Shared Parental Leave

[engineersthumb]

Hi,
We are expecting our 2nd child in a few weeks. After our first I had two days paternity leave followed by about two weeks annual leave.
I hadn't even thought about shared parental leave this time around as I assumed it would be statutory/unpaid. Luckily someone I worked with pointed me in the correct direction and the company actually offers up to 20 weeks full pay.
I appreciate that this is very generous and I realise I am very fortunate, we've decided that I will take 13 weeks after birth following my 2 weeks paternity.
I'm thrilled about taking this time with the new born but also daunted by being away from work for this long. I've never had more than 20 consecutive days away from work since I was 14!
I guess that I'm a little worried that I'll come back and it will be a blank sheet, that I may loose my edge so to speak.
I'd like to know if anyone else felt this way before or after maternity/parental leave, man or woman, and if so what did you do to address it?
Also from the mans perspective did anyone find themselves being treated differently or resented? The reason I ask is that the whole concept is pretty new to me and probably to others. Whilst I think its a positive step forward I'm interested in how its perceived.

[Lemonwords]

Are you sure you can take it at the same time your DP is off? We did the shared parental leave but my DH took it at 24 weeks when I went back to work, as we couldn't be off st same time. It was great. His HR department got in a tizz as they'd never done it before but all worked well in end. It went really quick and he walked back in like he'd never been off.

If you can do it at same time as your DP that is amazing! Enjoy.

[Dementedswan]

Shared parental leave is exactly whatsit says on the tin. Shared. So one of you returns to work the other goes to work. Effectively sharing traditional maternity leave. You both won't be able to be at home.

I'm happy to be corrected tho as my HR knowledge is a little rusty.

[fabulous01]

Yes it is shared. A couple of friends did it particularly if girl earned more. Men struggled a bit as some baby clubs have them a hard time eg we don't feel comfortable breast feeding with a man here!!!!
But the guys loved time with little one.

[LotsOfDots]

In some companies you can take it at the same time as long as the total taken doesn't exceed 52 weeks, as far as I know.

[Jbck]

Both parties can take the leave together if thats what they choose. The total leave can't be more than 52 weeks.

[Jbck]

Xpost

[DrWhy]

Yes, you can take it consecutively. I'm not sure if your company would pay the additional pay in top of stat if your DP was also getting her additional pay at the same time though... In our company you get 26 weeks paid however it's split and taken then the rest stat but DH and I work for the same company, goodness knows if they could check and enforce it if you were at different companies, even if that was policy.

We are planning for me to take 8-10 months depending on how the baby and I are doing and DH to then take 2 or 3 months or so. Possibly to overlap the 1st of his months or at least a couple of weeks.
I'm in my 1st week of maternity leave now - I was worried about being away but my e-mails have already slowed to a trickle and frankly I have no desire to go back! That might be different when the baby arrives

[engineersthumb]

Hi
Thanks for all replies. You can take shared at the same time. What's more a man can take shared leave whilst his wife is on Maternity leave so long as she has given bindung notice to curtail her maternity leave so that jointly you don't exceed 52 weeks. Check the .gov website where it states this precisely. My company incorrectly informed me I could not so I invited them to comment on the .gov site, suddenly they understood their policy differently and it was fine!
Anyone else any experiences of long work breaks?

[engineersthumb]

Just in case you need the link:

www.gov.uk/shared-parental-leave-and-pay/when-you-can-start