The Working Parents' Dilemma

"I was forced to quit my job to care for autistic son," Phlebotomist Katrina Clothier is quoted as saying in Tuesday's Gazette-News. Clothier

... left her job at Harwich Hospital after health bosses refused her a term-time contract, which would mean she would not have to work during school holidays, enabling her to look after her disabled son.

The 43-year-old said the fact that demand at the clinic is “spiralling out of control” because of a lack of staff makes the decision all the more baffling.

It's a familiar topic to me, how to manage being the working mother of a disabled child. I'm not sure it's appropriate to call it a balancing act; it's often simply a matter of hurtling through the tasks and responsibilities of one job and then hurrying home to focus on what's not so much a "second job" to me as just what I do----take care, and be with, Charlie.

I've noted before that the circumstances of my job---teaching Latin and ancient Greek and administering the Honors Program at a small college in Jersey City---make it possible to have flexible work hours and to do a lot of work at home. Many of my colleagues are supportive, understanding and compassionate about the realities of parenting Charlie.  And while there are numerous duties to carry out in the summer besides teaching, I don't have to be in my office for regular hours and can be at home when Charlie is out of school in the summer (and he'll be out of school more this summer---just learned that Extended School Year will only be 4 days a week and for a shorter period of time).

The college where I teach has a very different atmosphere than a for-profit company. It's a small college (in terms of numbers and in terms of the physical space it occupies---barely two blocks). It has an atmosphere best described as "homey." Certainly almost everyone knows about Charlie and why it's more than likely for people to see me running down Glenwood Avenue at 1.50pm to my car, to get home to meet the bus.

How can we change the workplace to make it possible for parents of children with disabilities, as well as for individuals with disabiliities, to work and also provide for the needs of the families?