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Original poster

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

64 replies

morningpaper · 28/01/2010 18:24

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?

OP posts:

bottersnike · 31/01/2010 18:47

Another agreement here from a household where I am currently the main earner. If we were ever insane enough to have another child, then we would definitely go for sharing the maternity leave.
Great idea, bound to not be agree with by all, but that doesn't stop it being a great idea.

gaelicsheep · 31/01/2010 20:40

As the only earner, as DH is a SAHD, it would make no difference to us. There's no way I can afford more than 6 months. And yes I'll be going back full time almost straight away.

violethill · 01/02/2010 06:29

gaelic - maternity leave can only be taken by someone with a job, by definition! In families where one parent is not working anyway, of course it's not going to make a difference!

But many families have both parents working, and I think this proposal is a great way to split the leave so that fathers get a look in too.

EdgarAllenSnow · 01/02/2010 18:27

i think if thi smeans they consider it not just to be for recovery from giving birth..maybe this could also extend ML to adoptive mothers/ parents of babies carried by surrogates?

WidowWadman · 01/02/2010 20:43

www.direct.gov.uk/en/Parents/Moneyandworkentitlements/WorkAndFamilies/Adoptionrightsinthework place/DG_10029406

EdgarAllanSnow, adoption leave has been in place for a while now. Who on earth needs 9 months to recover anyway?

gaelicsheep · 01/02/2010 21:28

I do realise that violethill! I was just saying that it wouldn't make a difference to us, or others like us, that's all.

gaelicsheep · 01/02/2010 21:30

Although that is clearly rather a non-point in this case I grant you.

I do wish when they extended paid maternity leave to 9 months they had actually extended the better paid part of it. 3 more months of £100 a week doesn't help much unfortunately.

EdgarAllenSnow · 02/02/2010 12:27

plenty of ladies on here take much logr than 9 mo! and that link didn't work, though i didn't think adoption leave was anything like as long?

jumpyjan · 02/02/2010 12:41

I think this is a fab idea. No idea how it would work in practice but we would have been up for this arrangement definitely.

Builde · 02/02/2010 14:04

If the construction industry stops employing men under 40, they willl just have a handful of old men working for them. I wouldn't worry too much about construction...let them stay stuck in the middle ages.

As a 'professional' working in construction, women get a good deal, but on site it's very behind. (Well, there aren't any women, gay people, non-white peopls)

Also, what everyone forgets is that most families only have two children. This only adds up to a total of 2 years 'off' in a career that could last 40 years.

My mum's generation all had a lot of time off when their children were small but, as the kids grew up, they really got back in to work and most of my parent's female friends are working past retirement age whilst the men have stopped.

WidowWadman · 02/02/2010 20:11

Edgar Allen Snow - not only is Adoption Leave as long, it's also completely up to the couple which partner takes it, so the gender is irrelevant

place/DG_10029406

WidowWadman · 02/02/2010 20:14

odd, doesn't work now for me either. Do a search for adoption leave on direct gov, and you find the following:

"You can take Statutory Adoption Leave for up to 52 weeks. You can claim Statutory Adoption Pay for up to 39 weeks. The current maximum rate is £123.06 per week.

You can claim Statutory Adoption Leave if you are an employee and either:

adopting a child on your own
in a couple who are adopting together

If you are in a couple, you can decide who will take the paid leave. The other couple member, or adopter's partner, may be able to take paid paternity leave."

Strix · 04/02/2010 09:29

It is a step in the right direction, but only a step. What we need is men having the right to 6 weeks with 90% of their pay. And why do they have to wait until the baby is six months old? Why not mother takes six weeks on 90% and then father takes 6 weeks on 90% -- if they want to of course.

Men will start taking their leave when they have the same leave women get. Of course they won't take paternity leave with a significant pay cut at six months when mum may have returned to work and childcare is already in place.

minipie · 04/02/2010 11:29

Well I was about to post but Strix has said everything I was going to say!

I think that frankly this is not going to get taken up (and is therefore a meaningless fig leaf) unless:

employers have to pay the same for paternity leave as they do for maternity leave
the same anti-discrimination protections are put in place in respect of men who take paternity leave, as for women who take maternity leave (not that those always work)
fathers can take leave even if the mother hasn't taken the full 6 months
controversially... perhaps 6 weeks paternity leave should be made compulsory for all fathers to ensure at least some take-up.

Personally, I would like my DH to take some paternity leave ... but I suspect he'd be too worried about harming his career to do it as he thinks it would be seen as lack of dedication (he works in one of those all-male, silly-hours sectors). Whereas it's established and indeed to some extent compulsory that a woman takes leave, and therefore (he would argue) doesn't suggest lack of dedication in the same way. Hence my suggestion at 4) of some compulsory element of paternity leave.

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