As I watched my 3- and 15-year-old talk, I started thinking about Jean Piaget and paid parental leave. At first, this may seem odd, but hear me out.

According to Piaget, my 3-year-old is in the preoperational phase, characterized by egocentrism, and my 15-year-old is in the formal operational phase, characterized by abstract thinking and metacognition. Both of those phases require caregiving support and guidance.

My 3-year-old needs support in learning basic life skills as well as social-emotional skills, including perspective-taking, while my 15-year-old needs support in navigating challenges around identity development. Yet despite the theoretical and research evidence on the importance of parents across childhood, the issue of parental leave often solely focuses on the first year. Paid leave during the first year is essential for bonding and parental identity development, and in the U.S., we need to come a long way in our leave policies for new parents.

Yet parenting and transitions occur across a child and parent’s life. We need flexible paid caregiving leave policies in this country.

At each........

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