Poll: How long is your maternity leave?

QT3.14 · July 2014

mattanda2011 · July 2014

I have the summer off because I work at a school, and then I have 12 weeks from FMLA starting the day school starts. I get partial pay through disability pay from Aflac so I will be going back to work in the middle of November.

JulieSmiles · July 2014

I'm a teacher so I'm not taking any time off for maternity leave. We are on summer break so I will be returning at 8 1/2 weeks. Boo!

ricecakes1216 · July 2014

KrystaJ said:
I have up to 18 weeks with FMLA and washington state leave. Only 6 weeks of that is paid.

This exactly.

Pepper6 · July 2014

I'm taking 12 weeks off, but none of it is paid. I did have 3 weeks of vacation saved up, so that's all I'm getting paid for.

DH had 6 weeks of 100% paid paternity leave, today is his first day back at work.

b48kate · July 2014

In California...

6 weeks disability recovery (paid - prorated), 6 weeks CA Paid Family Leave (paid like disability), 6 weeks paid time off that I have saved at work. A total of 18.

When I return to work my husband will take a month of PFL.

At the end of my husband's leave I am going to move to part-time (2 12-hour shifts on the weekends) so that I can be home with LO M-F and my husband will watch him weekends. The goal is to avoid daycare until his first birthday...

jenn72178 · July 2014

I'm not paid at all but can take up to 12 weeks off and still have a job when I go back thanks to FMLA. I saved all my vacation/sick so was paid for 3 weeks and am taking 5 weeks unpaid (short term disability @ $165/week) for a total of 8 weeks out.

rainbowdashh · July 2014

I got 16 weeks with DD1. I need ended up going back.

kks4471 · July 2014

12 weeks. I had about 100 hours of ETO and 100 hours of ESL saved in my account. I chose to spread those hours throughout my leave, so I get paid 13 hours a week, rather than 40 hours.

sarahlynnc317 · July 2014

12 weeks with only 5 paid using my sick and vacation pay.

lest12 · July 2014

I voted SS. I took 9 full weeks of leave, and then I'll be home for another 14 weeks, working from home part-time. So, 23 weeks total but I'll have to log in here and there.

Working from home is not normally an option, so I'm lucky they're letting me do it during leave... with my company's policy (they give 4 weeks paid leave), working from home and my accrued PTO, I will get a full pay check until October, then oct & nov I'll just get paid the hours I work, which I feel like works out pretty well.

Confusing but I get to physically be home and get paid for 23 weeks! I feel pretty lucky.

nicolemcm · July 2014

I'm in the yay Canada boat

Returning late May next year

Mia081081 · July 2014

Technically i am getting 6 weeks off for STD, then 6 more unpaid. In reality, I work for a small startup with only 5 people and I'm the only designer. I've had to pitch in for project since week 3 and actually worked about 10 hours this week. I work from home.

Not ideal, but I was a huge slacker the last 2 months of my pregnancy so I sefinity owe then.

b48kate · July 2014

Canadians, I'm totally not jealous.

Okay, I admit it! I am!

katekat8721 · July 2014

16 weeks for me.

Bravo on a wonderful click poll! So many options!

babygabe614 · July 2014

8 weeks short term disability + 6 weeks NJ Family leave

twistsandturnsto2 · July 2014

None for me

no Pto, no benefits. Such is the life of a restaurant worker.

I am back to work now, but only one or two shifts a week until he gets a bit bigger and we can let the grandparents babysit more.

diagonalley · July 2014

I am also a teacher...so I took about 7 weeks to end the year since LO came early, get my summer off, and am taking the rest of my time (which ends up another 7 weeks, they let me go to the end of a month rather than cutting off at exactly 12 weeks) DS will be 5 months and a week when I go back!

Rei2metse · July 2014

12 weeks total. I had 3 weeks of vacation but used 2 of those weeks when I was placed on bed rest. I'm going to work 50hrs/ week when I return in September so I can take the holidays off to travel with the fam.

puttyeast · July 2014

I'm a SS because I'm a substitute teacher so I don't really have a leave. I'll work when the school year starts in September, but I'll just be easing back in and only doing part time (2-3 days a week)

DF has 12 weeks fully paid paternity leave. It's amazing!

kd&cd · July 2014

snuff9861 said:
A year at 55% of my pay. Yay Canada.

Same!!! Yay

b48kate · July 2014

On this topic..I thought this might be interesting. The National Partnership For Women and Families has actually assigned grades to the various states based on their maternity leave policies. You can find the whole report on their website.

k2k2tog · July 2014

Yay Canada! Except that I've decided to hear back to school for my masters in the fall and have already decided that I won't be returning to my full-time job.

BMaidPlanner · July 2014

13 weeks. 6 paid leave, 7 weeks vacation that I saved up and rolled over into this year before they changed the vacation policy! B-)

babyglo350 · July 2014

By the time I go back I will have been out for 13 weeks. 8 weeks paid (measley payments but money is money) from disability, 1 weeks paid vacation and the rest unpaid. However, I purposely put away my tax return money to help DH out during this so I could be with bubs as long as possible. I feel blessed to be able to do this.

liberty95 · July 2014

mattanda2011 said:
I have the summer off because I work at a school, and then I have 12 weeks from FMLA starting the day school starts. I get partial pay through disability pay from Aflac so I will be going back to work in the middle of November.

This is me exactly.

sumochik · July 2014

This may be unpopular but I took three weeks off before baby arrived. I'm not just a teacher I'm also chair of the math department and seriously needed a break before baby came. It was too much on my feet and so much work and our contract says we can start our leave when we hit 9 months. Then I hurt my back so that sealed the deal. I don't know how to say no I almost went back against my doc's and husband's wishes. Anyway there were three weeks of work after that, then 9 weeks of summer vacation. So 15 altogether but 12 with LO. And my principal seriously asked me to teach summer school... Cray.

catsinawindow · July 2014

Between paid maternity leave and personal days I get 8 weeks paid. I could take an additional 4 weeks unpaid but bc DH is a SAHD, that would be difficult financially.

MrsAy · July 2014

8 weeks STD + 6 weeks NJ Family Leave. Then I'll go back part time for the next 3 months and full time on January.

karing2 · July 2014

2 weeks before baby, 2 weeks after baby before summer vacation. 10 weeks of Summer vacation and the first 8 weeks of the school year for a grand total of 22 weeks. Seems like a lot but I know it will go really fast.

cas889 · July 2014

@sumochik‌ - I'm a math teacher, too!

I stopped working May 30th due to sciatic nerve pain and swelling. B was born 6/19 so I had almost 3 weeks off before. That was paid with my sick days and Aflac (and I just got my post-delivery check from them, too). In the fall, I'm taking the first marking period off, I'll get NJ family leave but that's it as far as money goes. Total time home with B will be about 20 weeks.

kimmyberly26 · July 2014

I'm a leave hoader so I have 12 wks paid. I'm taking 10 full weeks and then a month of only 3 days a week and back to full time in September. I only have one more full week of maternity leave. Boo!

misscarter87 · July 2014

kaysa2 said:
You're missing the option 'employer does not provide maternity leave, so I don't get any'. Cause that is totally the suckiness I have.

same here

Mom&nurse · July 2014

talon1226 said:
12 weeks FMLA but spent 4 weeks in the hospital before the baby so I only got 8 weeks home with her. Paid through a short term disability plan I purchased and my sick and vacation time.

Same here but I have not gone back due to issues medically. It's been 15 weeks so far

curlylocks3 · July 2014

I had 12 weeks FMLA but spent 7 on bedrest prior to delivering. They would have needed me back at 6 weeks exactly (aka as soon as I was medically cleared). At that point both babies would have been home less than a month! I realized that was not going to work for us. I would have needed to be back 6/17 and instead resigned nearly 2 months ago. I may or may not now refer to myself as the COO of our house. H just calls me "Chief".

nicolewhelan · July 2014

I am only taking 6 weeks unfortunately. I have a question too that's been bothering me about my leave that I just found out about because my HR girl is horrible!!!! So I had to take 2 weeks of vacation first then Short Term Disability kicks in for 4 weeks at 60%. After that if I want to take off it's unpaid. According to my FMLA paperwork though, I have to use ALL of my saved up PTO until it runs out. That means using it on top of my STD. So now when I go back to work I have ZERO PTO!!!

Did anyone else experience this? I find it insane, but I read my FMLA paperwork (finally) and saw this noted in there. Why would they do this to mom's when you know they are going to have a sick kid at some point or doctor's appointments. Now I have no time off to deal with this. It's noted in the paperwork that it's state law (Georgia) but my girl friend didn't have to do this. WTF??

Anyone else experience this? It looks like several of you got to do what I wanted to do, use vacation after STD ended. But now I feel like I have been screwed.

chickpea912 · July 2014

I don't think my workplace actually qualifies for FMLA, but my plan was to take a full 12 weeks, partially paid for with some money through work (we worked out some sort of maternity leave situation when M was born four years ago - I'm the first full time professional to have a baby) and through vacation I had left. I ended up taking 10 weeks full leave, last week and this week (weeks 11 and 12) I'm working part-time, and next week I go back "full time" (but it's still summer and I have to pick M up at 4, so it's not really even going to be full time.

And S is coming to work with me for a bit.

Brittnic531 · July 2014

nicolewhelan said:

I am only taking 6 weeks unfortunately. I have a question too that's been bothering me about my leave that I just found out about because my HR girl is horrible!!!! So I had to take 2 weeks of vacation first then Short Term Disability kicks in for 4 weeks at 60%. After that if I want to take off it's unpaid. According to my FMLA paperwork though, I have to use ALL of my saved up PTO until it runs out. That means using it on top of my STD. So now when I go back to work I have ZERO PTO!!!

Did anyone else experience this? I find it insane, but I read my FMLA paperwork (finally) and saw this noted in there. Why would they do this to mom's when you know they are going to have a sick kid at some point or doctor's appointments. Now I have no time off to deal with this. It's noted in the paperwork that it's state law (Georgia) but my girl friend didn't have to do this. WTF??

Anyone else experience this? It looks like several of you got to do what I wanted to do, use vacation after STD ended. But now I feel like I have been screwed.

I went through something similar, except my workplace doesn't offer short-term disability. I qualified for FMLA but if I wanted to get paid, I had to use my PTO, as they don't offer a maternity leave. I actually went back after 5 weeks because I didn't have any more PTO and we can't afford for me not to be paid (I also carry our insurance). I still accumulated sick time and vacation while I was off since I was getting paid, but it won't really kick in until next month because of how it's set up, so I'll start having days again soon if I need them. So sorry! I know how much it sucks.

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