Sharing maternity leave

[MipsWolf]

Hello, I gave birth to our son on 16.04.12 and my partner and I are considering both going part-time rather than splitting it so that I take the first 6 months and she the second. It means I'd be returning to work early (when he's approx 3 months) but then I get to spend half the week looking after him. I'd love to know if anyone else has done this and how it worked out? Also I wondered what benefits etc you can still get as unless I go self-employed we'll lose the statutory maternity pay. Thanks!

Congratulations, my ds3 was born that day too . Sorry, don't know about the legal position, but definitely worth considering whether both requests to go pt would be accepted by your employers: they're not obliged to say yes. I don't quite understand about sharing the maternity leave - I thought the option of doing this hadn't been introduced yet. And haven't you already had to inform your employer of your plans?

Good luck with arranging things as you wish, but just bear in mind employers may not go along with your ideal.

Hi jkklipu, what a coincidence, congrats!
Thanks for your reply. I'm currently waiting to hear back from my employers so fingers crossed. We may well have to go it alone if we can't achieve the ideal. At the moment my partner is miserable at being back at work and feels she's missing out on bonding with the little one. We hadn't considered sharing the leave in this way so I'm still getting my head around having to back to work (wherever I end up) in a month or so's time, which would mean I've had 2-3 months off before going back pt. All of my friends have taken or are taking the full maternity, so I'm looking to find people that have made a similar arrangement. I suppose we're trying to find the way that works for us but also to find reassurance out there that it's ok to do things differently :)

Hi, this is almost exactly what we are doing!

I will be going back in mid august when dd will be 4.5 months then dh will take 3 months. We then both hope to go parttime. My work have already said yes and we are pretty confident dh's will be ok with it also.

So I say go for it :o

I also ment to say that dh is really looking forward to hs time with dd and i am so glad that we give him this. I also think that it will be good for him to find out how hard it can be staying at home with her on his own. Like you all the other mums i know are taking the whole lot themselves but for me it is important that dh gets his turn.

My understanding of the way maternity works is that you just have to let them know when you plan to return about a month in advance. Your Dh will also need to complete a form for his work before you return. I would recommend you both have a chat with your hr departments and/or managers asap to check procedures and sound out the possibility of parttime working when you return.

We swop over this Monday! I'm self-employed so will work from home/library/cafe about 25 hrs a week. So even though it's 5ish months since our son was born it's not like going back to an office job. My partner is taking six months off from his work. Check your company policies but I think mother has to give 8 wks notice if changing return date. Also think to share leave it has to be 20+ weeks after the birth or Mum's leave started.

I'm going back to work in September when DS is 7 months, working 3 office days and 1 day from home. DH is taking "additional paternity leave" until mid December then going back for 4 days, so DS will only need 2 nursery days. Money will be tight but we'll both get quality time with DS :)

We're looking to have DP take Additional Pat Leave in due course too, though DC2 isn't born yet (due date 21 Aug). Our understanding is that the APL request from the other parent is something you're legally entitled to, unlike a request for flexible working which is more optional and either companies is allowed to consider it and then turn it down. So the APL route is safer in some ways as you can't get it turned down. (Check out the www.direct.gov website for more info, too.)

That said, both DP and I did go 4 days a week after DD was born, and are very pleased with that choice - we both get a sense of how hard it is to be at home toddler-wrangling during an entire day, especially if you're also trying to get laundry and/or cooking done! So neither of us nags the other unduly .

I might have misunderstood, but when you say you're both going to go part-time is that what you mean by sharing the mat leave?

The other parent can only take the leave once the mother has gone back so you can't both take half the mat leave at the same time. My DH and I are sharing mat leave by my having 9 months and him having 3. We'll then both go part-time afterwards, but that's a flexible working request rather than anything to do with mat leave. Apologies if I have entirely misunderstood.