The book is still coming along--not done yet, though.
Things are getting busy in other areas regarding babies in the workplace. I was interviewed for an article in the Boston Globe which was published two days ago, on November 14:
Child Care Bridges Two Worlds
That led to Wendy Matusovich (the mother whose picture appeared in the article) and myself being interviewed on Fox News yesterday (the 15th). It seemed to go really well.
Seems as though this concept might really be starting to take off...
Interestingly, many of the comments to the Boston Globe article were quite negative. I'm coming to the conclusion that people seem to fall into three general groups in their reactions to babies in the workplace.
1. People who work in a company with a structured program--they tend to believe that these programs are successful and generally are very enthusiastic about the benefits.
2. People who had very mellow babies, took their own children to work, or knew someone else who did it successfully--they also tend to be very enthusiastic about how well it can work.
3. People (generally not business owners) who have never seen a structured program--many of these people tend to be very resistant to the idea. The negative comments to the Globe article seemed to all fall into this category. Our culture has been indoctrinated for a long time with the false impression that all babies scream and that mellow, content babies are rare or nonexistent. It seems that many people just have no framework for imagining that babies could be happy in a work environment, or that guidelines could be put in place that alleviate or eliminate potential problems. It's a completely foreign concept. Also, because most adults aren't around babies until/unless they have their own children, they're not familiar with the effect a happy, friendly baby can have on those around her. Happy babies and children tend to bring out a nurturing instinct in many people--but many of us have lost touch with that because children are so segregated from society most of the time.
I hope to help our culture reach the point where babies at work is so common it's considered to be a "non-event"--as it is in dozens of companies already.
