To publicise parental leave

[Isntshelovely2024]

I have found a lot of parents at my work are unaware of parental leave and how it can be used. The premise is 18 weeks per child under the age of 18 - you can take a maximum of 4 weeks per year per child.
This leave is unpaid and your employer does not have to say yes to the date you choose but must allow you to take it within 6 months.
I think more awareness about this type of leave is needed, it’s vastly under used.

@confusedlots funnily enough my partner told me that it’s ’frowned upon’ to use parental leave (unless it’s an emergency) at the company he works at. In my opinion it’s something that’s we are entitled to - it’s legal and there to be used! He said it’s seen as easy time off and not fair to other colleagues. He said that it’s remembered when it comes to promotions etc 😮

That's exactly how my dp uses it, we sit down and work out how we're going to cover all the school holidays and factor in that he's got an extra week's parental leave. We take one week holiday a year together as a family, the rest we split it to cover childcare. We have no leave for ourselves when the children are not at home with us. We also use holiday clubs as our annual leave + parental leave doesn't cover all school holidays but they are expensive and the DC don't enjoy them.

I know having a family was our choice but for people without children they can use their annual leave how they like, book holidays when they want without considering school terms and have days off for themselves. People with other caring responsibilities can access other similarities forms of leave, such as carers leave. Paid parental leave is an employee benefit just like any other, the same arguement could be made about maternity leave - that's is not fair on child free people?