AIBU to ask you to sign this petition

[Billy86]

Petitioning the UK government to extend maternity leave for three months to ensure mother's have the time necessary to find childcare and promote baby's socialisation skills after lockdown is lifted

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/306691

Bonkers.

What is the reasoning behind it?

How funny - there's another thread along the lines of 'look how ridiculous this petition is' and I clicked on this thread curious to see if it's about the same petition. It is. I know which thread I agree with and it's not this one, yabu.

Yabu and whoever wrote that petition is incredibly dim.

Oh FFS, no.

1. You can still bond with your child during this time.
2. I never went to any baby groups and my son is perfectly fine - they are really not vital for development.

I don't understand the logic behind it. "All baby clubs etc are closed down so we cant socialise. Therefore we need more time off work to socialise"
Surely that's less socialisation than usual (due to no other children from being at CM or nursery)

Really stupid idea. Where precisely do you think the money will come from the country is going to be pretty much bankrupt when we get through this crisis.

Hahahahahahahaha.

No.

Loads of people don't have jobs anymore and they want an extra 3 months at least. They should be grateful they have a job to go back too.

Oh and @Billy86 it's mothers' with the apostrophe after, given that you are speaking about more than one mother.

Hope that helps.

It takes a village to raise a child 😊

Hey, why not go the whole hog and ask for it to be extended to 18 years ?

No it's bloody nonsense.

"baby groups which are vital for development and now everything has been cancelled"

She sounds so utterly entitled.

Extra mat leave for mothers of babies ill in hospital for months won't kick in until 2023. You know, parents actually apart from their baby (and atm it's even harder). not women at home with their child unelected to sit in a room and shake a tambourine or scrunch silver pair or look at flashing lights.

Go online and buy some cheap sensory toys, it'll be cheaper than the classes.
Book onto online classes. Zoom your mates. Even CBEEBIES has a white that's baby club.

And what about parents who don't want to go to baby groups? Do they not need the extra time because they're neglectful and dying care about their child development?

Yep YABcompletelyU! Waste of time and money...here’s a grip 🤝

Ridiculous. Get a grip.

"Promote babies' socialisation" is one of the most ridiculous statements I have heard. Like government has nothing better to do than pander to such ludicrous demands.

Don't slaughter me for this... This is only my opinion but ...

I had my first child last year and am on mat leave. I have Asperger's and have struggled with social skills my whole life, genuinely made my childhood miserable... Was bullied for years, never learnt how to make friends etc. I've made a real effort to attend groups and such which has been really difficult for me and is massively out of my comfort zone however I am absolutely desperate for my child to not have the same difficulties that I had. And now I am terrified that my child is going to be so anxious and scared when I have to put him in child care.

My understanding of the petition, and I agree the wording of the reasons behind it is woefully poor, is that new parents are genuinely, rightly or wrongly, scared that their children will struggle.

Even if people disagree with the OP and the petition, some kinder responses would have been more appropriate.

This is the reason women are so disadvantaged in the workplace. Because employers think they are going to ask for crap like that.

Why?

promote baby's socialisation skills

Argument seems tenuous at best. If the DC is attending childcare that will promote socialisation skills, no?

Really inappropriate and grabby. Smacks of people wanting free money and undermines the plight of those who have been furloughed, lost their jobs etc. Hard pressed businesses and government cannot afford this. It needs everyone back to work ASAP.

What?

Baby 'groups' are a relatively recent but valued resource.

Previous generations of people were not impaired by not attending 'baby groups'.

Total luxury, babies won't be more sociable because they went to baby groups, quite clearly someone just want to take advantage in the middle of the crisis. What if we extend the lockdown? Extend another 3 months of MAT leave?

It's horrifying to see the amount of greed coming out of people during this crisis. The priority should be saving lives, jobs and economy. There's enough discrimination for pregnant women / mothers returned to work already, there's no need to add fire to it.