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Tell Share Parental Leave how the parenting is shared out in your family: win a £200 voucher

DanielleMFMDanielleMFM admin
edited Apr 12, 2019 9:00AM in Sponsored discussions

Hello. 
Have you heard about Shared Parental Leave and Pay? It’s a benefit that helps eligible parents to combine work with family life. What this means is, between you and your partner, you’re now able to share up to 50 weeks of leave and up to 37 weeks of pay, in a variety of flexible ways to suit your needs.

Shared Parental Leave would love to hear all about the type of parenting, dads do in your family and you could win a £200 Amazon voucher for sharing! To be in with a chance of winning, please post on this thread to share your experiences of how the dad in your family is involved with your parenting, how much they do, and any other experiences you’d like to share. Please feel free to post up a picture, too, if you’d like to: the people at the Shared Parental Leave campaign would love that!

We'll keep this thread open until 15/04/19, and we'll announce the winner's name a few days later.


This discussion is sponsored by Shared Parental Leave. Please note that comments and pictures you post here may be used in future marketing material. See full Ts & Cs.

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Replies

  • sunshine9sunshine9 Regular
    My husband works full time and earns a great deal more than me. I work evenings so we share the childcare by swapping in the evenings. If I need to do training or work in the day my husband will work from home as his work is flexible. 
    He is extremely hands on with our child and this shows in their great relationship 
  • Danis18Danis18 Regular
    My husband is great very hands on.
    I'm currently on maternity as it wasn't financially viable to do SPL but when he is at home he loves to get involved in childcare. I EBF so he can't feed her but he keeps me fed instead! Also he'll happily get involved with nappies and bath time and if she just needs a daddy snuggle!
  • DillyDilly!DillyDilly! Regular
    Hey! We never really looked too much into shared parental leave but I do like the idea. So at the moment my husband works full time and I'm 6 months into a year of maternity leave. But when he's home we share most parenting duties; feeding, changing, swimming, bath time and bed time. During the night it's whoever wakes up first tends to deal, but it's generally just a lost dummy. Works for us. 🙂
  • xLisilxxLisilx Regular
    We didn't do SPL as my husband earns more than me. However, in relation to caring for our baby, we share everything, from changing to feeding, washing bottles, cleaning up her mess, bathing her, bedtime etc , we both do it all. He does more bedtime stuff simply because he's at work all day so it's their time together then.
  • Apricot0904Apricot0904 Regular
    We have a very traditional set-up, where I do the lion's share of the childcare, partly because I am currently on maternity leave. My husband works full time and is out of the house from 05:30-18:00 mon-fri. Our son was born almost 9 weeks prematurely and hubby still is a little scared of looking after him so I do 99% of his care alone. However he now does much more with our 2 year old daughter including her bedtime routine each night. Then at the weekend we "divide and conquer" and he looks after her while I manage the baby.
    We have 4 older children too who don't need "physical" care but we share their needs as best we can. I still deal with the majority of their emotional needs, school liaisons and doctors appts etc while hubby does things like taking then to and from places, making dinner and getting them to do their chores etc.
    When I return to work, things will be harder. Thankfully I only work part-time but hubby will not be able to work from home or change his working days so we will need outside childcare. He will likely be responsible for pick ups and evening care as I will be working long shifts at the hospital on the days I do work.
    I am hoping the overall balance will improve with time, especially as our little one grows and is "less fragile", giving his dad more confidence with caring for him.
  • PoolofdevPoolofdev Regular
    My husband is a great help with our girl when he’s not at work. He cooks dinners, changes her nappy, gets her dressed - pretty much everything I do! His special jobs are bathing her and reading a book at bedtime. He will be looking after her one day a week when I return to work in June ❤️
  • MrsRodgers416MrsRodgers416 Regular
    My hubby takes over the care of my 2 year old when he gets home from work so I can have some alone time with my 6 month old baby. He's great with the 2 year old but really can't do much with the baby as I'm breastfeeding and she just wants me. 
  • Becky240Becky240 Regular
    My hubby works full time shift work and is often not home til late at night and works every weekend but he has always been very hands on. With both boys he shared the night feeds so we both got a block of sleep, he does nappies, baths, feeding, tiding etc. If he goes to work later he makes a point of getting up earlier so he has some play time with the boys and I can drink a coffee before work,  he always reads the bedtime stories and puts them to bed when he's home and when I need a time out he takes them out for a few hours so I can have a quiet bath, nap or read a book. Now our oldest is 3 nearly 4 he's enjoying some one on one time taking him to watch Sunday league football, if he's around, going to kick a ball/run around the park and watching hubby's passion athletics ready for when we can take them to watch it live. We're a team and do it all together, there is nothing I do that he doesn't/won't.
  • sammykate84sammykate84 Regular
    We didn’t do SPL because it wasn’t financially viable as my husband earns more than me. I do the majority of the childcare in our house as I’m still on maternity leave and my husband works in London and only makes it home for our son’s bedtime a couple of times a week. Because of this I tend to also do the majority of childcare on weekends too, out of habit I guess. We’re trying to share the load a bit more, but until I go back to work I imagine it will stay like this.
  • missmyangelsmissmyangels Regular
    My husband works full time and works very hard to allow me to be a stay at home mum. We are very lucky that his company allows him 5 weeks holiday and as he is one of a few middle managers he is able to work from home if I’m poorly if we need his help with other things if I can’t be there. If I could potentially earn a decent amount I’d have no issues with shared parental leave. You do what works for you as a family! I obviously do most of the childcare things as I’m at home but my husband is home from 5pm. He mucks in 50/50 when home:) He cooks helps clean ( but it’s usually done, he still offers) he changes nappies baths the kids helps with homework and takes our children to Beavers , Guides & American Football! We have a very comfortable life money isn’t everything:) we don’t get holidays as such but love coastal days out etc:)
    I trust my husband 100% to do as good a job as me if he were at home . Should things change in the future shared parenting is a definite. 

  • Lw239Lw239 Regular
    Myself and my partner earn pretty much the same wage and for this reason we did have the discussion about shared parental leave, but he enjoys his job a lot more than I do. I’m so fortunate that he works from home, and although this means getting out and about to give him peace during the daytime, it also means that he can be super flexible to help me and our 3-month-old and it will prove to be invaluable in the future with school and nursery runs! 
  • KwaiditschkaKwaiditschka
    My husband helps a lot with childcare and household chores. Since we had our second baby three months ago, he takes care of our 2.5 year old son a lot. He gets him dressed in the mornings, makes him breakfast, takes him to nursery etc and he often feeds him dinner and puts him to bed as well. This means I can focus on the baby and I have a lot less stress that way.
  • glenkaglenka
    He will cook the family meal at dinner time every day which is a great help and also does many other jobs around the house.
  • mary healdmary heald Regular
    My husband has always worked full time apart from the first week that we brought our son home. However as soon as he got in he would take over and give me some chill time. He is very hands on and even did his share if night feeds. 
  • JcoopscompsJcoopscomps
    My husband has always been hands on, working full time he would have our first in the evening while I worked. Then with our second he took on the full time childcare role (2 toddlers) while I worked full time as it made more financial sense. SPL wasnt a thing then.  With our last baby he is now self employed so works around our childcare needs and we split it 50/50.
  • Sparkledust1109Sparkledust1109
    My husband does equal amount of childcare when he's not in work, and has done since day 1 - it shouldn't be any other way. He does nappies, night feeds, bedtime, bath time. I do internally roll my eyes whenever someone congratulates me after hearing that he's looking after the kids whilst I'm in work, I bet no one has ever said that he's lucky t9 have such a good wife because he can leave them with me to go to work! And the amount of people who are shocked to discover that he's taken them both out to the park of an afternoon without me is shocking in itself! 
  • emmal01emmal01
    We are a 1 parent family so I’ve always sorted all childcare. He wouldn’t even think to offer 
  • Steven ScraseSteven Scrase Regular
    When at home we share the duties fairly equally. I work away so it is nice to be able to look after them when at home and at weekends both to enjoy their company but also to give my wife a breather.
  • AR2012AR2012 Regular
    Equal amounts we both have the benefit of working from home. Thats cut the child care bill down by a lot.
  • risey1983risey1983
    My husband has always been very hands on and fantastic with the kids.  I know a lot of my other mum friends are envious.  He went down to working 4 days a week to look after the kids 1 day a week so I could complete my training full time.  He take the kids out at the weekend, he looks after them in the evenings if I have to work.  He does the laundry and cooking if needed - he's truely amazing. x
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