Buttigieg’s paternity leave is a reminder that the US prioritizes work over

What Pete Buttigieg reveals about paternity leave in America

Brace yourself, because what I’m going to say next may shock you. Here we go: an American man adopted newborn twins and then had the audacity to take some time off work to look after them! No, I can’t believe it either. No self-respecting, red-blooded man should be spending time with his tiny babies. He should be in the office, missing those early months, so he can focus on what’s really important. Forget bonding with your vulnerable newborns, there are urgent emails to be sent.

The man in question, of course, is the US secretary of transportation, Pete Buttigieg, who recently adopted twins with his husband. Conservatives have, predictably, been having homophobic hysterics about the loving family but were tipped over the edge when it emerged that Buttigieg had taken parental leave. The Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the patron saint of family values, ridiculed Buttigieg’s parenting last week. “Paternity leave, they call it,” Carlson sneered. “Trying to figure out how to breastfeed. No word on how that went.” Carlson, by the way, has four children. No word on how much time he spent with them when they were born. No doubt he was a Real Man™ and left his wife, or the nannies, to do all the parenting.

Buttigieg’s paternity leave was criticized again on Tuesday when a reporter from the conservative outlet Newsmax asked the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, whether it wasn’t wise for Buttigieg to come back to work. Psaki responded by saying: “He is at work. I was on a conference call with him this morning.” She then went on to talk about how important parental leave is.

Psaki’s response to the Newsmax has been widely celebrated on social media and by the more liberal news outlets. There have been a number of headlines like: “Psaki shuts down Newsmax’s reporter’s attack.” I wonder whether the people praising Psaki actually listened to what she said. Because her very first instinct, let me remind you, was to insist that Buttigieg is still working. (Buttigieg, by the way, had a similar response to Carlson’s attack – he went on MSNBC shortly after to stress that he has “been available 24/7 on issues that can’t wait”.)

Contrary to all the gushing headlines, Psaki didn’t “shut down” the Newsmax reporter at all. Rather, she reassured her that Buttigieg may be on leave but he’s still juggling all of his responsibilities like the heroic workaholic he is. And that’s an absolutely terrible response. It undermines everything Psaki later says about the importance of parental leave. Because, last time I checked, parental leave is supposed to be leave. You’re not supposed to work at the same time. I get it: Buttigieg has a very important job. But if the transportation department can’t function without him for a couple of months, then we should all be very worried indeed. A commitment to parental leave is more than just noble words, it means putting into place processes that let people actually take that leave.

You expect conservatives to have stone age…