Unpaid parental leave for 16 / 17yr old

[Ticklovetock]

I’ve recently been reminded about the 4 weeks per year unpaid parental leave entitlement for children up to 18.
I can afford to have the full 4 weeks per year (I’ve never taken it in the past) so DH thinks it would be a good thing for me to take it while is still can (DD is 17 in April).

I know I’d be entitled to take it but my manager will no doubt question why I want to take it and it won’t go down well at all.

I’d spread the 4 weeks throughout the year and apply well in time of the leave.

Would it be ridiculous to take it for a 17yr old? I know it’ll be seen as me just wanting extra time off so I want to be ready with my answers.

I’ve taken 12 weeks of unpaid parental leave so far, and will take the remaining entitlement during GCSE year if I don’t need it before then.

It is completely ridiculous to try and make the OP guilty about it. Luckily most employers do understand the laws around this sort of entitlement as well as how not to discriminate...

Take it. It used to be only available until child was 5 unless the child had specific needs. The rules changed in 2015

Wonder how this is applied to school staff? Doesn’t say they’re exempt.

Thats what I thought. Not sure how many parents would be too happy about it if they were honest.

It does say "eligible employees' - wonder how you know if you're eligible, other than just being a parent to an under 18y.

MIght as well book it while you can. I have no doubt that the Tory government will try to claw all this back from parents once they've dragged us out of the EU.

it is sexist to claim that taking legally allowed parental leave is a reason for redundancy

I think both parents, not just women, can take it.

The time is meant for you to look after a child with long term illness /recovery from surgery / no other childcare options in summer holidays etc

No it's not - I think you're confusing with the emergency dependant leave

But I don't have children, when I get to do my pisstaking?

@StCharlotte your turn is when you show your holiday photos from your bargain termtime holiday to the parents at your workplace

IS your DD on board with it though? are you actually going to do something useful with this time. You will need to link it to spend time with your DD

No you don't - it could be for anything - you don't have to say what you want it for nor will you be required to evidence that you spent time with granny and enjoyed an2 week riding event with your daughter

www.gov.uk/parental-leave Clear as day here. You are absolutely entitled to it even just to spend more time with your kids. Employer can't refuse it, only postpone it.

I didn’t even know about this!
It will really help in the holidays, single mum and all that jazz.
Do I just tell my employer I’d like to take 1 week parental leave then say in the summer holidays, and use the child care as a perfectly reasonable excuse?

People on this thread seem to be confusing parental leave with emergency leave. Parental leave is basically unpaid leave for spending with your kids. So you can use it for holidays. I think there are rules around it like you have to take it in chunks of a week and you have to give a certain amount of notice, but you can take it how you like.

It's unpaid, FFS.

I bet the OP's boss doesn't pay her for every minute of overtime worked.

I’ve got a ten year old and a seven year old and haven’t taken any yet but am seriously considering taking some next year to go on holiday. I’m a teacher and therefore am limited to school holidays. I’m thinking about Florida but in the autumn time when it’s less busy and a bit cooler.

snow you need to give 3 weeks notice - and it's worth checking if your employer has a specific form they need you to fill in. You will need to provide a copy of your child's birth certificate. Eligibility below:

Employees qualify if all of these apply:

• they’ve been in the company for more than a year
• they’re named on the child’s birth or adoption certificate or they have or expect to have parental responsibility
• they’re not self-employed or a ‘worker’, eg an agency worker or contractor
• they’re not a foster parent (unless they’ve secured parental responsibility through the courts)
• the child is under 18

Does the year that it needs to be used go from April to April or 2020 to 2021?

I can't believe I didn't know about this, my daughter will benefit so much by having me around without the constant feel of rushing to and from work.

It always saddens me to see posters on Mumsnet (therefore more likely to be women) criticising or putting down other mums for wanting to use the family-friendly employment rights they are entitled to. I see it so often. On another current thread on this exact subject a poster is being told she is “taking the piss” for wanting to take parental leave ties on to maternity leave.

I'm so glad I've seen this thread. I'll definitely use some up in the future.

Hmmm. I have 2 teens and wouldn’t do this unless they were long term ill/mental health problems because I’m term time only in a school anyway and me being off during term time is just a total no-no and a ballache to cover me.

BUT once my kids are past the age of 18, DH would no longer be eligible for any unpaid parental leave. Which means potentially that if he wanted to take his actual annual leave while I was off in school holidays so we could spend time off at the same time, potentially the parents with kids under 18 could have nabbed all the unpaid parental leave during the school holidays. AS WELL AS being able to take THEIR annual leave allowance during term time.

Employers would have to be careful to be fair to everyone and consider all circumstances. And share school holidays out equally.

I think a lot of posters are confusing unpaid parental leave with paid special leave.

In my work you don’t have to be a parent to take unpaid leave - you can take it if you want to travel or spend time with family or launch a comedy career - they aren’t paying you for it so spnothing to do with them why you want it,

In my workplace my childless colleague asked if he could have two weeks unpaid to go to Australia, they looked at him as if he had two heads at first but then agreed to it.

It can be worth an ask even if you’re not a parent.

At our work anyone can apply to take an unpaid sabbatical if they've been there for more than 5 or 10 years - can't remember which. Also can apply for unpaid leave, but I guess could be refused.

I can't imagine that post Brexit getting rid of unpaid parental leave will be top of anyone's get rid list. For a start it costs the employer nothing as the leave is unpaid - if they don't particularly want employees to use it, then all they have to do is say no to the requested dates and offer an unsuitable alternative. Plus it keeps people in the workforce when they're able to use parental leave to cover long school holidays.

a work place can refuse it but the following apply
copied from government site
"Leave can’t be postponed (delayed) if:

the employer doesn’t have a ‘significant reason’, eg it would cause serious disruption to the business
it’s being taken by the father or partner immediately after the birth or adoption of a child
it means an employee would no longer qualify for parental leave, eg postponing it until after the child’s 18th birthday
If it’s postponed, the employer:

must write explaining why within 7 days of the original request
suggest a new start date - this must be within 6 months of the requested start date
can’t change the amount of leave being requested"

so if you work for an accountancy company they could turn down a request for around busy times when there is a normal ban on taking annual leave ie end of January and around 5th April but they can't just say no because it is school holidays but they could say no because three people are already off that week if only 15 people work in your department if 200 work in it 3 people being off wouldn't wash
there has to be a compelling business reason which they have to tell you

so if OP applied for the 4 weeks before her child's 18th birthday they could not postpone it or deny it

Of course you're not being unreasonable. It's your legal right and, as PPs have pointed out, can simply be used to "spend more time with your child".

Will you want save some to use any of it for university open days or driving to important exams though? That'd be my only thing to query - that I was maximising my time time when it was most useful.

My DH just had some shared parental leave even though I wasn't going back to work at the end of my maternity leave (I curtailed my maternity allowance to "give" him 5 weeks off). It cost us around £2500 plus his pension contributions but it was worth every single penny. We basically just pottered about with the kids.