In the mega-consumption era of parenthood, the internet tells new moms that products can solve the hardest parts of having a newborn. All they have to do is add to cart.
By the 2000s, nearly every industrialized nation had developed a paid leave policy that allowed parents to stay home for months — up to a year in some places — with their infants, giving them more room to adjust to parenting, learn their children’s needs and troubleshoot the tough stuff. The United States is the only outlier. To this day, it remains the only industrialized nation to offer no such policy.
That means most U.S. mothers return to work within two months of giving birth. That’s no time at all in baby world. Two-month-olds are still waking multiple times a night, their parents are still in the throes of sleep deprivation. Moms are often still figuring out feeding, nap schedules, developmental milestones and just about everything else.
To achieve a life that doesn’t feel like a 24-hour circus, working parents lean on solutions they can access from their phones. The United States accounts for roughly 10 percent of all global baby product revenue, though it’s home to just 4 percent of the world population. Only China draws in a larger share of the global revenue (14 percent), but with a population four times the size of the United States. By 2033, the U.S. market is expected to grow another 40 percent, and the fastest growth will be in one sector: online purchases.
I took 3 months of paternity leave, which is on the better side here :(. I think I got 2 months with the rest being banked pto. With the first kid it was longer in a way, because she was born during Covid. It was a scary and stressful time, but I got pretty lucky with how it turned out, my work converted to remote, but the work also slowed down a lot do to the chaos and adjusting to the new reality. With the second kid though, I took 3 months again but 2 weeks were unpaid because I had to save some pto for inevitably when the kids got sick or had to stay home, and workflows had adjusted by then so work was not nearly as slow. Working remote was still great for it though
I took 3 months of paternity leave, which is on the better side here :(. I think I got 2 months with the rest being banked pto. With the first kid it was longer in a way, because she was born during Covid. It was a scary and stressful time, but I got pretty lucky with how it turned out, my work converted to remote, but the work also slowed down a lot do to the chaos and adjusting to the new reality. With the second kid though, I took 3 months again but 2 weeks were unpaid because I had to save some pto for inevitably when the kids got sick or had to stay home, and workflows had adjusted by then so work was not nearly as slow. Working remote was still great for it though