidelines. It was exploring the same issue, yet in a kinder, gentler way.

Here’s some of what the Purdue researchers reported:

-Spouses with kids in youth sports became better communicators (with one another) and often better organized. This was attributed to the coordination skills they developed insuring that their kids made it on time time to their practices, games, private lessons and the rest.

-Some parents explained that watching their children excel in sports motivated them to pick up a sport themselves. One said that when her child took up tennis, she was soon playing too.

-Bonds among parents remained strong when children were too old or dropped out of youth programs. Some said that when their kids stopped playing they went through an emotional letdown from losing their “adult play dates.”

In a Purdue press release, one of the researchers, Alan Smith explained: “I don’t think it’s terribly surprising that parents connect with one another, but what was surprising is the intensity of that connection. Many view themselves differently, as well as their children differently, after exposure to youth sports.”

That intensity can be channeled in constructive ways. (See Purdue study).

Or not. (Consult Dr. Micheli).

For additional discussion on young athletes, check out Hyman’s blog. In addition, he’s mentioned in this Newsweek article on Why ‘Everyone Gets a Turn’ May Be Good for Little Kids

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Here’s a guest post from Lisa Roberts, who was recently named “The 2010 Household CEO”:

A couple months ago, I entered a contest sponsored by Bill Me Later and Zappos.com. These two companies were looking for examples of today’s “Household CEO,” mainly (but not only!) women managing their homes, looking after their families and generally living busy lives, and I thought my roles and responsibilities around the home made me a good candidate. With help from my family, we submitted our video; when I got the call, I was beyond excited! Yesterday, I was a simple stay-at-home mom of four from Lexington, KY. Today, I am a nationally-recognized CEO!

Of course, I’m honored to have this title (and the shopping spree allows us to buy new beds for our children!). But the important part is that this celebrates all the hardworking moms and dads out there, ordinary folks who lead pretty extraordinary lives. Most people say that being a parent is a “full-time job,” but the phrase has become a cliché, not the badge of honor it should be.

In a survey of typical American households conducted as part of the Household CEO campaign, one of the key findings is that while most women now work outside the home, a majority also have primary responsibilities inside the home, including cooking, overseeing kids’ homework, and organizing the family’s social life. In addition, many working women also manage family vacations, budgets, retirement planning and car care. The number of “Mom” jobs is not a huge surprise however, because we all do whatever it takes to keep our organizations — Households — efficient and successful.

I am very thankful for my young children (a 5-year old and 3-year-old triplets), a loving and supportive husband and all of our family’s activities and needs. Take a look at my adorable assistants in my video entry here. My professional background is in public relations and customer service, and I use just about everything I learned there to do my job! The sweetest thing about being recognized as a Household CEO is having the reassurance that the work I do each day is important.

Three years ago my husband and I co-founded Project Seahorse, a non-profit designed to equip, honor and redeem families coping with the tumultuous experience of loving a critically premature baby. We create care packages and offer support to families that never expected to find themselves in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. (We’re personally familiar with that experience.)

But like most people in my situation, I find time to do everything that’s needed. I set priorities and guidelines on a daily basis and change them when I need to, which is very often. The business world calls it flexibility; I call it reality. All working parents master the art of multitasking, which is not a corporate office specialty. Talking to clients on the phone while preparing dinner for a family of five while helping one child with a school project and stopping the other three from fighting, well, that is just another day in my “corner” office!

I could say more, but I have “action items” to address and the kids are calling!

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Okay, I admit it. I’ve been on summer vacation from Swine Flu, which means I’ve given the H1N1 virus little thought. But did someone declare today National Swine Flu day?

The airwaves are buzzing today with talk of the Swine Flu epidemic now that kids are heading back to school. Here in New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg briefed city officials on important Swine Flu prevention measures. And President Obama strongly recommended getting the vaccine to prevent the flu. This morning I also received an email from our pediatrician about swine flu precautions.

In the five years that my son has been a patient in the practice of Michel Cohen, I do not recall receiving an email about a medical issue, so his message about Swine Flu caught my eye. (Cohen’s book The New Basics is a must-have for new parents.)

Cohen, who is known for a no-nonsense approach, says parents have no reason to be alarmed about swine flu-yet.

“The virus causes about four days of very high fever but few other symptoms. The kids who caught it fared surprisingly well, and in our practice, all of them recovered without any complications.”

While the regular flu vaccine won’t protect us from the H1N1 virus, the Center for Disease Control is developing a separate vaccine with pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline, which they say will be widely available. “Its effectiveness won’t be guaranteed, however, because there’s not enough time for extensive clinical trials,” Cohen says. He doesn’t recommend the vaccine, which will be offered for free to New York City primary school-age children, because kids “tend to fight the flu very well.” In addition, Cohen is worried the vaccine will prevent children from developing natural immunity against the flu, thereby creating more resistant strains. (Note: My colleague Cathy Arnst has written about the vaccination debate extensively.)

That’s the medical side to consider. The bigger issue is what happens if my son gets a temperature that forces us to keep him home from school for days? Most likely, I’ll be the parent who needs to stay home until our regular sitter shows up. What about other working parents who have no such safety net? Nearly two-thirds of low-wage workers in New York City, for example, have no paid sick days, Dan Cantor writes in the Huffington Post.

How are you preparing for Swine Flu? What measures, if any, have you taken? Do you have a childcare back-up plan if illness strikes?

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