Do most people here take the entire year maternity leave?

[helloteas]

I get paid full salary for around 7 and a bit months ( including holiday ).

For my first baby I went back at the point I stopped getting paid in full.

I'm considering taking the whole year this time, just because I think it might be less stressful.

Money isn't a huge issue. It was more of an issue last time, which is why I went back.

I feel like now with two small kids, working is going to be even harder. I mean to juggle it all. So I might as well wait until I've had a whole year.

What's the general consensus ? In my company, women tend to come back when full pay runs out..

My employer pays slightly more than statutory. So we did shared parental leave. 9 months for me and 3 months for husband (he gets paid in full)

I plan to go back the Monday after DC’s first birthday so a year off. I had him on my first day off so none wasted waiting for baby. I plan to ask to use my 2022 holidays to sort of backdate so will be approx
first 8 weeks full pay
31 weeks SMP
8 weeks unpaid
5 weeks annual leave
= off 52 weeks.
i would love to take the 52 weeks then my holidays but that’s a stretch financially and I wasn’t in my job long before going on Mat leave so I feel bad.
we can’t really afford the unpaid. Especially with the cost of living and energy bills. Maybe when they go up again in oct I won’t be able to do this I don’t know. It’s going to be a hard winter and pretty miserable Christmas. The last week of the month I have to pretty much stay in the house because we can’t afford petrol. It’s not how I imagined my Mat leave and it makes me sad. I don’t meet people for coffee or lunch because I can’t afford it. And I went to uni for 5 years to study and am a solicitor but unfortunately still get a crap wage and crap maternity.