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<p>[Report</a> offers a bit of good news for American moms - CNN.com](<a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/09/health/state-world-mothers-report/index.html]Report”>http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/09/health/state-world-mothers-report/index.html)</p>
<p>How do you rank your own mom?</p>
<p>My mom did not submit her data.</p>
<p>I question the methodology in these rankings. I feel endowments are weighted too heavily as are peer rankings. I also sense they aren’t as holistic as they could be and they should stop basing the rankings so strongly on test scores and lean more heavily on important EC’s like swing-pushing and stroller walking. YMMV</p>
<p>I detest the fact that there is no category for URM dads that do all the mom things from playground to chaperone to driving to thousands of Kumon, piano, and the like activities over the years :)</p>
<p>Er… it’s not exactly a “best mom’s list” — it’s a best places to be a mom list. That is, what countries are the most supportive of moms. </p>
<p>So countries with universal health care and worker protections such as generous family leave policies do well.</p>
<p>What is a good mom?
The rather good placement of my Northern European country surprises me. In our family we are more or less living in three different continents and yes, there are distinct differences in how mothers raise their children. In my Northern European country priority number one seems to be these days that children are having a great childhood together with mom as her child’s best friend which is of course wonderful as long as … mom also prepares her child really well for independent adult life. I’m not able to support my statement with any data, but I’m convinced that the young adults (18 to 30) in my country are nowhere near the independence shown by young adults in countries that are ranked much lower on the list.</p>
<p>I really feel that people who read these rankings are prestige %^&* who only care what the neighbors think and don’t realize that taking a free ride to be a mom is far more prestigious than paying full freight.</p>
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<p>You can buy a “World Best Dad” sweater or t-shirt and wear it. I still have one.</p>
<p>From the CNN link:</p>
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<p>Reminds me of a Canadian niece whose baby just had a first birthday. Niece has regularly posted happy pictures and updates on Facebook for the last year, as she’s been home based, occupied with raising the infant. Now that her year of mat. leave is up, she’s heading back to her job at Microsoft and baby will go to daycare. So civilized, compared to the benefits available to American moms. Notice that niece works for a well-known US company, too.</p>
<p>^^Careful what you wish for. Overly-generous maternity leave policies can have unintended consequences. </p>
<p>In Finland for example they have a full-salary 52-week maternity leave that is paid by the employer. Sounds great, right? Well it would be if it weren’t abused. Once the law was passed it quickly became common practice for young women, when considering having a baby, to hold off until they landed a job. Then a month or so after they got the job they’d get pregnant and eventually go out on leave. When the year of paid leave is up they return to work and promptly quit the job. So the employer ends up paying a year’s salary for basically nothing in return.</p>
<p>So the net effect of this generous, enlightened maternity leave policy? Employers quickly learned their lesson and became reluctant to hire women of child-bearing age. Making it tough for young women to get jobs was probably not what the Finnish legislators had in mind, but that’s what their generosity with other people’s money got them.</p>
<p>It’s not about ranking, it’s about fit. I would probably make a lousy mom for someone who only spoke Norwegian.</p>
<p>Musicamusica wins the thread. Well done.</p>
<p>And happy Syttende Mai to you too!</p>
<p>[17th</a> of May Festival.](<a href=“http://www.17thofmay.org/]17th”>http://www.17thofmay.org/)</p>
<p>LOL. </p>
<p>You never know. My son’s best mom in the whole world spoke only Thai. (summer foreign exchange, homestay)</p>
<p>Another junky info, junk in, junk out, makes no diff. for anybody. Are we going to adjust to make ourselves ranked #1? I do not think so. Where is a beef?</p>
<p>Great news about Afghanistan.</p>