If I'm a stay at home mum can my husband take 6 weeks paternity leave

[meepmoop]

Hi everyone,

I've found out I'm pregnant with number 2 and I'm currently a stay at home mum with my 18 month old.

Would it be possible for my husband to take 6 weeks paternity leave as I am not taking any?

Just a conversation we were having, it would be amazing if he could

I think you'll find he could take a lot longer, on adoption leave my DH took over 6 months. Obviously the pay is based on maternity leave pay ifkwim.

We were thinking 6 weeks as if I was working I would get 6weeks full pay. Not sure if they would work it out the same though

You can only share maternity / paternity leave if you both work?

You dont get extra paternity leave (let alone on full pay) as the man's partners decided to be a SAHM????

Doesn't look like it, I think you both need to be working.

You both need to be working for shared parental leave.

Your husband is entitled to whatever it says in his contract. It’s usually two weeks, assuming he has worked there long enough, but some companies have a much more generous policy. However, it has nothing to do with whether you are a SAHP or not. I’m sure he could agree annual leave to tag onto the end of his paternity leave if he wanted, which would give him longer.

Ah okay, was just being optimistically hopeful. He can have the normal 2 weeks

WTF? The UK's shared parental leave is a total shambles.

That's interesting, if he was a stay at home dad it wouldn't affect your maternity leave at all! But you would have to survive as a family on maternity pay for as long as you both wanted time off, but for me that's full pay for six weeks (and you HAVE to be off for a month after giving birth, I presume 6 weeks if a c-section)

Ridiculous. Surely he should be entitled to the same as a woman would get eg maternity leave given that you aren't taking anything. Grrr. Sorry it doesn't seem that way. I wonder what happens for gay couples

Or what if the father ended up being a single father.

Could he add 2 weeks annual leave onto his paternity leave so he was off for 4?

He can request parental leave but it would be unpaid

It depends where he works. My best mate has just had 6 months paternity/maternity leave on full pay as his work pays full pay. His wife went back after 6 months off so between then they managed to cover the first year.
Unfortunately the uk hadn't thought about fathers who stay home.

and you HAVE to be off for a month after giving birth, I presume 6 weeks if a c-section

No, you legally have to be off work for the two weeks following birth regardless of the type of labour you have.

As others have said, no. But he can take annual leave or unpaid leave, if you can afford it.

It’s quite fair though. If you are already at home and not working, it’s not sensible to pay a second parent to also be at home long term. My dh is self employed and even with me working full time wasn’t even entitled to two weeks off (you get no paternity leave as a self employed person). We had to save up so he could take 2 weeks off unpaid and do another 2 weeks part time (mainly to do the school run for our older one).