Shorter maternity leave???

I've just taken 14 months off. Personally I just thought I'll never get this time back so take as long as possible. But it's a completely personal choice and theres many factors involved. As long as you're confident & happy in your decision

I went back earlier the first time as I was worried about the effect on my career. The second time, I didn't have that worry, and my baby didn't sleep. They wouldn't take a bottle and woke up every 90 min, I couldn't do anything let alone work. When we sleep trained about 7 or 8 months the feeding dropped from about 12 times a day to 3 or 4 and it did something crazy to my hormones and I had awful headaches for about 3 months. So I went back a bit later as I felt like I'd been in limbo for months and months and not actually done anything on mat leave. Then my husband took a month unpaid (bit of a random reason but there was a large measles outbreak in our area at the time and we wanted to wait for the 13 month vaccinations before sending them to nursery).

I took 6 months for both-I earn much more than my husband so we couldn’t afford for me to take more. Thankfully no one made such a shitty comment to me regarding not taking the full year-they’d have been put well in their place for multiple reasons! First time I was so ready to go back, this time (back in 2 weeks) I have mixed feelings and would have liked a little longer with him. Length of leave is based on all manner of reasons for different folk, so just make the best decision for your family and then tell anyone trying to make you feel bad (whether intentional or not) to jog on.

My lb was born in feb. Il probably end up going back in September as cant aftord to be off any longer. I worked right up until my due date to maximise my time off after

Frist time 10 months second time 13.

Remember you are entitled to unpaid parental leave of up to a year any time your kid is up to 18. If you ever want some more time with your kids (when they are older and more fun, or if you want to travel or something) then it's still possible.

Also remember your baby won't even remember

I couldn't afford more either and so many people seemed to question me about it! "Oh, you're not taking the full year?", "oh wow, you're back early!" Etc. After a while I got quite honest with them and said I didn't want to be there but also wanted to pay my mortgage! That seemed to shut people up😂

@Sausagedog101 where I am there is additional 6 months of unpaid parental leave for each parent which can be taken up until your child is 8 without affecting pension contributions. Most people use it to work reduced hours until it runs out. Minimizes loss of earnings if you're only taking a few hours a week and means that there's a more equal split in parenting too. Childcare is also so expensive and difficult to access that it's a huge incentive to use it. I don't know anyone who hasn't used it to be honest.

Everyone has different feelings and experiences with having a baby. I think people have to do what is right for them and their family. I'd have rather had more time off, personally, but I loved the baby stage with mine and didn't particularly enjoy my job enough to rush back. Plus I had a good network of friends and family around me to spend time with. Hormones are powerful things and really influence our feelings when our children are babies.

I took 2 weeks but self employed and boiler had failed. I didn't go back full time just Abit to keep job going

It was and it wasn't. I enjoyed maternity leave a lot so would have liked longer, but at the same time work was a bit of a rest - I guess it depends on your job really. I like mine, and they were very supportive.

I think it helped that DH was looking after DS to start with, and when DH went back to work my parents had DS.

Should perhaps add that I was breastfeeding so had to express in work, which was an added thing - though it was fine, I took my tablet and headphones and watched films while expressing.

I took six months. Got fed up of comments about how I'd feel different when the baby was here and would want to stay with them for the full year - didn't matter what I did or didn't want, we could only afford six months and that was that.

I was marginally the higher earner and contributed more to household bills, so DH did take additional maternity leave of six weeks when I went back after six months, which was great as it happened to be over Christmas/New Years/January sales and he would never have been allowed to take leave at that time, so he got to spend some proper time with DS over the Christmas period.

I took 6 months, 5 months and 4 months mat leave with my 3 children. With the last, my husband shared parental leave and we took 4 months each. They all went to nursery when I/we went back to work. I had huge guilt with my first - I had to go back full time to pay the bills (and I like my job anyway) but the number of comments I got was awful. With my last dc I worked at a US company where much shorter mat leave and full time working is the norm (I also care much less what people think!). It all worked out well for us and I have no regrets.

I took about ten months off per child. The second time around we were in a position to be able to do SPL so my husband had about three months off with our children (mixture of SPL and well-timed annual leave straddling two holiday years).

I don’t think taking 8 months off is unusual at all.

Being at home with a baby or young child is a completely different form of stimulation to the mental stimulation derived from working as a scientist or lawyer or doctor or financial expert etc. Its ok for women to crave or enjoy that.

Like many parents i was very torn. I did enjoy maternity leave and took as long as i could, but did want to return to my work. For me the right answer was a reduction in hours to balance work & family. I was lucky to be able to afford that choice.

Where I live I got 10 weeks and it was horrific. Babies are way too young to go to daycare at that age so luckily we could use family.

I personally would have killed for a year because the guilt of leaving a small baby is crushing. But I accept everyone's different and if you're ok with baby in daycare all day that's your choice, you know your baby.

I took 10 months with my first (1 pre baby arriving and 9 after). 11 months with my second but again 1 pre baby arriving. I technically only took the 9 months paid ML with my second and the rest holidays/bank holiday accrued but strategically placed Christmas holidays with my second.

Its quite common in my circle of friends just to take the 9 months then tack on a month holiday or use the holiday to go part time for a few months. I know very few who took the full entitlement including the no paid months.