Mother's Day has come and gone, but not the needs of working mothers--or, we should say, working families. Questions of sick leave, flexibility, fair pay, and mandatory overtime, and all the rest affect not just mothers but children, fathers, mothers, nieces, older people--really, everyone in the economy who has to care for, or be cared for, at any point in our lives. Which includes us all.

Here's my own experience with this: I am unspeakably grateful that while my father was dying this past year, my boss insisted that I take whatever time I needed, whenever I needed it, to fly to Florida to be with him. As a result I was there once a month in his final months, in the room with him during his last five days, held his hand while he literally gasped his last breath, and stayed with my stepmother and siblings while he was buried -- without worrying for a second about my paycheck, my amount of vacation or bereavement leave, or my annual review. I did not have to choose between caring for my family and keeping a roof over my head.

But too many people do, as Ellen Bravo notes in her op-ed this weekend in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. The human condition can be painful enough without having to make such horrifying choices. How can it be that half of this nation's work force has no paid sick leave--the half that is least able to lose even an hour's wages? Flexible work hours, family leave, paid sick time: these are abstract wonky terms for treating each other with basic human decency. Ellen Bravo's mother's day wish list is really a wish list for humane working conditions. I urge you to read it.