U.K. mums - paternity leave

[jdy123]

Hello

Just wondering what everyone's partners did regarding paternity leave. Did they take the full 2 weeks off? Use annual leave?

How much time did everyone take off, is 2 weeks too much?

This is my first so i don't know what to expect and how much time he should have off

Full 2 weeks plus another week's annual leave.

Full two weeks plus he used annual leave one day a week for a few months.

The longer the better imo

When we had our daughter my partner took 1 weeks paternity and 2 weeks holiday. It was lovely to have him home for that long.
We are due to have our son in March and he is taking 2 weeks holiday as this time we can not afford for him to take the paternity leave as the pay is alot less than his wages now.

In an ideal world I'd love to have him home for 3 weeks but financially it would be too difficult.
Hope your figure yours out 😊

Mine took 4 weeks annual leave, we’re lucky with due dates and that his leave runs April to April so he used 2weeks from the previous year and two from the next. 4 weeks turned out to be very handy as I had to go back in for a night at 12days pp so it gave some room to breathe knowing he wasn’t going straight back in a matter of days.

We also used annual leave because his work only do the statutory paternity pay so itd have worked out to be a massive pay cut that month for the two weeks but some companies pay more than the minimum so its worth looking into.

Other advantage is I believe paternity leave can’t start to you’ve had the baby, so if you were being induced and wanted/needed him annual leave would need to come into it a little at least.

Mine took paternity leave plus two week’s parental leave with my first and paternity plus a week with my second.

He then took 5 and 4 months of shared parental leave later in the first year.

Two weeks paternity leave and then two weeks holiday both times.

With our first 7 years ago he took his 2 weeks and another 2 weeks holiday. I lost blood in my delivery and was tired with anemia. It really helped and was lovely.

This time husband is entitled to 6 months and we are planning to use at least 5 months of that.

Ours helpfully arrived in the school holidays so dh (teacher) took the 2 weeks paternity after the school holiday we were in.

Two weeks paternity (which was full pay) and two weeks holiday.

Four weeks annual leave, two weeks paternity leave and ended up with five days special leave at the start as the baby came a week early before his time off started. He says there’s nothing worse than going to work with two hours sleep and no chance of catching up the next night.

Two weeks definitely isn't too much. For us with the first baby two weeks was about right, although I wouldnt have said no to more!
I'm currently 35 weeks with second baby and he is going to take 3 weeks this time to help with the toddler as well.

Why would it be too much? It isn't just about how much support you might need, it's a period of time when he can bond with his baby.

DH took two weeks paternity leave followed by three weeks annual leave, so he was off for five weeks in total. I had sepsis after the birth so really needed his help.

Two weeks paternity plus another two annual leave. I'd have struggled even more if he'd have taken less tbh.

Mine took 2 weeks plus 1 week's holiday, but spread out a bit so he worked a couple of days a week after the first week. He did this both times and it worked well. He also took shared parental leave for 5 months with DS1 and 3 months with DS2 after I'd gone back to work.

My DH took no paternity leave because the statutory pay was too little for us to survive on. He gets paid about £1200 per week and statutory paternity pay is only £148 per week. So we were looking at losing over £1000 per week for however long he was off work. We have financial commitments like cars and mortgage that we couldn’t afford if we lost that money. He had to use two weeks of annual leave in order to get paid full salary for his time off. I understand this is a common problem - few households can afford for the main wage earner to only bring in £148 per week.

Thanks everyone
I'm just stressing as I think he will only be able to have 2 weeks off really so panicking that I won't be okay.
Guess ill be able to see if my mum could maybe have some time off to help once he goes back to work if I need it.

Depends when the baby arrives but my DH is planning to take 2 weeks paternity and 2 week annual leave. He had a big meeting he has to attend at the end of April and baby isn't due until end of March so fingers crossed she doesn't keep us waiting!

It’s really sad that people don’t have the opportunity for partners to take more time off work due to financial restraints

DH is taking 2 weeks leave plus a week’s annual leave to start, then we are having a month off together over the summer for a holiday and then he’s taking 3 months off as shared parental leave when I go back to work (9 months off)

His work parental leave is very generous so he’ll be paid the entire time he’s off

DH is technically on paternity at the moment but as a senior manager in a business that's currently in crisis talks he's been working half days. It's worked quite well for us because DD goes to nursery school in a morning while he's at work then they're both here in the afternoon so baby and I get some quiet alone time while they're out.

With DD 4 years ago he took the 2 weeks and it didn't feel like enough.

Not had baby yet (due any day now) but he will take annual leave as opposed to paternity purely because the pay is a pittance.

My DH took 2 weeks when DD was born in November, im going back to work late Feb, he's taking over til July (teacher, summer hols) and then I'm off again til September. So he's taking 5 months total.

DH is taking the 2 weeks plus a weeks annual leave

My DH is taking 2 weeks paternity leave but also 6 weeks of shared parental leave straight after (we're lucky it's all full pay) he'll also take 4 weeks of shared when I return to work. The SPL will come out of my stat mat pay so losing £149 a week (or whatever it is in May) is worth the trade.

We just want a big chunk of time off together as a new family and we are fortunate our employer has a decent SPL policy.

First baby, two weeks paternity (he got full pay for this) followed by two weeks annual leave. Even that didn’t seem long enough really but I got into the swing of being alone fairly quickly!

This time, two weeks paternity & one full week of annual leave, then three weeks of just Thurs/Fri off to help on the days our toddler is not at nursery!