August a nightmare for moms
Op-ed: Israel encourages reproduction, but fails to help women raise kids while earning a living
August is the most difficult month of the year. Not just because of the heat, but because the summer camps are over and "Mom, I'm bored' becomes the State's anthem. Occasionally we manage to steal a day off and take the small kids on a trip just to keep them away from spending the entire day in front of the television. But what will we do till the end of the summer vacation, when even the grandmothers, who are tired of serving as emergency babysitters, have gone overseas?
Working mothers (well, a few fathers too) are forced to take their children to the office. On the first day it's kind of nice. The little ones survey the area, play on the computer and stick works of art on the walls. On the second day it's not as nice. It turns out that so many games will make a computer collapse, and that the works of art were actually plastered on protocol papers which were not in line for shredding. On the third day it becomes a disaster. The boss sulks, the colleagues get annoyed. How much more can we take?
School Vacations
Shay Sapir
Op-ed: Proposal to cut school week to five days robs parents of last real piece of freedom they have left
Every year, in August, I ask myself how is it possible that in the State of Israel paying a nanny is still not a recognized expenditure. How is it that when a business manager invites a guest from abroad to a luxury restaurant, hoping that the hummus and shish kebab will generate a deal, he can include the receipt in his monthly expense account, and when a working mother is assisted by a nanny (one who is ready to issue a receipt, as most "work black" without declaring their income to the Tax Authority), it’s not recognized as a deductible expense for income tax purposes?
After all, it's the most justified and most common expenditure, allowing a woman to earn her salary without having to reduce her working hours.
Special treatment
In the United States – and please forgive me for the irritating comparison – it's different. Even a woman who works from home for the sake of convenience or in order to save on car fuel, can still add the sum she paid her nanny, the nursery school or the kindergarten to her annual report. There, they even recognize payments she had to make for meetings for the purpose of finding a job.Here, on the other hand, in the reproduction power where "children are a source of happiness," a woman is told: "You chose to have children? Deal with it.' Pay the neighbor more than you earn. It's your problem."
The fact that mothers (okay, I haven't forgotten, a few fathers too) spend August with their children jumping between their legs because they can't afford a babysitter negatively affects the quality of their work (who will pay for that?), damages their work relations ("I'm sorry my little one spilled juice all over the chart"), causes unnecessary restlessness, and most of all – turns the joys of parenthood into a nightmare.
I get it, in Israel it's difficult to enact elementary laws in favor of the citizens, just the thought of taking their basic needs into account clouds the government's proper performance, and so – having no other choice – I will compromise. I won't ask you to recognize the sum we pay nannies all year round. But perhaps you'll agree to take a step forward and define August as a special month, in which we deserve some special treatment?
