Tell Shared Parental Leave what your maternity/paternity leave was like: win a voucher!

garemand · Apr 10, 2019 2:34PM

I took the full maternity leave and my husband had a couple of weeks off. It was blissful, I've never been so happy.

HannahLI-120691 · Apr 10, 2019 2:50PM

I think the shared paternity leave is great, but sadly we weren't able to use it. Despite it being available it is largely frowned upon in my husbands line of work to take that kind of leave. I also think he would have struggled with it as well and its not very practical when you breastfeed to share it anyway.

princess2892 · Apr 10, 2019 2:55PM

My maternity leave was lovely I had a year off but I always had this over hanging gloom of stressing about going back to work and how childcare would work out

jen0987 · Apr 10, 2019 3:50PM

my maternity leave was a year and i did get the choice to go back and when i was pregant i was sure i wanted to go back to work but when my daughter arrived i couldnt bare to leave her so i didnt go back and i never have regretted not going back

lporter586 · Apr 10, 2019 5:37PM

I took a year off with both mine, but my husband has only ever had 2 weeks for each. We just couldn't afford for him not to work! I work part-time now partly due to childcare costs, but that's a WHOLE other conversation!!

ruth hunter 2 · Apr 10, 2019 5:44PM

there was no such thing as paternity leave

Bambinoxx · Apr 10, 2019 5:46PM

I honestly loved it. When my oldest was born paternity leave did not exist however with my second it was lovely to learn about paternity leave. It was exactly as I expected - my partner was able to bond with my little girl, take care of her with me and support me throughout the day. She is just as much his as mine therefore I’m pleased we have equal rights x

sarah1271 · Apr 10, 2019 6:13PM

I was fortunate enough to be able to stay at home with both my children was a Wonderful experience and filled with lots of joy, my husband had to weeks paid leave which was a great help to get in to the swing of things

stephanie lovatt · Apr 10, 2019 6:58PM

I took the full year then decided not to return to work. I have been lucky enough to be a stay at home mum till my son started full time school. During that time I retrained as a teaching assistant and now work term time only so I can still spend lots of time with him

deb2112 · Apr 10, 2019 7:00PM

I found it really difficult not being at work when I went on maternity leave with my first. I felt really isolated and just didn't know how to spend my time as I'd never done it before. Life had changed too much in one go and work would have provided an anchor I think. I kind of got the hang of it just before I went back but only really felt content being a SAHM once I'd had my third! Then I had a rethink and started a home business- which worked much better for me at that point.

louisep8260 · Apr 10, 2019 7:34PM

I wish my husband had more time. The two weeks paternity for him flew because our son was born premature and hubby sent those two weeks visiting me and baby in hospital. By he the time our son was discharged my husband was back at work. I wish the government would make some exceptions for people with premature babies

Kate Andrews · Apr 10, 2019 7:41PM

I enjoyed my year off, but money was always in the back of my mind, I wish my husband could have spent more time at home, but as the main earner it made more financial sense for him to go back full time. I wish we could of actually spent more time of together as a family, not just sharing the leave, two weeks is definitely not long enough

caz123456 · Apr 10, 2019 8:13PM

I loved my time off and I took full maternity for both my children. I filled my days going to toddler groups making fantastic friends in the process, swimmming, painting and basically making the most of being at home. My husband did not have the luxury of that though and only took two weeks off due to the fact he would not have ben paid.

Samantha Atherton · Apr 10, 2019 8:28PM

I wasn’t working when we choose to have our daughter. I’d left work 3 years prior due to health reasons and my husband had been surporting me. As his was the only income and I wouldn’t get any maternity pay he could only take 2 weeks off. It was hard and I would of gladly shared my maternity to have him around more at the start if it had of been an option.

clareycat · Apr 10, 2019 8:29PM

I was so lucky with my first as i took a generous redundancy package whilst on maternity and also won £5K in a competition which meant i could take 18 months off on maternity. I think without these two things happening i would have had to return to work after 6 months as we couldn't have afforded it. I believe this time i had with my daughter cemented our bond and i'm so very grateful for it.

cathryn1 · Apr 10, 2019 8:39PM

It was a struggle for money if honest, worrying about going back to work, wish I had enjoyed my time more

Fiona K · Apr 10, 2019 8:49PM

I had both my children in the US where there is no government-mandated parental leave. You are allowed to take 6 weeks off after the birth, with no pay, during which time your job is held open for you to return to it. (at the time I had my children, employers with less than 50 employees were exempt and did not have to hold your job open for you to return to it). You can take 2 of those 6 weeks as part of your 2 week annual leave, in which case you get paid for 2 weeks as if you were on vacation & 4 weeks unpaid, but you cannot extend the maternity leave by adding 2 weeks vacation to make 8 weeks of time away from work. If you do not report back to work at the end of the 6th week, you are deemed to have resigned without giving notice and are not entitled to any severance pay or other benefits.

Angela121262 · Apr 10, 2019 8:58PM

Not long enough and a bit isolating as my partner was not able to share the time off.

she-ra - 1 · Apr 10, 2019 9:59PM

I have stepkids - you get no maternity or any other sort of leave !

tubbyj · Apr 10, 2019 10:33PM

I took the full 2 weeks for me at the time,it was so little time.

Tell Shared Parental Leave what your maternity/paternity leave was like: win a voucher!

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