Would you and your partner take time off work if companies offered 6 months paid parental leave for all?

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Having a new baby is an exciting time regardless of whether you’re a mum or a dad, and spending time with them in those first few months is a precious experience. A year ago Aviva introduced its equal paid parental leave policy, where all employees can take up to 12 months off, with no need for mums to share their maternity allowance. With this in mind, Aviva would like to hear your thoughts on giving all parents the same amount of time off.

Here’s what Caroline Prendergast, Interim Chief People Officer at Aviva has to say: “We decided to make all parents at Aviva eligible for the same amount of paid and unpaid time off, regardless of gender, sexual orientation or how they became a parent. We thought that dads would want to spend time with their new arrivals, just as mums do. One year on, our experience shows that with financial barriers removed, they do just that.”

You can find out more about Aviva as an employer here.

If all companies offered 6 months paid parental leave, do you think your spouse or partner would be prepared take the time off work to share childcare duties? If not, why not?

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I don't know if DH would have taken the full six months, but he would definitely have taken a portion of it. As with others, I think we would both have been worried about any potential negative impact on his career especially if his employers decided not to promote him or give him interesting work as they were worried about him taking a big block of time off further down the line and having to provide cover (I know - the same thing that many women, myself included, have to factor in when they are having children!). I think we would probably have gone for 1-2 months, or - probably better from our perspective - a shorter working week for a certain part of the parental leave (ie, four day working week or working 9am-4pm)

When my baby was a month old DH was so desperate to be able to see more of him that he decided to take a year off work and be a SAHD while I went back to work. In order to do this he had to quit his well-paid job as obviously the company he worked for wouldn't have allowed such a thing. It meant that I went back to work when DS was 4 months old since my company offered big financial incentives to get mothers back to work sooner rather than later.

If we'd been offered a year of shared parental leave it would have been a game changer in terms of DH not having to leave his job, and me staying home for longer - that would have been amazing!

Every households circumstances are different but the crucial thing with the way Aviva gives parental leave to both parents equally is that it brings choice. I also agree with other posters that anything that creates a more equal playing field for recruitment of women is worth having as presently I feel there is still bias against employing women who may or may not take time off to start a family by some companies. From my own experience, I think having my husband around more after the birth of my second child would have been really beneficial as he could have spent quality time with our first child in those first few weeks when it is easy for the first born to feel a little marginalised (for want of a better word). My husband had to take annual leave as he got no paternity when we had our children.

No I don't think he would take it.

My DH was only entitled to 2 weeks paid leave when our DC were born. However, I don’t think he would have taken much more than that given the chance due to the nature of his job. What would have been better for us would be if he could work 4 days a week and have a paid day off each week for a period of time. He missed out on taking them to swimming lessons etc, so having a weekly day off would have been better for the whole family, whilst having less of an impact on his job.

I think it's an excellent policy, too late for us now as we won't have any more children, but my (male) Dp and I did share childcare in the early years, without shared parental leave, because I wanted to work part time and take short maternity leaves, and he wanted to work part time and share childcare.
It would have been very nice if he could have shared my leave, but we were already committed to gender equality in parenting so we did it anyway, and still do share it equally.

I think it's not only a great idea but something the government should be encouraging more companies to do through legislation. As well as enabling fathers to share those miraculous first weeks of bonding (my DH cried when he had to leave us to go back to work when our son was just 10 days old), it will help create a more level playing field for men and women at work. If both sexes are equally likely to take a chunk of time off, there's less chance of discrimination against women of childbearing age.

Absolutely, my partner would have loved this! Being a same-sex couple it strikes us as really unfair that she only gets two weeks 'paternity leave' and there isn't a system in place to let us both have time with our baby. She would love to take time off when I go back to work but we just can't afford it. I can't cut my maternity leave short as I want to breastfeed. I don't see why I should be forced to leave my baby early to give my partner some time off anyway.

This is a wonderful idea Aviva. I believe they have something similar in Sweden and many dads / partners take more time off.

Our baby was premature and critically ill, my husband would have loved to take 6 months off to be with him. Instead he took two weeks off when he was born (stay leave) which just covered his first operation and then two weeks when he came home at 3 months. He commuted from our hospital to his work and back every day as we were in hospital accommodation for those first three months, and when we got readmitted twice again before he turned 6 months he commuted fromm home to work to hospital to home every day.
6 months of leave would have been an amazing gift

I think men may wish they could take up to six months but in reality I’m not sure if the culture at most companies is ready to support that. It would be nicer for women if they weren’t solely seen as a burden on their employers for taking time off. If there was an expectation that both parents would take a decent wedge of time to spend with their newborn then maybe employers would be less reluctant to hire women of childbearing age. I think making paid parental leave mandatory would be a big step forward, because men do feel pressured into not taking leave for this for career as well as financial considerations, and if everyone had to take it then no one would be disadvantaged.

With DS my DH took two weeks leave over the first month, he would be at home in the mornings and work in the afternoons, it gave me a break whilst allowing him to keep up with what was happening at work. I would have loved him to be able to take longer because it took time to settle into a routine and DS woke so many times in the night to feed that I was shattered for the first year.

I think this is a brilliant policy and it makes me want to work for Aviva! DH would definitely have taken it had he worked there - he took his 2 statutory weeks plus 2 weeks annual leave and was really keen to try shared parental leave but it would have been similar pay impact whichever of us was off, and I said no - I wanted to be off for the 9 paid months.

As for women's maternity pay, my full pay allowance (in local government) was only 14 weeks and to have been on full pay for 26 weeks would have been brilliant!

For women who are saying that their DHs would have been bored, or wouldn't have had anything to do, or would have got in their way, plus the one who was worried about what their DH would have dressed their DDs in - shame on you! You and your husbands are part of the problem - why on earth wouldn't a man want to spend time off on full pay helping to care for his newborn child? Why would a woman not want extra help and support at that time? I see this policy as something that should be aspired to by all employers and employees.

I also think there needs to be a shift away from thinking that 6 months off is going to limit your career of up to 48 years. It's a drop in the ocean, even if you had 4 or 5 kids. This is presumably how Aviva sees it - they can afford for some employees to be away for 6 months, which is planned in advance with clear dates, given that they will retain staff by doing this.

I actually think that men are very unlikely to be disadvantaged by doing it - they'll just be treated like parenting heroes (again) and there will be very little effect on their careers, unless they then go part-time.

I asked DH and his instant reply was no! However I then pointed out the sports he could watch while I was at baby groups and his tune changed lol

Creme thats really sad if he was being serious. Glad there are men who do want a more active role in their dc's lives.

DH needs a job at Aviva before I get pregnant again!!

We absolutely would have shared leave - amd it would have really helped me as I struggled with PND with both dc. My dh had 2 weeks pat leave and took 2 weeks annual leave- with my first dc I was barely out of hospital as I had suffered a horrendous post birth infection, so it was really tough. Great initiative to recognise dads need time with brand new babies (and older dc!) Too! My dh would love to do condensed hours like loads of female colleagues do in recognition of childcare, but finds it much harder to ask.

I think this is an amazing benefit. Well done Aviva. We would definitely have taken it if our companies offered it. What a priceless opportunity to bond with your young baby. It's so sad that most fathers have limited time in the first few months of dc's lives. I can only see it as a positive for everyone. Company, baby and parents.

If it was at full pay then yes, I think there’s a chance my husband would have taken this up. Though I would have felt sad only having 6 months off rather than a year! The ideal for us would have been after 6 months for us both to be part time but paid full time!

Absolutely we would both take it!!!
Paid time off work to spend time with your children? I can't understand why anyone wouldn't take that opportunity.

Different of its unpaid (work my dh has taken four months off to look after our DC, it is worth it for us even if he loses his party, those months have been great for bonding!!!)

In writing this sounds perfect but I'm not sure how it'd work for us financially.

Good idea but....not that practical. Not sure my husband would have wanted it either (or me!)

Would be great. My husband is a teacher and felt he didn't get a chance to bond with our son until the school holidays. This time round he would deffinately take leave but financially it isn't an option until what he would get paid would be anywhere near what I would while off.

My husband would love to take more time off. He was lucky enough to take two weeks paternity leave and two weeks annual leave with a little bit of juggling shifts which meant he was able to have five weeks off when our son was born. He works for a large well known company and the HR department were next to useless just organising his paternity leave. When he mentioned shared parental leave (which we may still consider) they had no idea and told him they didn’t offer it! Obviously we know this is against legislation and we will take action if we decide we can afford for him to have some time off when I return to work.

I find it really sad the number of people who say their husband wouldn't have wanted extra (full pay) time off with t e or new baby supporting their partner whose just given birth.
Given in Aviva's situation it wouldn't damage job prospects and its paid so you could afford it, why would you not?