Quick note on paternity leave: I cast some doubt on Bonnie Erbe's statement on NPR this morning (see her column on the subject here -- thanks Daddy Types!) that 42 percent of Family and Medical Leave Act takers were men (she used a slightly different figure on the radio, but this is clearly what she's talking about). As it turns out, I'm (mostly) wrong. The government said in 2000 that 42.3 percent of leave-takers were men.

*But* ... I had assumed that when we were talking about FMLA, we were talking about parental leave (and Erbe's column seem to make a similar assuption). But as it turns out, most FMLA leave (52.4 percent) is to attend to one's one health. Caring for a newborn clocks in at 18.5 percent. Give that, the 42 percent statistic is not a terribly useful measure of men taking paternity leave. Still, I'd love to see the day where 42 percent of parental leaves are taken by fathers ...