Shorter maternity leave???

First baby I took 4.5 months off. It's all we could afford. Basically once my full pay ran out and I'd used up a chunk of annual leave I had to go back.

Second baby I took 5.5 months then my husband took another 2.5 months (I'm the higher earner). I then had enough annual leave to take a day off a week until she was a year old.

It was tough but no regrets. If they get settled early enough at nursery they don't get separation anxiety.

I went back at 6 months and then my husband did 3. That was actually not the best financial decision but it was best for us a family. I’m not cut out for babies. If I could have a year out now he’s four I’d much prefer that!

I took 9 months, 6 months full pay, 3 months half pay, anything after that would've been unpaid.
But as I work remote it was easier for me to go
Back to work, I didn't need to put my baby in nursery either as I had family helping out.
One of my colleagues took 6 months maternity leave

I’m currently pregnant and will be taking 39 weeks in total as that is when my SMP runs out. I have about 6 months of full pay before that but we can’t afford for me to have no money at all coming in. I’m fully expecting certain people in my family to do that whole wide eyed “but how can you leave your precious baby?!” bollocks routine but they will be told to stop being daft.

Is this your first?

I didn't want to go back sooner than a year

Loads of people only take 9 months, if they can't afford to have the unpaid portion.

I took 8 months with DD1 and 7 with DD2. I wanted to go back to work, being home with small children does not suit me. I had severe PND both times.

I took 6 months + one month leave. Would have liked longer, but not financially feasible.

However I do enjoy work too.

I used some leave to take off a day a week for a couple of months. Would love to do that more permanently as I really treasures that midweek break and baby/ kid day.

I'm a childminder so I took 2 weeks with my 2nd baby and 3 days with my 3rd and 4th but obviously wasn't leave my baby so a little different. I did have a mum come to me with a 3 month old and she was just desperate to get vsck to work to see if her pnd would lift and it did. Made such a difference for her to be able to be away from her little one for several hours and then come back- tiny babies are lovely but hard work!

First time 8 weeks, second time 12 weeks

I earned 4 x DH and this was before shared parental leave came in (which I campaigned for!)

I took 8 months. I had planned to go back at 6 months due to money and being a solo parent however my parents decided to help out.

I had 8 months with my first. I had PND and quite frankly needed to do something "me" so when a new contract came up I didn't hesitate.

I only took 7 months which was the 6 months full pay and then accrued holiday. DS was fine and I was pleased to go back to work.

No one said anything - was more usual then maybe. I remember a colleague saying she's only had 16 weeks as that's all that was paid and they couldn't afford to have her off work on no pay.

Yep I took 9 months for exactly the reasons you described, and also felt v abnormal for it. Would have preferred to go back on a very part time basis much earlier- I didn't like the feeling of having dropped out of the normal flow of life.

What helped me to remember is that a years mat leave is very much a cultural thing. It's much shorter elsewhere. So there's no 'right' amount of time.

I don’t think that’s short
i took six months with one of mine and I know people and colleagues that took 6 or 12 weeks and that was it

Going back to work helped cure my ppd the first time. So I'm "only" taking 6 months off this time and I'm counting down the days tbh (returning to work next week!) I work part time so he's only in nursery 2dpw initially.

As for the pp who was judgy... bore off. The vast majority of adults would not find a baby's company "stimulating", who are you kidding?! Delightful, endearing (at times), at other times frustrating and exhausting. Never intellectually stimulating, how can they be, they're babies. You can't discuss politics or science or literature with a baby.

Six months with first, four months with second. Most families can't afford to take the full 12 months but it's a good thing it is available for those who want to stay home. I couldn't wait to get back to work.

Fathers get a free pass to have a career after having children. They are never told they aren’t raising their children.

You can be a good parent and also like working you know?. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. I find time with my children stimulating but it’s different to my time at work. I don’t think I would want to be a SAHM (my husband therefore gets 2 days a week with the kids instead of me) - does that make me a bad mum? In fact from what I’ve seen, I think people who cultivate their lives outside of being a parent end up being more well-rounded parents as the kids get older.

13 months is the norm in my workplace but I’m public sector.

I took 4 months, literally skipped out of the house the first day as DH took over as a SAHD! I don't regret it for a second, I found the baby stage incredibly difficult - the older the child the better teens are awesome...

I took 12 months with DS and only 9 months with DD. I found 12 months was just a bit too long and DS struggled to settle into nursery so decided to make it shorter with DD. I never regretted it, it worked well for me and I was definitely ready to return to work and she adjusted to nursery a lot easier than DS. That said she always hated nursery (and school, she’s just left school as she’s 16 now and that never changed, despite her predicted a string of top grades), whereas DS always loved it (once he got that first month of sobbing all the time done!).

I wouldn't have said 8 months was even particularly short.

And it might be that paid work keeps mummy mentally well and the children fed.
They are still raising their dc

Sorry @Mullercornerbliss that was directed @MiniBakers

Are fathers not counted as raising children? DH had better paid parental leave than I did, we need 2 incomes as do many people.