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Would you take a 1yr long maternity leave?
I'm also a working mom, but since I live in Canada we get a year long maternity leave. Thus since I am due again in July, I will be taking another year off, then going back to work full time when DD#2 turns 1.
Anyhow, I was just wondering, since maternity leave is usually so much shorter in the states, whether you would want to take a year-long maternity leave if you could.
FYI: during that time you take a big cut in pay (I took home about $800 every two weeks for the year). Definitely a consideration.
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Re: Would you take a 1yr long maternity leave?
No way. If someone wanted to pay me my full salary - sure I would do it. But it would be a very selfish act that had nothing to do with being a new mom. I would just do it for the vacation.
Maybe not a year - especially w/ teh significant pay cut, but I'd take my full salary or close to it.
The one thing I nkow about myself - I couldn't be a FT SAHM. I'd LOVE to be able to work PT and be home more, but I want to work.
That being said - I don't nkow if I could do a full year. I'd have LOVED to have done more than 3 months, though. If I could have done 6 months, perhaps, then 6 months PT, I think that would have been great.
~Benjamin Franklin
DS dx with celiac disease 5/28/10
Yeah, this is more or less what I was thinking. 6 months - yes. Full year- not so much. I felt like I was second guessing DD's development a lot when I was home. I loved having her caregivers telling me things were good or bad. I loved the tips and tricks they taught me as a first time mom. If I could hire someone like a nanny to come and teach me things and give me breaks, I'd be more likely to do it. I also am not sure I could give up my housekeeper and landscaper and do those things in order to SAH.
met DH 1995 ~ married DH 2006 ~ completed our family 2008
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While in theory it sounds great, I know it's not something I could do. There is no way I could stay home FT, particularly at reduced pay. If it was full pay, then I might consider it but I would probably still not do the full year. I'm just not SAHM material.
HELLS YES.
I took my maximum 12 weeks, only 1/2 of that was paid, and if I could even take a year at NO PAY and have my job waiting for me if I wanted to go back, I'd absolutely love that security. Let alone if I were getting paid during that time, double yes.
I guess I should mention, that you may get topped up to your full salary, depending on your employer. Mine tops us up to 100% pay for 6 weeks which is abysmal, IMO. I've heard of some employers that do 6 months, and some that do the full year (only the federal government on the latter).
For me, the cut in pay isn't too serious, that $1600 pays our mortgage, and then we live off DH's pay for everything else. We don't have scads of money, certainly, but it's manageable and worth it for us. In my case, it's my pension that suffers.... I am eligible to retire after 25 years, but each mat. leave adds a year unless you buy it back. I bought back the first year, but won't be buying back the second.
I don't think pre-mommy me would have signed up for 12 months off but may have opted for six months off and maybe an additional six months part time. Or, more realistically since I was pretty job focused, six months of part-time after 8 weeks mat leave.
Now, as long as I could have my job back at the end, I'd probably take the 12 months with or without pay of some degree.
No, I don't think I would take a full year. That's just too long to be out of the office and I can't imagine trying to get back into a work routine after so much time. As it is, I have taken 12 weeks with each of my kids but also worked from home those 12 weeks. I thought that was really nice since I was still in contact and doing work things and then I didn't feel so out of it when I came back.
I think part of me would worry as well that if my office could do without me for an entire year wouldn't they then perhaps realize they don't need me at all?
Kelly, Mom to Christopher Shannon 9.27.06, Catherine Quinn 2.24.09, Trey Barton lost on 12.28.09, Therese Barton lost on 6.10.10, Joseph Sullivan 7.23.11, and our latest, Victoria Maren 11.15.12
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Heck no.
I took 10 weeks mat leave with DD, it was plenty. Then I went back to work part time.
If I have another baby, I will take 8-10 weeks off again, and then come back part time.
I have noooooooo desire at all to SAH.
I'd probably do the 6 months and then 6 months at part time like others mentioned. I took close to 5 months with DS and LOVED it, but we traveled to England and did some other fun stuff while I was 'off'. I'd love to do the same again. But I think by a year I'd be really out of the loop at work/my field since software changes so quickly, unless I was really proactive in staying in the look while on leave.
In a heartbeat.
We can handle the pay cut and knowing that my job was secured would make me enjoy my leave. I can't imagine myself being a f/t SAHM but a year would have been great. I miss my maternity leave...sigh.
This is exactly! Now, I would not be able to do it with no pay but partial pay no problem!
I would definitely take a year long maternity leave if 100% or even 80% of my salary was paid. I'm from Australia and I have had friends who were lucky to take 50 wks off with 100% pay. In this situation, knowing what i know now, I'd use some of that money to take my kids to classes, or heck drop off at daycare a few times a week while I napped and cleaned the house. To be honest with you, I think 12 wks (8 paid) was too short for me. I would LOVE to take 5-6 months off with most of my salary if that was offered. If most of my salary wasnt offered then I wouldnt definitely not do it. I'm not cut out to be a SAHM and have no pay, but I could do it if I had extra money to do fun stuff with my kids. I'm just not creative enough to keep me and my child from being bored.
I have friends who are SAHM's. The ones whose husbands make 6 figures, or they have a nice savings account and come from money have a grand old time. They take their kids to all sorts of classes, and even take time off to go to the gym or relax while their kids attend part time daycare. They don't worry about finances. The SAHMs who live on DH's $60K or less are abviously more careful with money and rarely leave the house. Their kids watch TV all day long, or when its nice go to the park alot.
What is interesting is that the vast majority of women in Canada take the full year. And it doesn't hurt our careers in the least.
I think it's easy to say no to something you don't have the option of doing. I think the answers would be different if many of these posters lived in Canada.
I certainly don't think you would stay home for a year. I didn't state that 100% of all women in Canada stay home for the full year.
I do think the answers would be different if many of these posters lived in Canada. I stand by that.
It is difficult to find a daycare that accepts infants here which also makes a difference too. If you want to go back early you pretty much need a nanny or do an unlicensed in-home. Again, I don't know anyone who has gone back more than a few months early unless their Dh took paternity leave. Exceptions are those own their own businesses.
We've actually talked about moving back to England so I could stay at home if we have #3, i'm on the fence at this point about whether I'd want to stay at home for a year, forever, or not at all. I like my job too much at this point.
I think it is much more about the work-culture in different countries....I know a lot of people in the UK that work on 1 year 'coverage' contracts covering for maternity leaves sort of thing. But here it's not that easy since so much is tied to your job like health insurance, retirement plans/pensions, etc. It's not just the maternity leave, but the entire 'what working means and how it impacts your life' sort of thing.
1) If I got my entire salary and free time off? Damn straight I would take a year off. But being a SAHM wouldn't be the reason. The reason would be totally so i could f-off for a year.
2) "Vast Majority" is very close to 100%. You said vast majority.
But I agree with you. It is very hard for women to deal with stigma and shame about wanting to be working women with children when the "vast majority" of mothers take a year off and promote the idea that it is the best thing for a child to have a mother at home for the first year. Thank goodness we have different perspectives here.
3) I am sure it is hard to find a daycare. It is the same in other countries that do things similarly. Just to turn it around, perhaps less Canadian women would take a full year off if they actually had the ability and resources to return to work earlier......
Jen - Mom to Jillian (10/2008) and Hayden (4/2010)
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I am not looking at the reasons women stay home (shouldn't have thrown in the point re: daycare). I am stating my experience. In working in the corporate world for close to 15 years I knew almost no one who returned more than a few months early. Including VP level. No career suicide here. I stand my my assessment that if the same poster lived in Canada, her answer may be different than if she lives in the US.
I actually returned early, after 10 months. No one gave me a hard time for it.
In my school district, we have the option of taking a year off and coming back to our same position and up to 2 years w/a job guaranteed but not necessarily the same position.We are not paid for any of that time (other than accrued sick time). If I could afford to take 1 or 2 years, I would without thinking twice.
Aside from wanting to spend the time w/DS it would be so much easier to ebf...I made it a year pumping at work but it was a struggle and DS struggled to gain weight because he refused a bottle. I don't think the US values this as other countries do.
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