going off work due to child's illness

[SamN]

What is the legal position re. leave? Where can I look to find out more? (Links welcome.)

Ds2 (8 months) has just been in hospital following heart failure and someone has been covering for me. I think this is unofficial, I'm not sure if the payroll people have been notified about it. (My job is kind of flexible and is supposedly only 6 hours a week anyway.)

He is back from hospital now but I'm just not very happy about him going back to nursery and me going back to work. He had other health problems beforehand as well and they seem to be continuing.

To be honest, I could have taken 6 months additional maternity leave (unpaid) and I wish I had, but what can I do now? How much leave am I allowed for a sick baby? Are there conditions on how ill he's supposed to be?

as far as i know you can take unpaid parental leave of up to 13 weeks before your child is 5 , this is normally planned and you let your manager know in writing it is unpaid. you can also take emergency carers leave which isn't pre planned this is also unpaid and is short term. Have a look and see if the\link{http://www.maternityalliance.org.uk\maternity alliance can help!!

SamN - sorry to hear about your dd. You are in a similar position to me 11 years ago. My dd has heart problems and when she came out of hospital I had two weeks left of my mat leave and couldn't go back as she wasn't well enough. TBH I was heading for the madhouse (no offence )myself at the time. If you want to chat please CAT me.

I know the legislation had changed now but I took extra (unpaid) mat leave and then went back because we couldn't afford for me to be off any longer. In the end though, the stress got to me and I ended up being signed off for my own sanity. If I'm honest I should have done that sooner. Have a look here .

HTH

Sorry Sam, your ds.

sorry this link!!

Thanks for your swift replies laylasmum and potty1. And for the links - it looks like emergency carer's leave is only 3 days in order to arrange for other care.

So I shall have to use some of my 13 weeks' parental leave (unless my boss is happy to let the 'unofficial' situation carry on).

Thanks for your support. I shall CAT you potty1