Time off

mrp84

How much time did you take off when your kid was born? I'm thinking of the several days that my wife is in the hospital plus an additional 5 days if my boss will go for it.

DefaultJohnson1234

Check to see if your work offers paternity leave.  My work seems to offer it about every other year (and only really announces to the world when it is being taken away).

With my first child, I took about two months off.  A little over a week before the due date, and over a month after.  I had a BUNCH of PTO accrued, it was around the holidays, and depending on your work place, if your wife is in the hospital, you may be able to use 'Sick time'.

For my second, I didn't have the same option of talking so much PTO at a time, but I did get paternal time off.  (I was working for a different part of the company and was involved in several large projects going live about the same time as my daughter) I took a few days off before the due date, and a couple weeks after...occasionally checking in and working as needed.

Another option is to stagger your time off a little bit.  If this is the first child in the family, there is a good chance the grandparents will be around for days at a time to help.  You may be able to take half days and/or a few days of the week off at a time.

Good luck

Prime

I had a bunch of time saved up and I took two weeks when my son was born.  I took another 2 weeks about 3 weeks after that so we could go visit family on a long trip.

LuckyDad

I took a week off.

Wulfgar

For my LO I was working as a temporary employee so I was able to work extra over a few weeks so that I had 2 days off.  With me being full time, the most I can take off if I buy an extra week is three weeks off.

We don't have any set amount of sick days so they are very flexible like that but at the same time I don't feel the desire to do like one person did who took like 6 weeks off and left his group hanging.

My company tends to run slightly undermanned and with me being part of the start up portion of the company it is even harder to take a lot of time off in a section.

Coltsdad

First time I took almost 3 weeks... I worked the first shift before and after Christmas day so I could still get my holiday pay, but used floaters and vacation time to take the time off.  It helped that he was born so close to the end of the year.

The 2nd time I took 2 weeks and 1 day, mostly because my wife had her c-section on Friday.. for the extra day.