The campaign groups, The Dad Shift and Movember, said hundreds of thousands of families were falling apart as a result of a parental leave system described by MPs as one of the worst in the developed world. A survey commissioned by the groups found that 69% of single parents said the UK's two-week, low-pay paternity leave made it harder to share parental responsibility, exacerbating gender inequalities.
In the UK, Statutory Maternity Pay is paid for up to 39 of those 52 weeks. For the first six weeks, you get 90% of your average weekly earnings (before tax) and then £187.18 or 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is lower) for the next 33 weeks. The final 13 of those 52 weeks are unpaid.
One of my late mother's widowed friends made the comment, "Finally I can have a scrambled egg for dinner. I'm never making another meatloaf again." And this was a woman who had loved her husband and had a pretty good marriage. Her grown kids were upset that when they came home to visit, "Mama isn't cooking anymore!" Yeah, Mama didn't care.
It's late. I want to go to bed, but instead I'm picking up popsicle sticks and wrappers. I was always taught to leave the place better than I found it. I'm not expecting anyone to fold laundry or scrub floors. But I do expect the mess made during the evening to be taken care of, especially when my kids have been asleep for over two hours.
For all the talk from employers who claim to understand the needs of working parents, childcare benefits remain elusive in many workplaces. Surveys have repeatedly shown that employees strongly value these benefits, which can run the gamut from childcare subsidies to backup care options. As working parents have demanded more from their employers, these perks have grown in popularity in certain workplaces, alongside more generous parental leave policies. But the companies that offer childcare benefits are still in the minority.
My wife and I have two kids, boys aged 4 and 6. I'm very happy with our family as it is. The kids are both out of diapers and in school all day. They're sleeping, we're sleeping. I feel like we've got a handle on this thing. But now my wife is saying she wants another one. She's 40, I'm 45-it's not totally out of the realm of possibility that we could have another one.
When I told people I was taking more than eight months of parental leave, the main reactions I got were: What are you going to do with all that time? and won't you get bored? These questions came from every direction including health professionals involved in my wife's pregnancy and the arrival of our second child. More than halfway through my leave, I've been reflecting on what good parental leave looks like:
