The very unusual athlete?

In my experience having a child slows one's perception of time. My son, Lucas André Vadeboncoeur sent my wife into labour at 4am on his due date (Nov 15) and was born at home at 9:29 that night. From early that morning my notion of time became the space between contractions. In my wife's case these were 4 minutes apart almost from the beginning. Now time is divided into the space between feeds, about 1-2 hours (I have a very hungry kid, he's gained half a kilo in a week, or 16% of his total body mass!). He's two weeks old but it seems like we've had him forever. It's been an amazing fortnight and I look forward to every day I get to spend with him as he makes his way (slowly!) toward the social world. Big thanks to the midwifes for their wonderful (and continuing) support through his development from bean-sized foetus to infant. Here he is at 5 days old, looking considerably less squished than when he came out...

If you've read my first post (it's here) you'll know that Lucas is a beautiful addition to my already full plate. I feel like spending all day at home with him and his mum, but I also want to complete my PhD and have a great athletics season. Those contrasting thoughts are a constant reminder that desire without action is a daydream. I need to spend time working hard and spend time at home. I can see now more than ever why that's called having a "balanced" life, one could easily find themselves falling off either side. Very luckily my wife has 52 weeks paid maternity/parental leave at 55% salary up to $468/week (thanks Govt. of Canada!). We also get around $3,000 per year in child benefits until age 6, then about $1,200 per year after that. This is a blessing and will help with this "balance" but it's still nothing like what they provide people in Scandinavian countries, Bulgaria, or Slovenia (see a summary on Wikipedia here). Having supported my wife through the process of pregnancy, labour and now child care, while learning about maternity benefits, is highlighting women's rights as a social issue. Since this is a sports blog, I'll be brief:

In Canada a women is guaranteed the position she held when she took leave, or if that is not available, a position of equal rank at the same salary. Now, what about during her time away? Fifty-five percent of salary up to $468 per week is great for women who have a good salary, live in a part of the country with a low cost of living and/or are married to or in a relationship with someone who has a good salary. In the case of my family, the support we receive from the government is great but in the case of single mothers with average-to-low salaries it's a different story.

There is no defined cut-off in Canada for a poverty line. Rather, there are Low Income Cut Offs (LICOs) defined by Statistics Canada that are set by family size and location of residence. Earning less than the LICO is used as a measure of economic hardship and may be thought of as a proxy poverty line. Using 2005 numbers, a family of two (single mum and 1 child) has a LICO from $17,429 to $25,319. The average Canadian single mum earns $42,800 per year, but the 50th percentile of earners gets right around $30,000. That means that with our current benefits package, half the single mums in the country will have to make due with a taxable income of at most $16,500 during their maternity/parental leave while the average mum will get 97% of the full benefit of $24,336. Remember, this is all before taxes. Should we be asking so many of our mothers to spend a year in poverty to raise a child? Keep in mind that Canada has one of the best maternity/parental leaves in the world. Is global society, at some level, fundamentally set up to discriminate against women? Food for thought...