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’ve taken it before but not on a regular basis. I didn’t have any trouble booking it and having it approved.

I have taken two weeks per year of unpaid parental leave for the last few years. Asked several months in advance so work had plenty of notice

Don't know anyone who has ever taken it.

I take a week a year parental leave (unpair). If I worked for a company where I could buy leave I'd do that instead.

I don't think it's known about widely enough.

I’m taking two weeks this year in the summer. Several people in my organisation have done so recently, and now it’s becoming more common as a result.

It’s a big chunk of money to lose but it’s really helping my mental health knowing it’s coming! My job is sometimes stressful, especially in school holidays when I try to juggle too much. If this goes smoothly, DH will take two weeks next year.

I would 100% take it if I could afford it!

I'm intending to start using this; DH now has the option to "buy" two weeks of extra leave per year, but I do not, so this would give me the equivalent opportunity to take extra leave. Fortunately we're financially comfortable enough to do this; I assume this is why it's not more widely used. I'm hoping I can use it specifically for a holiday to free up more of my actual annual leave to use ad hoc. I don't mind working 5 days generally but I would just like a bit of extra time to catch up with myself, have long weekends or have a day off while DS is in nursery some times.

Nope but then I never use all of my annual leave either - I always end up rolling 5 days or so over.

Never taken it and don't know anyone who has. It's unpaid, and I'm sitting on 40 days annual leave this year (30 days allowance, 5 rolled over from last year + 5 bought) so I shouldn't need it. I would consider using it if I really needed to though.

I took it with a previous employer in order to settle my child into new childcare provision when moving house. I took two weeks, though perhaps wish that I had taken three.

I found it went down ok as it was for a fairly specific reason. However, I think it definitely would have caused more of an issue if I had tried to repeat it every year.

There does seem to be a confusion between parental leave, emergency leave to care for dependents and even maternity/paternity leave.

I know people who have but my employer won't let anyone take it over the summer holidays as we are busy then and she wants to ensure everyone gets the chance to have leave across the period, which couldn't happen if people had parental leave. Emergency leave would be totally different though and we would all be happy to cover more for that.

I work in the NHS and it's hard enough getting time off for annual leave, if I wanted more leave on top of that it wouldn't go down well!

I have taken it most years for the last 5 years or so; some years only a week or two, some years four weeks.

It is unpaid, booked in week blocks, has well-defined rules about eligibility, application and how your employer can respond. It can be used for whatever purpose you think will benefit your kids; settling in to school, unpacking after a house move so the family settles more quickly, spending 1:1 time with a child etc etc.

I’m ex NHS. I asked to take this on 4 occasions and was declined (but then, I was also turned down for any annual leave in school holidays for a year. Not good when you have children, made work/ life balance zero!)

I've used two single weeks (two children)- one when my DS had an important operation, the other when DD transferred to secondary school (she has asd).

Where I work the occasional day in an emergency would be fine , and you'd get paid for that on top of your normal 6 weeks holiday , but to take a further 4 weeks , albeit unpaid, would mean somebody else having to cover your job for 2 1/2 months of the year. That would prompt scrutiny into your role within the organisation. You'd probably want to avoid that.

Nope, and I don't know anyone who does. I don't particularly want unpaid leave and I don't need it.

I'd like to take it but work (also NHS) is very much against it as all leave in the holidays is strictly rationed (eg each of us is only allowed to have 10 working days off over July, August, September).

However we have up to 3 days a year as paid emergency carers leave which helps if your child has been throwing up all night and you have work the next day - I've used that a few times, but never all three days.

It’s there for emergencies, so no, haven’t needed it yet

We intend to use it when we approach a significant tax cliff edge and by taking a week or two unpaid, we will end up actually with more take home than if we didn’t.

It’s only there for emergencies if you can only afford to take it for emergencies. If you can afford to take unpaid leave then it’s there for whatever child related reason you want to take it for.

I can’t say whether your employer will view it like that though!

It's not for energencies

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

Where I work we just get this. It's unpaid. There's nothing about 1 week per year per child.

Emergencies!

We get 5 days paid special leave per year to cover all emergencies as well, but that's the same for parents and non-parents alike.