To think it’s harder and harder to take 12 months maternity leave?

[quaversimpson]

On the back of the other threads about supermarket costs and other price hikes, council tax rising etc. AIBU to think it’s so much harder to take a longer maternity leave? A few years ago it seemed to be most common to take the full year but now on my due date group I think there is only a couple of ladies in a position to do this.

Yeah I agree. I’m currently on maternity and most of the other mums I know with babies the same age have gone back to work now, most went back at 6-7 months ish.

Unless your partner can cover all bills OR you have savings to cover the loss of income it’s just not really doable for most people now.

Mine can cover all but genuinely it leaves about £10 left over, and we’re going to need cash spare for emergencies, or a more expensive food shop, or a new tyre, or clothes… I dunno. I didn’t think 2025 would be so expensive! How old will your baby be when you go back?

It's horrendous because there is this massive gap where basically unless your partner is rich it's not feasible. And 8 months being slap bang in the worst of the separation anxiety makes it even harder. I think for some women it's easier to settle them in childcare if they've gone from 6 months but lots of women don't want to lose that time.

Most of the mums around me still were still taking the full year a year or so ago. For a lot of them, it was due to the fact that the cost of childcare outweighed their wages though,.so it was a no brainer.
Those on higher wages all went back after 6-9 months (like I did).

Now that funded hours starts earlier, I hear more and more about mums going back after 9-10 months.

I’ve not fixed my return date yet so as far as work are concerned I’m not back until she’s 1. Realistically I need to be back by 10 months max.

I don’t know anyone who had to go back that early. 90% of my mum friends took the year. One took 9 months.
i feel for these mums sounds so hard

I would try and do your settling sessions at your childcare setting as early as possible to ease the transition and make it as gradual as you can x

This. It's the childcare

She will be 1 by the time I go back, and I’m going back part time so I get 2 days extra a week with her.

I've met a lot of mums who don't want to take a full year off and are forced to, so I don't think it only goes one way.

Really good point

You can use kit days to boost income towards the end. You can use 10 for Mat leave.

Or, if you get your partner to take 2 weeks SPL and then call the rest of your mat leave from that point SPL you can have another 20 kit days to use.

This means you can go back very part time for a little while.

Surely it's the funded childcare hours driving this change? Without that most people wouldn't have much left over .

Out of people I knew, they either went back after a year if they had a well paid career, or otherwise stayed off until the child was 3 when the funded hours came in.

There's a lot of new mums going back very quickly at my work. I really feel for them. Babies are AWFUL before 6 months so you don't even get any good bits.

Who forces them? Cost of childcare?

Plus alot of people don't realise but if you take longer than 26 weeks your employer can change aspects of your job legally.

Presumably issues with childcare ie funding or cant be out of their career for too long

Yeah I agree. A colleague of mine who has an 18 month old (first child) told me recently that she wished mat leave could be taken between 12-24 months 😂

Childcare being funded is a good thing, but it’s driving up a real shortage of places. Try finding somewhere with space before mid 2026 (you won’t).

In the early1970s I got six weeks paid maternity leave. In retrospect, this was horrendous.
But years of politics got that extended.

It saddens me more than you can know to realise that ability for a parent to stay with their child is being eroded because the economy has crashed.

Fancy, a Boomer sympathizing.

Yes, they earned less than cost of childcare in our area. Plus for some their working hours wouldn't accommodate pickup and dropoff times so they had to find a new job / part-time.

I loved 0-6 months.

I went back at 8 months and then shortly after handed by notice in to be a SAHM.

I went back at 3 months by choice, mainly because I couldn't take too much time out of my career.

Cost of living.

Mortgages and rents have gone up a lot. General cost of living.

Also if you spend your savings, trying to rebuild them once you’ve got a childcare place to pay for is incredibly difficult.

I saved and got a credit card lol. I'm 9 months in and it's taking a hammering now if I'm honest, but I'm taking the full year!