A final task of our Parents' Bill of rights is to trigger a moral and political awakening that gives new heft and authority to the parental role. We do not underestimate the power of symbolism in our image-conscious society, and therefore we suggest a variety of consciousness-raising ideas that together will help to create a "pubic morality" that puts moms and dads front and center on the national stage.
An Index of Parent Well-Being:
An index of Parent Well-Being would be a refreshing counterpoint
to the Dow Jones and other Wall Street indicators. It would be
so deeply symbolic, signifying a new national commitment to the
work parents do. Initially, the index would include measures of
parents' average weekly earning, time available for children,
access to affordable housing, health-insurance coverage, and divorce
rate.
National Parent's Day:
We encourage communities around the nation to lend resources,
energy, and enthusiastic support to National
Parent's Day, a day of commemoration of mothers and fathers
that was signed into law by President Clinton in October 1994
after unanimous adoption by Congress. Observed on the fourth Sunday
of each July, Parents' Day is "designed to provide education
and awareness of issues surrounding parenting and family challenges
and problems." It is also a day to honor outstanding leaders,
parents, and workers in the parenting field. Supported by an impressive
list of leaders from Governor George Bush of Texas to Governor
Roy Romer of Colorado to Mayor Linda Lingle of Honolulu, National
Parents' Day has not yet received the recognition it deserves.
National Parents' Day could showcase the vision that permeates this book. Unlike Mother's Day and Father's Day (which are enormously valuable in their own right), Parents' Day sees to a "we" consciousness rather than an "I" consciousness - the "we" of partners raising children together, the "we" of communities looking out for all of their children. Celebrating this day will force us, as a nation and as a people, to think continuously and talk regularly about the status of parents in this country.
We recommend that churches, synagogues, and mosques celebrate National Parent's Day and use it as a focus for a week-long exploration of the spiritual significance of parenting and the scriptural foundation of the parental role. In a nation where 96 percent of all adults believe in God, religion, and spirituality in the broader sense, are sources of succor and strength for moms and dads dealing with the challenges of contemporary parenting.
We particularly encourage schools and colleges to recognize National Parents' Day and use it as an anchor for a series of classes on the practical and ethical dimensions of preparing for marriage and parenthood.
Parent Privileges:
Most important on our list of parent privileges is a specially
designed education credit, work approximately $2,000 a year for
a maximum of three years, which would enable a parent who stays
at home with a young child to go back to school or college to
complete his or her education. At a symbolic level, this would
demonstrate that we as a society value a parent's time. It would
also go some distance toward compensating a parent for the huge
opportunity cost involved in spending several years out of the
labor force. This particular privilege or benefit closely parallels
the educational provisions of the original GI Bill.
In addition, we recommend several parent privileges that are less substantive in terms of cost but equally rich in symbolic significance. State and city governments as well as schools and businesses should find ways of making our public spaces more welcoming to parents and children. For example, they might offer discounted admission charges to national parks and national monuments; discounted "family day: admission to museums, movie theaters, and restaurants; priority parking I shopping malls for pregnant women and parents with small children; and priority seating on buses and trains fore parents with small children. We feel it is particularly important to allocate space in every school for a user-friendly parents' meeting room. It need not be elaborate, but some comfortable chairs, a pot of coffee, and pile of resource material would encourage parent involvement in the life of a school, with enormously positive results for children.
