How Long Until Chelsea's Back On The Campaign?

On Saturday, Chelsea Clinton gave birth to her second child, a baby boy named Aidan. He's also the second grandchild to Bill and Hillary Clinton, the latter of whom (needless to say) currently has a whole lot of things going on ― running for president probably doesn't leave as much time to celebrate a new addition to the family as much as someone might want. And Chelsea's been heavily involved in the campaign too, which raises an interesting question: How long until Chelsea Clinton returns to campaigning for Hillary?

There's a pretty obvious answer to this one, really, and that's "however long she wants." While countless lower and middle class parents don't necessarily have the luxury to take all the time they might want to spend with their newborn ― all the more reason for some new laws on paid family leave ― that's not the position Chelsea is in. Given her prominence, her family background, and her previous high-paying jobs, she'll be in fine financial shape to take however long she wants.

There is one particularly interesting way of looking at it, however ― how long would it take for Chelsea to hit the campaign trail again if she followed her mother's own proposed reforms on paternal leave?

The official Clinton campaign position, as laid out on their website, is that both men and women will be assured up to 12 weeks ― three months, in other words ― of paid leave to care for a newborn child. If Chelsea were to follow that trajectory, spending the next three months with Aidan (full name Aidan Clinton Mezvinsky, with her husband, Marc Mezvinsky), that would mean she'd be back working with the campaign in mid-to-late September, with just about a month-and-a-half to go in the general election.

Obviously, how much downtime either Chelsea or her husband takes is entirely up to them, and there's no guarantee you won't see her back on the trail sometime far sooner than three months from now. But it's worth noting that that's what Hillary Clinton is herself proposing to guarantee new parents, regardless of their gender ― while maternal leave places the full weight of child care on women, paternal leave is a considerably more progressive idea.

In any event, Chelsea and Marc will probably have their hands full over the next several months, with both a newborn and a toddler on their hands ― Aidan joins their one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Charlotte, who was born in 2014.