Mets Murphy to take Paternity leave

Today, when the New York Mets take on the Washington Nationals second baseman Daniel Murphy will not be taking the field for the first time this season.  He was not injured or benched, he was with his wife as she gave birth to their first child. I wrote a short post about it, but then it became a huge national story.

In one article I read, it showed tweets from Mets fans that are upset with the second baseman taking a few days of paternity leave. The "fans" diminished the idea of paternity leave and said things like he has all winter to be with his kid and he didn't actually do any of the work. 

These people are clearly idiots. Yes he gets to spend the winter with his new son Noah, but in November, Noah will not be a few days old anymore. Those first few days are so special, and with someone whose job requires him to be away so much every moment he gets with his son is precious.

New York radio personality, Mike Francesca openly mocked the idea of a man taking any leave. He boasted about being back at work the day after his wife gave birth to twins. He was shocked when callers suggested taking time off. "Weeks? What are you going to do." Mr. Francesca you can drive home to be with your kid. Mr. Murphy cannot. Mr. Francesca and the idiots of Twitter show why its so hard for men to take off time for the birth of their children. When my son was born, it was kind of looked down upon that I took two weeks off which were unpaid, despite being on email the entire time.

His wife has just given birth, I don't know what kind of support system they have in Florida, but it's good for her to have her husband around for a few days after the baby is born. Being a new parent can be lonely, it must be worse if you are actually alone. 

And lastly, it was two games out of 162. Let's put things in perspective people. Birth of your child and baseball?