CM'S - MINIMUM MATERNITY LEAVE????

[chel86]

Hi there,

I'm 12 weeks pregnant (Yippee!!!!!) and due at the end of June, but most likely to arrive beginning of June if others are to go by.

I've told parents of mindees today, but obviously there is the issue of maternity leave.

I would rather jump back in to work and routine as soon as I can after the baby is born. But I need to find out do I legally have to take time off work after the baby's born?? If so, how much.

I obviously want a little time off after, to rest, but finances, mindees, routine etc. You know how it is. There's so many other people depending on me!

Legally you muxt take 2 weeks maternity leave

just to back up flixx - I'm a RCM who recently took mat leave and legally its 2 weeks

Thanks guys. I thought it might be. 2 weeks to get myself together it is then!

Oh chel if I were one of your mindees parents I'd be worried about that. Two weeks is a very short time. I wouldn't feel - oh gerat, lucky me, my cm is having no maternity leave. I'd be worried about you. How many children do you look after?

The other thing to consider is when do you take your maternity leave? Yes 2 weeks is the legal minimum, but the baby could come at any time (let's say within a month)...people will need to plan alternative arrangements, and stopping the day you give birth + 2 weeks, is unlikely to enable your mindees parents to make other arrangements.

Well I'm in the same situation as you chel86. Finally pregnant with no2 (now 27 weeks)
I was going to take a month off and had managed to start to put away some money to spend on the mortgage and bills while I'm off as mat pay is no where near enough to cover it.
However, I've just discovered I haven't saved enough money for tax and have to use my savings on that instead. If I take any maternity leave then I won't be able to pay bills.
So for me, it's either the tax man or the mortgage man Great! Looks like I'll be taking enough time off to give birth then going straight back to work.
Still, you don't hear mothers of more than 2 children saying they are going to take time off to look after the new baby do you!
At least we get to give the mindees back at the end of the day.

I think what I'll do is take the 2 weeks off that we're apparently supposed to have off and take it as annual leave. That way I get half fees still. Although I haven't discussed this with the parents yet. Still, they shouldn't mind as I haven't taken any annual leave this year at all.

Do you charge for annual leave? Could you do the same?

If you pay National Insurance contributions, are you not entitled to maternity allowance for up to 9months? I would ring your local tax office and/or contact the Job Centre to ask about that. I agree, 2weeks is not a long time to take off- I couldn't even think straight after 2 weeks never mind go back to work!! What if you have to have a c-section (god forbid!!)- the minimum time then is 6weeks, then 3 months for full recuperation.

Yes we are entitled to maternity allowance but only about £117 per week. No where near enough if you have a mortgage/rent and bills to pay. plus food etc...

If you are self employed, the first 10 days you work still count as maternity leave (KIT days), so you'll get paid plus still get 10 days extra maternity allowance.

2 weeks isn't long, though. You might barely be able to stand up, let alone look after boisterous children.

You're absolutely right there Capricasix but needs must I'm afraid. If I don't pay the mortgage then I won't have a house let alone childminding business.
Everything would have been fine if the Inland Rev hadn't surprised me with this extra tax they want from me for part of 2008-2009.
I was making a really good effort to save enough money so I could take a reasonable amount of time off and pay the bills.

Having a c-section could prove to be a huge problem but I'll have to cross that bridge if I get to it.

I didn't know that CuppaTea, that could help a little.

Chel86 How do your families feel about the amount of time you take off?

Have you asked the mortgage company about a payment holiday.

I took 3 mths off, but I wouldn't have gone back before baby was 8 weeks old. I needed so rest time as I worked up until the week baby was born.

You need to talk to looneytune about how she felt.

I am planning to take 2 weeks off when my baby is born. I just think, if it is longer then parents are going to go else where and you will end up starting again from scratch when you return.

i wouldnt go back afer 2 weeks my dd is 19months now and she was my 4th i was only going to take 4 weeks off but i couldnt do it phyisicaly even tho i wanted to and if i had done it i would off only ended up taking more time off later due to being knacked out im a cm ...just really concider it as u dont know how u will be after delivery do u know u still get full child tax credit and woking tax cedit for the full 9 months ur off of work just check every thing out ...please..

I guess it depends on how many mindees you have and what hours. I have one mindee and for 9 hours a week so 2 weeks off is really no problem for me, but if you work full time and filled all your vacancies then that is different.

Haven't read all the thread but just wanted to say that I WAS going to take 4 weeks in total but one mum said she wasn't happy about it and felt it would be unsafe for everyone as all the kids are so young etc. and she wasn't happy for me to have her dd back until I was more fit. So we agreed 12 weeks and everyone else was happy with that. All my mindees came back and I must say I'm SOOOOO glad I took longer, I actually wish I could have more but I couldn't afford the 12 weeks let alone any extra so I do understand the financial side. The problem also with having such a short time off is that IF you ended up having a C/S, you'd have to have 6 weeks after the baby is born and parents would have to look for alternative care at last minute.

Congratulations BTW

OMG!!! 12 weeks

Luckily, if I need to have an extra 2 weeks off to recover from possible c-section, I have other CM friends who would be more than willing to help me. Otherwise it will be a maximum of 4 weeks. I was back to work as a Nanny by 8 weeks with DS and it worked perfectly. This time I'll be at home and won't have to go out to work as I am now a CM.

I might look into the tax credit thing. I haven't had a penny from them for ages as they messed me around a while ago so stopped them
I imagine, now I have another baby coming along, I could possibly be entitled to some money from them. Fingers crossed I will as it would help me hugely.

My parents are all very happy for me to take off 4 weeks. This was agreed when I first told them about my pregnancy. They are all very excited and have made plans for the 4 weeks I'll be off.
Like I say, if I need an extra 2 weeks off (heaven forbid) then my CM friends will help.

Yes, 12 weeks was the minimum one parent was happy with but as I say, I'm really pleased I had it and I could really have done with a lot longer (ds1 was fine as a baby but we had a LOT of problems with this one which I hadn't thought could happen!). Also, having a baby with an older sibling was much different to just having my one baby so I wanted to make sure ds1 wasn't pushed out by it all. Suppose it also depends on what children you have to go back to. When I started back, my mindees were 8 months, 17 months, 19 months and 4 yrs (then add new baby and my 5 yr old). If I'd have just taken the 4 weeks, they'd have been 2 months younger so FOR ME it was enough to have them all back after 12 weeks, let alone 4 weeks (may have been different if just at home but as a childminder, it's the rushing around to groups etc. which took it toll). And FOR ME, having a 2nd baby was a lot different to the first time and my body took a knock afterwards (been told it's from overdoing it too early when my body hadn't recovered).

I will just say one thing about this 'mums of more than 2 children don't say they're having time off'......the way I work as a childminder is TOTALLY different to the way I am as a mother and I presume mothers with lots of children do things at their own pace, other children can just be left when baby needs sorting etc. Well I can't do that as I'm paid to give all the children the right level of care so unless I was fit to do the daily groups, school runs, lifting several children up and down and in and out of the car/pushchair all day, make sure they had all their meals, snacks, naps etc. on time and diaries written all in good time for parents collecting etc, I wouldn't have started back. Luckily the 12 weeks was just about right although very hard still, ds2 was just starting to come through his problems by then after treatment with the oestopath. I hope to god you guys have perfect happy babies and wish you all the best of luck