Do you take all of your parental leave each year?

[Woeisme99]

Shortly returning to work from 2nd mat leave, and I've recently become aware of parental leave.

Juts wondering do some of you take it every year and factor it in like annual leave, or do you keep it for illnesses / settling in to school etc?

I imagine my request is going to go down like a shit sandwich (NHS), I don't think anyone else in my team takes it. Is it generally OK with your employer or do they make it difficult for you?

I thought it was for emergency use...and unpaid?

I’ve never taken any

Can't afford to take unpaid leave so we've always used annual leave so far.

I’ve never taken it and no one at my work does. From your post, it seems like you are planning to use it routinely, like annual leave?

And I wouldn’t take unpaid leave unless it was unavoidable.

There is both Emergency Dependents Leave (which can be used for any dependent eg elderly parent not just children) and Parental Leave. Both are unpaid.

Parental leave has to be booked in blocks and your employer can choose to defer it to a more convenient time for the business so can;t be relied on for childcare emergencies etc

However back to the original question.

As they are unpaid neither dh or I have ever take it. We simply can't afford to.

I think a lot of people get confused between carers leave and parental leave. I think I will have to apply for a week of parental leave this year as we can't cover all the school holidays for childcare. Will have to look into the application process soon. I usually use most of my carers leave as my husband is often out of the country and we have no family to help.

I don't think you have a full understanding of how parental leave works.
Its unpaid, for a start. It's not anything resembling annual leave.

You are entitled to a maximum of 18 weeks of parental leave off within 18 years (until the child turns 18) , but can only take a maximum of 4 weeks per year. It applies across over ALL employers ie. if you use 10 weeks with NHS and then move jobs, you have 8 weeks of entitlement left.
Employers often ask for proof of birth certificate to determine childs' age.

You have to request the leave at least 21 days before. Employer can delay the request, suggesting a different start date within 6 months of the original request. More info below.

www.gov.uk/parental-leave

It's unpaid so no. All the rules and regs around it make it very difficult to take. It's one of those great government initiatives that are not workable but that they can say "we did X but nobody used it" rather than create something that is fit for purpose in the first place.

Sorry I should have been clear, the leave that is unpaid and is a week per child per year, my understanding is that everyone is entitled to it legally, but I'm not sure how employers view it.

DH works away a lot and my retired parents take lots of holidays (rightly so of course) , so it really is me, myself and I doing the childcare. It would be incredibly useful to have the extra 2 weeks a year.

Interesting to see that most don't take it though...

I've never taken it, it's not something that I've ever thought about. Sick child is always short notice, and school holidays are covered by a mixture of clubs, annual leave (DH and I), reciprocated days with friends and staying with family.

Isn't it there for emergency's?

I've never taken it but I definitely might look into it in the future when my kids are school age to help out with juggling everything in the school holidays.

In my last place of work one colleague took it every summer, she had a number of weeks off unpaid when her kids were off school, and management seemed happy with the arrangement. I don't think a lot of people make use of it, but if you're happy for it to be unpaid then you may as well make use of it.

Carly no its to be pre booked in blocks

My DP is also NHS and gets one week paid per year, per child, he has taken it every year so far. He's low paid and entitled to it so why wouldn't he take it?

I have taken it twice. Discussed with my manager, booked it in. I believe once it’s booked it can’t be changed though. I used it to cover some of the school holidays.

Invisimamma that's very interesting that your partners is paid. Our staff handbook says unpaid but maybe there is discretion, I'll definitely look into that, thanks!

No, I’ve never taken it. I’ve found that annual leave and holiday clubs is plenty to cover school holidays between dh and I.

I do actually plan to take a block of 2-3 weeks unpaid leave over the summer. That will coincide with school holidays but it’s more for budgetary reasons (I need to save money in the budget and not taking a salary will do that) and because I work long hours with a lot of commuting and travel (so just need some time off). But my employer is happy to arrange unpaid leave at my discretion so there’s no need to call it ‘parental leave.’

One man where I work used to take it every year. He was separated from his children's mother and the court order specified that he had the children x number of weeks per year. His annual leave did not cover enough weeks.

No-one thought any less of him although he always requested it during our quiet period and with plenty of notice and we are in a very male dominated industry.

I've never taken any and am not aware of any of my colleagues doing so either.

DH works away a lot and my retired parents take lots of holidays (rightly so of course) , so it really is me, myself and I doing the childcare.

I presume that your DH has annual leave, and would have the right to parental leave on the same basis as you? Can he not at least share in the childcare?

We get up to 5 days paid special leave for emergencies, so first day of child's illness counts, as does boiler breakdown etc., but you can really tell if you lose a week's unpaid leave from a month's salary. I wouldn't take parental leave unless desperate e.g. used up all leave and child in hospital type thing.

Alexa absolutely DH definitely does his share, but him losing a weeks salary is about 4 times more than me losing a week as I'm part time, so it makes infinately more sense for me to take it.

I've taken it, unpaid, over the summer. DS2 has a LD and it is very hard to get reliable childcare. Summer 2018 was a nightmare, but summer 2019 was much better because of it.

I work in a school (admin role), currently pg with first baby, due in June. I am planning to take an occasional week of parental leave here and there to allow us to take term time holidays as a family, once back at work after mat leave (before our child starts school themselves of course!). I can only do this if it’s agreed by the school but we do have quiet times towards the end of the summer term so I think it’s doable. Yes it’s unpaid but we’ll save far more by going on holiday in term time than I’d make in a week.

I took it for a week last year when my dds holiday club shut for the last 2 weeks of the holidays. I'm on my own ex is unreliable and my annual leave didnt cover the whole period.