How long should a first time Dad ideally take off work when the baby is born?

[BHCU1343]

How long should a first time Dad ideally take off work when the baby is born?

Mine took 2 days off the first week and 2 days off the second ( no paternity leave in those days).

I think a month would have been good.

DH took 3 months in the end and it was great. I had absolutely crippling PND so it was a medical necessity, but even without that we were glad he had that time. We would have done it again for our second too, if we'd had one.

No paternity leave due to the nature of the job 😊

? How long can they take. Exh took just the birth with dd1 and 2 days plus the day I gave birth for dd2, no paternity then and you had to book holiday ahead which you can't if you don't know the date, it was fine actually, meant I could do what I wanted - no family in the same country so I needed to learn to cope alone (he went on a business trip the following week for a week)

@daysfilledwithdappledlight

I was ready for exh to go back to work the day after I got home, he was just in the way to be honest (says a lot) and got dd1 hyped up then wanted to watch sport

Depends how the birth goes I think. My husband took only the 2 weeks, because we were saving all his parental leave for the 3 months he took off when I went back to work at 9months. But I had easy births.

we used formula from day one so DH had two weeks paternity leave and two weeks holiday when DT’s were born. He gave as many bottles as I did - couldn’t have managed without him - nor would I have wanted him to miss out on that first month.

DT’s arrival was at the same time as the Canadian school holidays. DMil was a teacher and used the school holidays to fly over to help for a month. She got us into a good routine.

Dh took 2 days. I was fine. He brought in shopping and was home by 4. No family nearby, I just got on with it.

DH took just under 2 weeks with our first and that was fine. I had an easy pregnancy and birth and DS just slept and fed as a newborn so I didn't feel like I needed him around. He took 4 weeks with DCs 2 and 3 as I had harder pregnancies and labours, plus there were toddlers to run around after too!

In terms of support for mum and baby, as long as possible I suppose. But realistically for financial reasons most just have 2 weeks paternity plus maybe a week or two of annual leave.

If you can afford shared parental leave and its something you're interested in that can be a great alternative.

My DH was given a weeks leave when DD was born & then he went half day for 6 weeks and when DD was discharged he took his 2 weeks paid paternity.
Everyone’s situation is different.

Depends. My DH had 2 weeks paternity leave. I couldn't bloody wait for him to go back to work!