Fathers to share "maternity leave": Hurrah! Now we can BOTH feck up our careers

[morningpaper]

From 20100, New mothers will be able to transfer the second half of their year-long maternity leave to the father, the government has confirmed.

Do you think this will be taken up?

Even the government are only expecting about 4% of fathers to take it up. It's all a bit chicken and egg - men earn more than women, partly because women have babies, so it doesn't make economic sense for most families for men to take the leave.

That's Ok then OP that's 20,000 years away.

I think this is when we'll find men can be discriminated against as well. I was talking to someone who owns his own business that employs mainly men (construction type work) and he said he'd stop employing men under 40 if this came in.

It's about as much help as a chocolate fireguard in my opinion. There are too few families who can afford to have the main wage earner taking potentially a massive drop in income.
Even if they did, what happens when the baby cries in the night? Mothers are still going to be the ones to get up to tend to upset babies, especially if they are breastfeeding and teh baby won't take a bottle. So Mum has to get up anyway and has no chance at all ( as opposed to a slim one) of getting a breather at some point during the day because she's in work all day.

I'd like our family to have the option TBH and I can't really see whom it it hurts for me to have it.

I'm with MP. I haven't had so much of a sniff of a decent training course since I had mat leave and went part-time - ergo no promotion.

the last thing I want is for DH to be similarly sidelined professionally.

It works on the continent

We have it in Oz. DH took the last two months of "my" maternity leave. Was fab to be able to get back into work without worrying about DS at all.

It is good for the option to be there in my opinion, I cant imagine anyone I know personally taking it up but nice to have a choice.

We wouldn't have taken it up because he has a career and I don't (I have a job instead).

But can see that that it may be helpful for couples where both sides have sucessful ongoing careers when they start a family.

Plus it potentially marks a sea change in the way parenting is thought of by the state - ie that it is an equal thing. As others have said, it may not start life as perfect plan but at least it is being taken seriously as a prospect and it will more than likely develop as time wears on and people use it and the faults are shown up and hopefully fixed.

It's a bit better than the current "mothers, know your place (barefoot and in the kitchen)" type undercurrent in parental leave policy.

"I was talking to someone who owns his own business that employs mainly men (construction type work) and he said he'd stop employing men under 40 if this came in. "
Hopefully will cut down age discrimination then In seriousness, maybe employers will run out of people to discriminate against!

sorry pressed post too soon....

.... It's a bit better than the current "mothers, know your place (barefoot and in the kitchen)" type undercurrent in parental leave policy, which not only devalues women in the workplace but devalues the role of father in the early months of a child's life.

I earn much more than my husband. I get legal minimum maternity pay (90% of employees at my company are female) My DH's company has great benefits - an incredible one year's full pay for maternity leave (but only 10% of workforce are female). It would've been much better if he could have taken more leave instead of me. I wonder if the benefits at DH's company would change though if this becomes law? They would have to offer same pay benefits to male and female employees presumably as otherwise would be discriminatory?

We might well have done this if we had had the chance.
Reason being: I was sick through 3 pregnancies and my career really suffered while DH has forged ahead with his. DH being on leave would have allowed me to really focus on getting up to speed again without having to worry about childcare. His career is in a strong enough place that he could have taken 6 months off without damage. As it is, my third maternity leave was the straw that broke the camel's back for my career and I resigned.
I think this is a Good Thing.

I actually think it's progress even if it will be a long time before it realistically affects more than a tiny minority of men.

It is the only way to start to get rid of the silent discrimination against women, since suddenly men could just as easily want 6 months off. I think it does make a difference, if only because it's possible, even if unlikely.

My DP earns more than I do because of the fields we have both chosen to work in. However we do both think of ourselves as having careers (hard to know what's happened to mine after 2 x mat leave and now working part-time but that's another story) and I have often said I would have another child if he would take half the mat leave.

Actually, perhaps it's a good job it's not coming into effect until 20100 then, as that might be a bit late for me to have dc3

Dh took part time leave to look after dd but of course he had to take it as unpaid leave. So we would definitely have gone for this option.

Morloth - PAID mat leave?? I thought the only sector of Aussies that got paid mat leave was the government state and local) ? If so, are you state or local..cause both DH and I worked in the commonwealth sector and we didnt have it? Or is it something that has come in in the last year?

agree with none de plume. current situation allows people to rationalise discriminating against women (of a certain age) because they're more of a "risk". we can only get equality when employers see men and women the same. this latest isn't enough - but certainly a step in the right direction. it;s not about both parents fecking up their careers it's about limiting the extent to whch your gender allows employers to feck it up for you.

you know I think if more men worked less and contributed to parenting more, we would discover that it is actually perfectly possible to be an effective worker (and achieve career progression) without working all hours. My dh went part-time (80%) when I went back to work. 8 years later he has moved jobs 4 times, earns about twice as much as he did then and is still 80%. And he works in a male dominated profession. I think he has actually found it easier to be taken seriously as a part-timer than a woman would.

Well if this happens in time for when my DC2 is born (EDD 5/5/10) and we can use it and his company have a policy allowing it then I will defo go for it!

We earn the same and TBH I found by 10months I was climbing the walls to go back having a nearly 3hr and a newborn is going to be a challenge!!!!! I have provisionally booked of 14months, leave Mat leave and sabbatical...

quite right. Time that the govt recognised that raising a child required both parents.

if you don't want your career fucked up, if that's your priority - don't have children.

I think it's great, and can't understand the negativity.

It doesn't mean that men have to take the time off, just that it is broadening the options available.

I also don't agree that maternity leave necessarily fucks up one's career - there are choices here, far more choices than were previously available - the opportunity to take a whole year off work (I do need to emphasise that, because those of us 40+ mums often had 3 months off, or 6 at most).

Thing is, it's all very well to moan, but many women actually don't want their career to continue in exactly the same way as before having children. Out of the women I know who have had babies over the last couple of years, only one has returned to work after the statutory 6 month leave back into her full time job exactly as before. The others have taken the additional leave of a year, chosen to return part time, etc etc. Nothing wrong with that, but don't then complain that your career has changed.

Sometimes I feel it's a no win situation for the government - whenever they introduce an initiative which actually provides more choice, there are people who whinge about it.

I think it's great to have the option and like violethill am a little surprised by the negativity to the change.

Surely more flexibility for parents is better, and not all men are the main breadwinner - I earn over double what DH does and I know quite a few couples in the same position. so this could make more financial sense for us in the future.

Well said violethill there's too much wanting the cake and eating it I think.

I took 13 months mat leave but in reality I was ready to go back to work after 8 months. I knew that going back as a working mum, my outlook would change and I was fully prepared to kind of step back from my career for as long as necessary.

Since then, I've been promoted, my DH has made a career change which makes me the main earner in the house. If we're lucky enough to have another DC, I'd definitely consider splitting my mat leave with DH. I appreciate it won't be ideal for everyone, but then, taking the full 12 months maternity leave doens't suit everybody. It's about having the opportunity.