All the discussions about flexi time or dress down Fridays or paternity leave only serve to mask the core issue, which is that certain job and career choices are fundamentally incompatible with being meaningfully engaged on a day to day basis with a young family.

Only a handful of men want to take childcare leave.

I'm a controller for a plastic firm in Seattle.

Nope. Got two days off.

It was a big thing for us, and now all my sisters are off having babies and the boys are all getting married, so we're staying close to home for, I guess, another couple of weeks.

Secnav tells me You're going to be Taking a couple wes Of personal time. Uhhuh.

During summer, I'm going to go to France.

Maybe it's time we took a vacation from one another.

Vacationing.

Holiday.

This is your first weekend off in what.

I would like a week off with pay.

So I want you to think about a thought experiment.

Vacation Checklist

I'm here for a vacation.

On leave?

She is on vacation.

Vacation.

It's my day off.

Now Paula, I'm just going on a little vacation, you know that. You want to go without me don't you?

We went on our vacation then.

And one day I was at work and I saw a talk by Stefan Sagmeister on TED, and it was called The power of time off, and he spoke about how every seven years, he takes a year off from work so he could do his own creative projects, and I was instantly inspired, and I just said, I have to do that.

Have a nice vacation.

Events, Places, Vacation

He's on leave.

I'm on vacation.

Have a good Christmas.

He is off work for a few days.

Cao Lu Cheska, where are you going?

You are on vacation here?

I'll be able to afford a week's vacation this summer.

We are taking a fortnight's holiday.

We'll take a two week holiday.

It'sit'S... look,II've got two days leavestarting tonight.

You ll have to attempt an one hour parenting class.

It's time to take a break.

The holiday ended all too soon.

I saw the sights of Kyoto during my vacation.

He's not here on business. Oh?

We deserve this vacation.

This is Christmas vacation, sir.

Will he be coming on leave? ..

That was his vacation?

We're on holiday!

From the point of view of the experiencing self, if you have a vacation, and the second week is just as good as the first, then the two week vacation is twice as good as the one week vacation.