Why don't men get 1 year paternity leave?

[Catinthetwat]

I was just wondering what people's thoughts were on this?

I think it's hard to defend unequal access to parental leave. This is important for men, women and for children. The only argument against is an economic one. Is that a good enough reason?

The government are currently looking into extending the 2 weeks paternity leave to around 12 weeks I think - which would be a start.

So, men should be given 1 years paternity leave with pay and benefits equal to women - aibu?

[Osirus]

I would have thought possibly because in most cases, it only takes one to look after a newborn during a normal day.

They can always take shared leave if the mother is happy to go back to work early.

[Drogosnextwife]

Yeah I really don't think companies would be happy to lose men and women for a whole year because of people having children.

[DisappearingFish]

Men don't carry and birth babies. Men can't breastfeed babies. The "fourthly trimester" is a thing.

Parental leave can actually be shared so fathers can take more time off if they want.

[DisappearingFish]

• fourth

[LittlePaintBox]

Take a year's paternity leave and do what?

[Lockheart]

I thought you could swap leave between parents? So in theory a father could have a lot of leave!

Doesn't seem sensible to have both parents off work for a year. I think leaving it to the couple as to how they split their leave is a fair way of doing it.

[CraftyGin]

Men don’t breastfeed.

[Jackshouse]

Men can have 50 weeks parental leave so nearly a year. It’s shared leave and they are entitled to the same a SMP.

[SuperSange]

Well for a start, women don't get a year paid, they get nine months. So no, men shouldn't get a year.

[Waveysnail]

But parents can share maternity leave

[Lockheart]

Although thinking practically, it's sensible to have the mother take the majority of leave, due to the whole recovering from birth and breastfeeding malarkey. Of course if you have an easy birth and don't breastfeed this doesn't apply.

[Jackshouse]

I personally would like to see a Swedish model where parental leave is better paid at the moment even in public sector there are huge variations.

[Mysterycat23]

Men don't recover from birth complications. Men are not biologically designed to be the baby's carer for the first year of life.

Wait until you have a DC yourself then come back and try again. HTH

[NameChangeNugget]

I don’t think many would take it up.

They got a week in my day, which was plenty. They didn’t carry the baby or breast feed. Think it would be pointless & would cost far too much to implement

[NotANotMan]

Parents can share their legal entitlement of parental leave between them (apart from the legal minimum of 6 weeks that the mother gets as she needs to recover from the birth)
Why would two parents need a paid year off each?
I definitely think that the second parent should get more than 2 weeks SMP. It's pathetic.

[FoggyDay58]

At my DH's work (big UK company) they've recently given men and women parity of parental leave. I'm self-employed so he's taking six months off (full pay; if he took the rest of "our" entitlement he'd get much less for that time, same as a woman would) when our baby is due in May. It does exist! But I don't think companies will ever encourage parental leave allowing both parents to be off for a year. The best we can ask for is parity for men and women.

[mrsm43s]

The problem is, that unless its paid at full pay, then most families can't afford to have both parents off on reduced pay.

I'd far rather 2-4 weeks paternity on full pay, combined with the option to share maternity than 12 weeks paternity on SPP.

[FoggyDay58]

Oh and the basic paternity pay (ie when the mother is taking the longer parental leave) is six weeks, rather than the standard two, at full pay. Easier for bigger companies to afford all this I suppose!

[Procrastination4]

They haven’t gone through the physical changes the woman has gone through, and consequently they don’t need any time to recover from that and the birthing process.
So no, can’t see why they should be entitled to the same amount of leave the mum.

[BikeRunSki]

Shared parental leave has been around for a few years now. There is legislation about how long women have to have off post-birth to recover, but it’s fairly minimal (2 weeks or 6 weeks for a manual job I think), but other time can be shared. It’s not usually necessary for both parents to be off work at once.

[PrincessScarlett]

You don't need to get pregnant, give birth and breastfeed to be entitled to maternity leave. My friend adopted and she was entitled to a maternity leave.

[ILoveMaxiBondi]

Well for starters men don’t need to recover from 9 months of pregnancy and childbirth which may include major abdominal surgery.

[trancepants]

Because my husband’s recovery from my c-section, nearly stopped heart, massive blood loss and pregnancy hernia took zero days. He also managed to suffer very little exhaustion from breastfeeding and my nipple thrush didn’t seem to cause him any pain at all.

Seriously, what a stupid post.

[cucumbergin]

Surely birth complications are even more reason for men to get longer paternity, so they can look after the mother and allow her to recover properly? Especially with older toddlers to run after.

DP did everything except breastfeed in the two weeks paternity he got. It made a massive difference.

[AssassinatedBeauty]

I agree @Catinthetwat and I would like to see men have the same leave as women, so currently 9 months at SMP and then 3 months unpaid.

Shared parental leave has had minimal uptake, unsurprisingly. It requires women to sacrifice their maternity leave to enable their partners to have leave. It also isn't financially viable if the partner is the higher earner, which is still often the case. Particularly for 2nd and subsequent pregnancies where the woman might already be part time.