Maternity pay

[NoMonNoFunx]

What do you All do after 9 months when maternity Pay stops and you want to take the year.
am I being unreasonable to think we should get paid for the year.
I’ve always worked.

They were available in the late 80s though! You don't need them now, but they have been around for donkeys years.

I wenmnt back to work but was quite lucky as a teacher that I only needed to do 2 weeks before the summer hols so then got an extra month. Didn't time things quite so well with the second baby but managed to afford 10 months off and was part time by then so not quite so hard.

I had twins, so with the cost of 2 nursery places plus travel I had about ebough money to buy my lunch! We were just a bit skint.

One of the common misconceptions. The government doesn’t give a year.

The government enforces two weeks. It gives you almost full pay for 6 weeks to enable as many as possible to take that long.

It then gives you the option of taking longer. To help with that it pays about half minimum wage, and requires your employer to protect your particular role up to 26 weeks of leave.

It then gives you the option of another 26 weeks, with half of that continued a the same payment rate and the other half unpaid. And requires your employer to give you an equivalent and suitable role when you return, so makes you have a role to return to a legal requirement.

It doesn’t ‘give you a year’. It gives the option.

On the practical front. If you’re wanting to return and boob monster is limiting things, might help to ditch the idea of bottles. And focus on food, and cups, and straws.

Fair enough. Some people don’t have anything better to do on a Saturday morning.

Can you take some annual leave which must have built up while you have been on maternity leave?

I think you’d also be shocked to know that some people do actually use that as a form of natural family planning, despite you obviously being sarcastic. If true though, and it is for some, it is actually still “planning for a child” because vaginal sex is only used when they have decided to try and become pregnant.

I know you can’t understand it, but the majority of people plan and make an informed decision to try for a baby. As your daughter is doing; she is currently on contraception but if she ever gets to a point with a poster where they discuss children and decide to have them, then she will come off contraception to do so. Try not to be too shocked.

I saved while/before I was pregnant to cover the shortfall, used that plus holiday pay plus a few KIT days to stay off til DC were 13 months both times.

I got enhanced maternity pay (full pay)or the first 6 months. I was quite well paid so spread that to top up the statutory pay and take as long off as possible

Also a copper coil is none hormonal!

I only got SMP when I had my DC, so 90% salary for 6 weeks, then about £500 a month thereafter. At the time I earned more than 10 times that as was the main breadwinner, however as we bought our house just before the first DC, had no savings left.

Ended up stopping maternity leave at 6 months, took annual leave to stretch it out another month to 7 months off in total, then staggered return to work from 3 to 4 to 5 days. Luckily had no nursery fees until DC was 1 as family looked after DC until they started nursery at that age, but by then I was on maternity leave with DC2, and started the whole cycle again!

I'm pretty sure that the tax you've paid funds benefits and services in addition to ML. If you want to take extended time off work you should fund it yourself, not expect taxpayers to fund your choice.

And don't even get me started on all the women on Mumsnet talking about how their pregnancy was a "surprise" when it turns out they weren't using any contraception at all.

Like, literally, how is that a surprise to anyone who understands how babies are made?