To think maternity leave should be capped at 6 months to protect small businesses?

[YourOpalLeader]

Hear me out before throwing things! I work for a small business, and every time someone goes on maternity leave, it causes massive disruption. Hiring temps who don’t know the role, training them, juggling workloads - it can’t always be absorbed. I completely understand that maternity leave is a right but should it really be up to 12 months? For SMEs, it’s almost impossible. AIBU to think six months should be the limit, with the rest unpaid or taken as shared parental leave?

Wow.

My children went to a childminder but friends of mine used nurseries, which often took babies from 3 months old.

like I say, I’m not advocating a step backwards. I think it’s great that maternity legislation is now way better. But what a nasty attitude to have towards mums who had their babies years ago.

Perhaps you’ll be relieved to hear that my 3 children are now all happy, well adjusted successful adults, so being in childcare from a few months old certainly hasn’t done them any harm! As I said, it’s physically hard work for a bf mum like I was, but emotionally, probably easier than leaving them after a whole year.

I'm my previous posts I described my baby. He had to be held upright all day long. A nursery couldn't possibly have met his needs. I apologise as he was my frame of reference.

It depends doesn't it on the type of birth you have. Both mine were traumatic.

I've been on all sides of this argument: a mother of 3 dcs, a small business owner, and a manager in a slightly bigger business. I'm in my sixties and I had little paid maternity leave for one dc,and none for the other two. I was self employed when I.had dc3 and back at work after a month.
In my current role I have had the same member of staff take 3 lots of maternity leave almost back to back. I barely remember what she looks like tbh,but remember the 3 temps we have had to employ and train,only to lose each time she briefly returned. There IS an impact on business,and I say this as a mother myself!
And before I get blamed for "abandoning" my offspring at way before they were 12 months old I now have 3 healthy adults,2 first class degrees and 1 professional.musician so I don't think they have been too damaged. There is no easy solution to this and turning on each other doesn't help.

Having the leave as unpaid wouldn't reduce your hassle of juggling temps etc. It would just save you money.

Unless you think it would force people back to work quicker. Do you think thats in the children's best interest?

There's a wealth of evidence that babies under 2 are better off at home with a parent than in a nursery. If anything we should be trying to provide longer paid leave as in Sweden etc.

But what a nasty attitude to have towards mums who had their babies years ago.

no one is judging anyone who did the best they could with what was available to them at the time!

It doesn't change that absent other factors, across a population, putting little babies in nurseries does not lead to the best outcomes.

That doesn't mean lots of children don't turn out fine. It does mean that on a population level, it has an impact.

Look at the current generation of young people. They suffer from a lack of resilience, a lot of mental health issues including anxiety. Maybe we've got it all a bit wrong.

Anyone with a child aged over 18 today managed to return to work at 6 months or less, or had to stop work. Yes it was worse, and yes we managed it. But this thread with people saying "how on earth would that be possible with a breast fed baby or one who doesn't sleep?" - just be aware, my generation of women did it and we survived.

Well no most simply stopped. I am 40. My mother and all her friends simply didn't work for 5+ years (longer if you had more children. She went back part time when i (youngest) went to playgroup at about 3.5 and probably had around 8-9 years off entirely across 3 children.

I am a big advocate of women working- the period when children are very young is a fraction of a 46 year working life from 22 - 68. We need to simply build it in as an interlude and support parents to retain skills etc to enable them to return when children are 3 or4.

@0ohLarLarthere isn’t a wealth of evidence that children under 2 are better off at home with a parent. That’s simply not true.

And the current generation of young people are the ones who’s mums had long mat leave since it was extended to a year about 18 years ago!!

fine that you don’t want to work until your children are several years old, but don’t invent spurious arguments!

“it’s that the temp rarely has the same level of investment, experience, or adaptability.“

How would this be fixed if maternity leave was six months? Sounds like you have a problem with recruitment and training.

In my experience, I’m fed up of seeing people that own and run a “small business” act so entitled on every level. I will never work for one again, it was like working for a small dictator.
If you chose to run a business you have to run it by the rules and treat your staff fairly. Don’t expect them to treat you like you’re doing them a favour. If you can’t run a business properly then don’t run one. Maternity leave is a basic right.

My eldest didn't sleep all night until she was 3.5 YEARS!! I got 16 weeks maternity leave. Managed to still work.

I think maternity leave seems very long now but I don't think there's any good reason for shortening it. If people want to return earlier than that shouldn't be an issue

I do think it takes the piss though when women return already pregnant again , work a few months then take another year off.

My cousin owns her own business and won't employ women of child bearing age

Running an SME is running a business. You have to build certain things into your budget and if you can’t make it work it’s not viable.

We are always encouraged to support SMEs and I certainly prefer to do so than supporting Amazon etc but they are not charities.

Umm no most didn't. I and all my friends kept working as did my acquaintances, uni peers and so on. I know ONE contemporary who didn't work throughout primary years and one other who stopped for 5 years.

Another thing is that returning earlier the baby was often settled with the caregiver before they hit the clingy stage which usually is around 7 months to a year.

@Gogogo12345yes, it’s difficult. I’ve known a teacher who had 3 successive mat leaves, all a year long, only returning for a matter of months between them. It meant a permanent teacher couldn’t be appointed for the whole of that period - years! And obviously although temporary staff can be found, it’s a less attractive post so the pool of applicants isn’t necessarily as good. Eg: someone wanting a mortgage is less likely to accept a temporary position.

of course; the teacher was within her rights to take 3 year long mat leaves in close succession but it’s nuts to pretend it doesn’t have an impact or that its somehow the employer’s fault for not managing things well enough

It's not a year though is it? Wasn't any with my eldest 2 and a fortnight with the 3rd. What is it now?

When I had my first I was only eligible for 12weeks maternity leave. I decided to leave my job rather than leave my baby. You might find many other mums who work in a job rather than a career make the same decision if maternity leave was reduced. We should be encouraging parents to be home longer not less with little babies.

With shared parental leave it could potentially be 37 weeks.

Out of interest what would happen if a mother ( before birth) says they want to take the full 12 months then once the baby is born hates being at home and wants to return after 4 months? What do you do with the cover person?

That's jumped up a lot. From 2 weeks up to 37

They're made redundant.

Yes, so the 2025 updated version is employers wanting to avoid parental leave have to only employ post menopausal women now!

I would argue that the temp should be there at least a month before the woman goes off on maternity leave leave and then a month after they return to work for handovers. Due to restructures in my company and my daughter being hospitalised continuously my cover stayed on for an additional 4 months.

You say it’s to give choice, but let’s face it women will forced to come back at 6 months because they won’t be getting paid anymore or they’ll feel their job won’t be there when they return.

All this will do is increase PPD, reduce breastfeeding rates, increase the gender pay gap and increase the amount of women who choose not to work until their child goes to school.

I don't have kids but our union is currently campaigning for 52weeks paid maternity and I fully support it!