How much maternity leave did you take?

[user8636283901]

Just that really. How long did you take off?

About 7 year's for both

I was ready to go back at about 10 months. Now they’re older I wish I’d taken longer though. Went back at 11 and 9 months.

6 months back f/t
12 months back P/t (though went to uni 1 day a week at 3 months)
12 months though went back to uni 2 days a week at 3 months again.

I hated the 6 months f/t it was horrible. Missed DS so much and stopped after 3 months.

Worked p/t until youngest was 11. Best decision ever for me. Skint but worth it for all that time.

6 months 👍
2 months 🥲

12 months maternity leave, then 4 weeks annual leave, so 13 months with each. Then went back on reduced hours - 27 hours per week.

6 months but DH then did 3.5 months after that. I didn’t enjoy it (I’m meant to be a parent to toddlers and above I think!).

18 weeks (4 of those unpaid). All that was available to me.

Honestly take as long as you can afford. My baby is 7 months and I couldn’t dream of leaving her just yet. I am taking 11 months (have extended it) not sure how I’ll afford but you can’t picture just how much you’ll want the time until they’re here. Honestly

I did, but I knew that was all the time I wanted before hand and I was leaving our baby with my husband so I didn’t feel guilty. For our marriage it was also great my DH is an equal parent because he had those three months to figure out how he should parent without me showing him how or feeling like I was “supervising”.

I don’t think if the baby was going into nursery/childminder I would have been so keen.

I took a year off with each of mine, then used accrued annual leave to work a 4 day week for the first few months when I went back.

I would always advise anyone to take as long off as you can, finances permitting. It's such a short time in the grand scheme of your whole working life. Depending on whether you need to use a nursery or have other help, it probably worked out less costly to take the full year than to go back earlier and pay for childcare.