Thoughts on using unpaid parental leave like this

[Workingmum85]

So, for context, I’ve two primary aged children and I work FT in an office with no flex working patterns it’s a set 9-5

because of this, I use half day annual leave for Xmas concerts, sports day, parents evening and other school events and throughout the year these add up to
nearly a weeks leave. By the time I’ve done the family holidays and covered a couple of days of each school holiday I’m pretty much empty.

my proposed solution next year is to take my weeks holiday in Feb half term as unpaid parental leave (or if they ask me to delay it, a week in the summer holidays). This, in effect, will credit me with 5 days annual leave back in the bank so to speak that I can use throughout the year. Maybe to volunteer to go on a school trip, to do Christmas shopping/wrapping, or maybe to join my husband on one of his days off (as he works a 9 day fortnight) to go for lunch etc

by my maths this would cost me less than £40 a month spread over the year and the more I think about it, the more worth it it seems.

do you think I should go for it? Can’t get time back at the end of the day

Yes absolutely!

Yes it’s to use to spend time with your children so many people use it as an additional (unpaid) week of annual leave to cover times they need to be with their children for a variety of reasons.

I did this last year, took two weeks unpaid parental leave in the summer and then had more holiday days to use later in the year. I think one of my previous employers was a bit funny about using unpaid parental leave if you haven’t taken all your holiday first but times may have changed since then!

The other thing to check is whether your company offers volunteering/charity days - mine does and it covers accompanying school trips.

Absolutely.

my ds is disabled so id use parental leave as odd days (allowed for disabled offspring) when he had a hospital apt.

id use the day to chill, go for lunch and catch up around it - and he would be at school for most of it as only picked him up for it or dropped him late.

This is the first year I've had a child at primary school and fully intend to take two weeks parental leave in the summer holidays. I'm not sure how we'd cover it otherwise. Go for it!

Thanks all! Reaffirms my thought process but I do feel guilty asking for the time off even though it’s unpaid and a legal right but once the kids are in high school I won’t even need it so why not make the most of it now

Yes, I think it's a perfectly reasonable thing to do, but if, at your workplace, 'everyone' is off in school holidays, just be aware that they can refuse your dates due to operational reasons.

Luckily it’s a small organisation and I’m the only one doing my function so I don’t have restrictions when I can take leave, it’s a week I’d have booked off as annual leave anyway as I’ve a holiday booked 😎

I’ve done this as well and my HR dept said they actually discourage people from using up all their leave before taking PL as they want people to be able to take their leave through the year. So for example I took two weeks PL in the summer but still had a few days AL to take at October half term and Christmas.

OP totally ok, go for it. And please don’t think you won’t need it once they’re in secondary - they still have long holidays and still need you!