I got lucky with my Parental Leave

[andrewducker]

I felt awkward about this, as I tend to feel awkward about things where I'm doing better than most. But if people don't know what's possible, and available elsewhere, then they may never realise there's something to aim for.

Earlier this year, following a company merger, the company started merging together its policies so that they were the same. And also bringing some of them up to date so that they matched what our competitors were offering.

And amongst those was the parental leave. Which is six months fully paid for either parent.

Yes, I know, I was boggled too. And so very, very grateful when it was brought into force in July, just two months before Gideon was born.

This means that I'll be at home working together with Jane to raise Gideon until March. This feels massive to me.

(And on top of that he's not even as hard to raise as Sophia was. He's a lot more placid. We're still not getting much sleep - but being woken every couple of hours at night is much less stressful if you know you don't have to get 8 hours of work done the next day.)

Comments

Germany

[channelpenguin]

From the state in Germany: "Parental allowance supports parents who work less or not at all after the birth to look after their child. Parental allowance is available for all mothers and fathers. With parental allowance, you can work up to 30 hours a week. It is also possible that you are not employed at all. You do not have to interrupt your studies or training to receive parental allowance.

You can apply for parental allowance either alone or together with the other parent.

Parental allowance is available in three variants: basic parental allowance, ElterngeldPlus and partnership bonus. You receive basic parental allowance for at least two months and up to twelve months of your child's life. If you both receive parental allowance, you can collectively receive 14 months of life. You can divide these months freely among each other. You can receive the basic parental allowance together, one after the other or alternately. You also get the additional two months if you are a single parent.

Basic parental allowance is between 300 and 1800 euros per month, depending on your income before the birth of your child. As a rule, it is 65 percent of net income. Parents with low incomes receive up to 100 percent of their net income."

Re: Germany

[dewline]

Someone alert my MP in Ottawa. If they haven't already gotten an earful.

Having new parents as less-stressed neighbours than they used to be will always be a plus to me. Just because I'm not the father, doesn't mean I don't benefit.

and ...

[channelpenguin]

"You do not have to calculate your parental leave. If you are entitled to parental leave, you can take up to *3 years* of parental leave per child. You can start your parental leave at the earliest with the birth of your child; Parental leave ends no later than the day before your child's 8th birthday.

If you are the mother of the child, the time you are on maternity leave after the birth is deducted from the 3 years. This means: parental leave and maternity leave after the birth together amount to 3 years. If you start parental leave immediately after maternity leave, you can stay on parental leave until the day before your child's 3rd birthday. Without maternity leave - for example as a father - you can also take parental leave from birth until this day.

You are free to choose the start and end of your parental leave. However, from the 3rd birthday of your child, you can take a maximum of 24 months of parental leave, and for births before July 1, 2015, only 12 months. There are special features for parental leave from the 3rd birthday, see Dividing parental leave into several sections.

Your parental leave does not have to start with the birth of your child or after maternity leave. For example, you can start your parental leave from your first birthday or at any other time before your third birthday.
You are free to decide how long you take parental leave. You can take the whole 3 years of parental leave or just part of it. Parental leave is also possible for individual months, weeks or even days.

Parental leave does not start automatically. If you want to take parental leave, you must notify your employer in writing.

In the case of adopted children and children in adoptive care or full-time care, parental leave can begin at the earliest on the day on which you took care of the child. Usually this is the day on which you took the child into your household. You can find more on this topic under Parental leave for adoptive parents and foster parents.

If you have twins or multiple births, you can take parental leave for each child. You can find more information under Parental leave for twins or multiple births."

Re: and ...

[andrewducker]

Oh yes, state mandated paternity leave in the UK is awful - 2 weeks. And only up to £140/week. Thankfully my employers do rather better than that.

Re: and ...

[channelpenguin]

That is appalling! You see so many fathers going about with young kids here, it is awesome. And they seem to keep up the habit when the kids get older too. Of course there are still areas (in the south - historically more Catholic / conservative as I
understand) where school is only in the morning, so it is super hard for both parents to work full time - and yeah, sadly, mums take the brunt... Only cure there is equal pay / opportunities. Not quick to achieve, even here.

Re: and ...

[andrewducker]

Yeah, not sure what we'd have done in that kind of situation. Or will do, once Sophia goes to school (which will finish during the working day, and Edinburgh schools close Friday afternoons)

[cmcmck]

Makes me wonder how it works in Italy as you see a lot of dads in charge of the littluns. Italians adore children, but how does it work?

[andrewducker]

Not sure how good companies are, but the mandatory amount for dads is...4 days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parental_leave_in_Italy?wprov=sfla1

[lilysea]

In Australia, paid parental leave for MOTHERS just came in a few years ago.

Parental Leave Pay
A payment for up to 18 weeks while you care for your new child.

To get this you must:

be the primary carer of a newborn or newly adopted child

have individually earned less than $150,000 in the last financial year

not be working during your Paid Parental Leave period

have met the work test in the 13 months before the child’s birth or entry into care.

To get Parental Leave Pay, you must be either:

the birth mother of a newborn child

the adoptive parent of a child

another person caring for a child under exceptional circumstances.

https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/parental-leave-pay/who-can-get-it

[andrewducker]

I mean, thanks for making us look good!

[lilysea]

Australia just brought in paid leave for fathers in the last few years of 2 weeks.

"Your partner may also be eligible for Dad and Partner Pay for up to 2 weeks. This is 10 payable days."

[andrewducker]

That's what we get by default here too.

[hilarita]

I hope that your HR were less baffled with the paperwork for parental leave than they were for a colleague of mine, who was one of the first men in our dept to take anything other than the two week state paternity leave.

[andrewducker]

They *were* still working on the policy when I first applied, but I think they're there now!

[jack]

Oh, I'm so glad you were able to!

[ninetydegrees]

Glad you were able to and glad you took it. Here you have maternity/paternity leave before and after the birth of your kid or your partner's kid or if you're adopting a kid plus parental leave that you can ask for and which can last for 1 to 3 years (you won't get paid though... well it's complicated...). However, maternity leave is 16 weeks whereas paternity leave is less than two weeks. Unfair for dads.

[andrewducker]

Oh yeah, the legal minimum paid leave is much much less.

[supergee]

Great!

[snippy]

That's wonderful! It will make everything so much better.

[darkoshi]

That is wonderful!

[anna_wing]

That's really good.

The unequal burden of expectations on men and women in respect to both child care and domestic and family responsibilities is a major element of continued sex-based economic and social inequality and discrimination. It's one of the reasons why for the last generation or so, many women in rich Asian countries have preferred not to marry.

You are right to be public about this, you are being an encouraging, positive example.

[andrewducker]

Thank you.

[anef]

I'm very pleased for all of you.

[birguslatro]

Swing things right and you shouldn't need to work more than three months in every nine or so for for quite a while! :)