Hellobee Boards

I wish SO SO much that paternal leave was better!! My DH was allowed to use his sick time (there are restrictions on when he can use vacation time), which only amounted to about a week off. I spent two days in the hospital, so by the time we got back home he only had a few more days left with me at home. I totally was not physically able to be left alone at home by myself. I had such a traumatic birth experience and needed a lot of healing. I was so upset my husband had such a short leave.

Yes! Especially since I work for a small company (under 50 employees) and do not have any paid leave and had very little vacation due to working for the company for only a year. My husband and I have had to greatly change our lifestyle to live from one income.

I'm just really starting to stress about it. I'm a teacher and teaching is not designed for breast-feeding! I know they have to support me but it's going to be really hard.

I think all women should have at least 3 months off...if they choose. How can you bear to have a 6 week old in day care? It's got to be so hard!

I have enough accrued sick leave to pay for 9 weeks, but the rules are so confusing so I don't even know if I can use all of it since Family Leave is unpaid besides benefits.

It's confusing and stressful to say the least.

I wish you all have better parental leave. It's a reason why I love Canada so much. Even if I never had kids or didn't want any... I would be glad to contribute on my taxes for others to benefit of paid parental leave

I was in Singapore when my LO was born. They had just increased maternity leave from 3 months to 4 months - the extra month paid by the government. Unfortunately, that policy only applied towards citizens and PRs. My company only provided 8 weeks paid maternity. I was very bummed but I worked at home so I was able to be around when I helper cared for LO. That said, my company is very flexible for working parents to work at home if they need to. My coworker, since becoming a mom almost ten years ago works at home every Thursday and Friday to have more face time with her kids. I think that if the nature of your work permits, companies should allow more flexibility for moms (and dads as well) to work remote.
My husband had up to 3 weeks paternity leave which I think is pretty good in today's standards.
A combined 6 month leave between both parents would be nice.

Before I was pregnant, I thought that maternity leave policies in the US were skimpy, but I didn't (and still don't) think that the onus is on the government to provide for better policies. That costs money, and in general, it seems that the law and policy makers focus more on elder care. I read a statistic once that we spend more on the last few years of a person's life than we spend at any other point in their lives.

Having said that, the goal of a business is to make money for their shareholders, esp. a public company. The companies have to find a way to care for their biggest asset (employees) while making a positive return for their shareholders. I think the answer is affordable childcare first, then extended maternity leave.

I always thought maternity leave in the states was insufficient. I'm so grateful just to get 12 weeks (according to my employee manual) even though it's unpaid, because they don't have to give me anything at all.

However, I do not believe for a second that the government will ever set up a policy, much less pay for parental leave. I read a really interesting article about the history of maternity policy in the U.S. (I wish I could find it) that showed how close we came several times to instituting a policy, but political infighting and even the feminist movement in the 1970s (we don't want special maternity leave, we're equal) -- no joke -- has made it impossible. (I'm not anti-feminist at all, I'm just paraphrasing the article.)

Unfortunately, we have a $15 trillion deficit. We are cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education, etc. etc. etc. The only way to pay for something like parental leave is through taxes. Good luck getting everybody to be OK with that. It sucks, but we're just not a country that provides benefits like that on a federal -- or even, for the most part, on a state -- level.