Vaterschaftsurlaub ist veraltet und ungleich, sagen Abgeordnete
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crmk07jyjmxo
Von Alert-One-Two
Vaterschaftsurlaub ist veraltet und ungleich, sagen Abgeordnete
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crmk07jyjmxo
Von Alert-One-Two
43 Kommentare
Happy this is on the table for discussion. Society has moved but the way we treat new fathers – and by extension the modern family unit and how it has to operate – has not. My own workplace gives 2 weeks leave, one of which is on statutory pay, just as an example.
We had the introduction of shared parental leave recently.
This is currently Voluntary but it needs to be made compulsory for all employers to offer.
I will have had 5 months leave by the time my daughter reaches one I actually feel like an equal parent.
It is absolutely bonkers that paternity leave is so short. I’m due to give birth in mid October and the prospect of my husband having to go back to work after only two weeks is quite frightening.
Other dads I know have decided to take all their annual leave at once just to make sure they can have a good month to 6 weeks at home with their new baby, but they shouldn’t have to do that.
Anyone else happy to stay at work away from the chaos or is it just me?
If ever a business or government wanted to close the gender pay gap, equalising maternity and paternity pay terms would probably be the single biggest change they could make to achieve it.
Paternity leave does need up hauling. Especially for Same sex married couples that adopt or do IVF.
Men do need more time adjusting to having a newborn at home as well. Two weeks isn’t enough. Let the family bond with their new addition.
Had my daughter 8 months ago.
Whilst my wife is the primary care giver, I am up in the night to feed and the one who gets up with the baby when she wakes for the day at 5am etc.
The point being, I am involved far more than my father and his father would ever have been and yet, I received approximately the same paternity leave entitlement.
I am also sick of hearing „you can share your partner’s maternity leave“, yes I can, but in the majority of situations due to breastfeeding etc, it’s not an efficient option for most families.
Needs to be so much more, my husband going back after two weeks was so terrifying and hard. Obviously we all end up managing it but I couldn’t believe whilst I still couldn’t sit down properly and was heavily bleeding 24/7, in agony constantly, and emotional & hormonally wrecked, that I was being left to care for a new born baby all on my own.
I feel it should be 6 months for both, and then another 6 months for either parent to choose to stay home.
Paternity is woeful in this country. 2 weeks is just not enough. By wife will have a planned C section. Her recovery will be much longer than 2 weeks.
I actually think maternity leave and pay is nowear near enough either. We are asking parents to put babies into child care from such an early age or basically give up work. Soooo financial hardship either way.
Not to mention how crap statutory maternity pay is. During covid the government was happy to realise that people needed somthing close to their actual normal pay levels during furlough to meet their financial commitments.
Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP) is paid for up to 39 weeks. You get:
* 90% of your average weekly earnings (before tax) for the first 6 weeks
* £187.18 or 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is lower) for the next 33 weeks
fuck the mortgage and bills I suppose.
No wonder people arent having children.
I got two weeks’ pay leave and planned to take my remaining two weeks’ annual leave immediately after. My A/L request was declined.
Yes. Wtf is 2 weeks going to do? How are you supposed to get to know your child in 2 weeks?
It isn’t long enough
Taking annual leave isn’t right answer either that should be spaced throughout the year to get adequate breaks.
We may be having a child soon – I am hoping to take 2 weeks unpaid leave and the 2 weeks paternity leave
I get 12 weeks and that should be the norm by minimum.
Its better to have two people at home in those early months. Mother has to breastfeed, good fathers wake up at night or change diapers. Chores around house can’t be split or put on the mother. Running house helps if two people are home and father helps out more with this if hes not working and still getting paid.
Plus stops that shitty boss thing of not hiring young married women ‘cose they get pregnant and go on maternity’
I’ve not much faith in anything changing, They’ll probably just reduce Maternity leave to match instead of increasing anything.
I wasnt entitled to take any paternity at all! I got made redundant whilst my partner was pregnant, found a new job, and couldn’t take paternity as I hasn’t been in my current job long enough. Had to use 3 weeks annual leave instead. Ridiculous system.
I’d say both paternity and maternity pay aren’t great in this country. Unless you have got an employer that tops up pay it’s not really sustainable
Great. The UK is way behind on this. The Nordic countries in particular are way ahead, none of which are economically poor countries or unproductive countries (which is where the arguments against this typically arise).
I get that dads don’t need as long off to physically recover like mum does, but any decent husband and father would want to be *be there to help her* while mum recovers. He would want to see his child, care for his child, and share the early burden of “holy shit, we have a kid now” with mum equally.
Millions of decent dads are also trying to pull their weight (night feeds, etc) while also working full time. It’s not fair and it’s not healthy.
The setup we have means that dads don’t get to be as present as any (decent) one would like, and mums are burned out doing all the immediate care themselves alone at home while also recovering from one of the riskiest medical events of their lives.
Literally everybody wins if paternity leave is increased. They shouldn’t have to share the leave with the mum either – they should just get more leave straight up.
I don’t want this to come off as bragging, the company I work for offers 6 months of full paternity pay.
The time I had with my daughter will likely be the best time of my life.
2 weeks is abysmal for dad, mum and baby. I couldn’t imagine leaving my partner, who had a C-Section and still couldn’t fully move around after 2 weeks and go back to work? There needs to be some serious change and update to the social contract.
Equalising this would help to equalise the gender pay gap.
But the reality is, whomever earns the most in a family unit (which is still sadly usually the man) is going to be the one that „keeps“ his career, whilst the other has to put theirs on hold.
I got 20 weeks and it’s absolutely baffling to me that this isn’t the norm. I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to spend so much time early on with both my children but something needs to be changed. It’s a net win for society but something that will get zero votes politically so I dunno how you’d start to push for change.
12 weeks should be the minimum.
The country stops in it’s tracks when WFA is removed from homeowners with disposable income but new parent’s are given the bare minimum. Almost went into debt because of the extortionate increase in heating costs when having a baby in winter.
2 weeks is barely enough time for new mothers to heal especially if they’ve had a C-section or significant tears so it’s very daunting to think about fathers leaving for work. We are very behind other European countries and should be given at least 3
months paternity and increase the maternity pay. It’s never been more expensive to have children and austerity has only made it worse.
All this talk about anti-immagration is ridiculous when the country has done very little to encourage young people to start families.
Equalize maternity and paternity leave – atleast 3 monthly full pay for all new parents
It’ll benefit bonds between fathers and children
Increase birth rates within working families
Help with equality in the work place
Until it is economically viable to have a one-income household with children again, this will always be an impossible problem to solve.
How about Sweden’s 480 days to share between parents as they wish? You can use it until the child is 4 and can even save 96 days to use up until the child is 12!
Father of 2 born by caesarian here. The recovery for c section is a minimum of 6 weeks, so why is the legal minimum leave for birth partners not that?
My missus is about to pop any moment. I feel genuinely lucky that my employer gives me 4 weeks of paternity leave, but after that I’m having to use my annual leave (of which I’ve not used a day since September to plan for this) so I can spend some time being helpful in those early weeks. I can’t fathom how so many get only 2 weeks in this day and age
So much could have been avoided if this was equal in the first place
Another thing that needs to be considered as part of this conversation is that countries with good paternity rights have higher rates of breastfeeding. Having the father around to support the mother with the running of the house while she breastfeeds (which only she can do) is a significant help. Many UK families will choose to bottle feed instead as it removes all of the burden from the mother.
This isn’t an anti bottle-feeding post by the way as we chose to do it, but if the government is serious about getting more breastfeeding uptake then paternity rights are ironically one of the best ways to do that.
I was shocked when I found out Fathers only get 2 weeks.. like no wonder new mothers feel incredibly isolated and alone like the f 😭
Hopefully now when men get discriminated against for having time off for a baby, the law will get changed to stop that crap happening.
Makes me very grateful for my employer, my wife and I are in the early stages of family planning, and I’m entitled to 6 months full pay paternity, which will (hopefully) be very much appreciated.
Some of the worst in Europe, don’t have to compare to the nordics to see how bad it is. In Spain, fathers have to take a mandatory 6 weeks after the child is born to ease the burden on the mother, and both parents each get a total of 16 weeks full pay by law.
The UK is so far behind Europe on most social policies that it is embarrassing, it’s the America of Europe.
I can remember my wife complaining that I fell asleep on the sofa every night when I got home.
But we split the night in half so I got up the second half then I would go work. I was also having to fit in my postgraduate in thay time and try to keep up excersise.
Tiered was an understatement, he two and sleeps most nights but I still feel chronically tiered.
Fathers are treated horribly and nobody cares.
When I took my little girl for her vaccinations (that her mum had booked), the nurse refused to do it as her mum wasn’t in the room with me.
She made me call my wife in front of her so she could verify we had the mum’s permission.
We’re happily married and there was no reason at all to do this.
My wife was fuming and made a complaint to the surgery manager.
Government coming up with novel ways to hurt our wages and wallets.
My employer gave me two weeks. I had to save every day off to stretch that to 6 weeks in total. Im glad I did but the experience definitely felt unfair. To me because I wanted to spend more time with my new baby. And to my wife who had to take on a lot more of the primary care giving after this.
They need to do something. Birth rates are terrible in my wee clique, most have stopped at one if they’ve had any.
I was lucky to get a good chunk of fully paid leave and I took holiday leave on top but it was still fairly short to be going back to work and be expected to be productive while getting no sleep, putting most of the burden on my wife and being terrified of the little potato in our house
Stop dodging the issue of SMP being half the minimum wage.
It depends on the father. My ex used the time to sleep, game, abuse us, and cheat on me..
My current partner was amazing.
I was lucky enough to get 6 weeks, which I was able to split into 2. I absolutely needed those initial 4 weeks, as did my wife, because even after week 4 everything is still so new and raw. You do some crazy things, like stay up all night to ensure the wife and baby are safe in whatever position gets them both sleep. You go for walks in the pram at 5am because the baby only settles down from screaming when in the pram. You are on standby to wash and clean sick wherever it may land, washing muslins and sheets almost constantly.
Honestly, even that didn’t feel like enough. A year of maternity still doesn’t feel like enough because a 1 year old is still so young and in need of care. Before kids I occasionally questioned why people took career breaks to look after children, but now I totally get it. Hell, one inconvenience at work and I almost quit to be a stay-at-home dad.
This absolutely needs to be overhauled. I’d also give 18 months maternity as an option, and job protection for parents to ensure they can step back into work without worrying about being rusty or not being favoured.
Of course they say this now I’m done having children.
Obviously I’m glad for the future this may finally get reviewed.