Maternity leave in the US - what do you think is reasonable?

[Anonymous]

If we could completely change the FMLA system in the U.S. what do you think is reasonable?

Personally, I think 12 weeks leave is on the short side of reasonable. My infant was sleeping longer stretches at 8 weeks and I was beginning to feel cabin-feverish.

I think we should have 16 weeks of paid leave. I think that is more than reasonable. If you don't use all 16 weeks at once, you can keep the leave for sick days.

I was blessed with a terrible sleeper. By 9 months we were at our wits end. I would have killed for more flexible hours or just 1 day off a week to catch up on sleep/errands, etc. Thus, I also think that in general there should be at least 2 weeks of sick leave on top of 2 weeks of vacation leave. Since having kids, I have ended up maxing out sick leave pretty much every year which takes away from much-needed vacation time.

In other words, I think if leave was more generous all around, it would relieve a lot of burden on new parents.

[Anonymous]

I think that 12 weeks is usually fine for a healthy baby, especially for a mother who is going back to a white collar professional job. People in manual labor jobs have it harder, but that is true in things other than maternity leave as well. The bigger problem is making sure there is enough affordable, high-quality daycare available.

I wouldn't be opposed to two weeks of sick/personal leave and two weeks of vacation for everyone, not just people with small children since everyone would like to be able to take a day off here and there without burning their only time off , but we have never allowed the government to dictate vacation/sick leave policies in general in this country. I don't see the current electorate voting into office a majority that would be in favor of that kind of government intervention.

[Anonymous]

16 weeks sounds good. But under your plan, who pays for it, OP? Unfortunately many employers, especially small ones, just don't have the funds to pay someone who isn't working. If you expect the government to pay, are you comfortable with the higher taxes this would require, like in European countries? I'd like to have free healthcare and a new car too, but the money has to come from somewhere.

Honestly, I think that women who are of childbearing age, along with their partners, should sock away money long BEFORE getting pregnant to cover their leave. Obviously those who are truly low-income and won't be able to do this, and there should be provisions made to help in that situation, but I bet you 90% of the women on DCUM who are outraged about the lack of unpaid leave could have skipped a few dinners out or pairs of shoes along the way, and over time saved up 16 weeks of salary. That's what we did, and we are by NO means wealthy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If we could completely change the FMLA system in the U.S. what do you think is reasonable?

Personally, I think 12 weeks leave is on the short side of reasonable. My infant was sleeping longer stretches at 8 weeks and I was beginning to feel cabin-feverish.

I think we should have 16 weeks of paid leave. I think that is more than reasonable. If you don't use all 16 weeks at once, you can keep the leave for sick days.

I was blessed with a terrible sleeper. By 9 months we were at our wits end. I would have killed for more flexible hours or just 1 day off a week to catch up on sleep/errands, etc. Thus, I also think that in general there should be at least 2 weeks of sick leave on top of 2 weeks of vacation leave. Since having kids, I have ended up maxing out sick leave pretty much every year which takes away from much-needed vacation time.

In other words, I think if leave was more generous all around, it would relieve a lot of burden on new parents.

OP, when are you going to grow up and realize that your employer is not your parents, or your husband, or anyone else who has an obligation or even a need to make your life perfect? Quit your whining and be thankful that you have a job. No one cares about your terrible sleeper. They care about the job tha you are able to do for the company. If you can't hack it, you can't hack it. You should have thought about that before having kids.

[Anonymous]

up to 12 months leave.

50% pay for first 6 months, then 25% pay for up to 6 more.

applies to employers with 75 or more employees if employed for at least 1 year. for those not qualified, federal government pays 25% salary for up to 12 months, maxing out at $1,000/month. Unemployed people get paid zero.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:16 weeks sounds good. But under your plan, who pays for it, OP? Unfortunately many employers, especially small ones, just don't have the funds to pay someone who isn't working. If you expect the government to pay, are you comfortable with the higher taxes this would require, like in European countries? I'd like to have free healthcare and a new car too, but the money has to come from somewhere.

Honestly, I think that women who are of childbearing age, along with their partners, should sock away money long BEFORE getting pregnant to cover their leave. Obviously those who are truly low-income and won't be able to do this, and there should be provisions made to help in that situation, but I bet you 90% of the women on DCUM who are outraged about the lack of unpaid leave could have skipped a few dinners out or pairs of shoes along the way, and over time saved up 16 weeks of salary. That's what we did, and we are by NO means wealthy.

I'm in Quebec and it is the government(well, us actually!) who pays for maternity leave, not the employers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we could completely change the FMLA system in the U.S. what do you think is reasonable?

Personally, I think 12 weeks leave is on the short side of reasonable. My infant was sleeping longer stretches at 8 weeks and I was beginning to feel cabin-feverish.

I think we should have 16 weeks of paid leave. I think that is more than reasonable. If you don't use all 16 weeks at once, you can keep the leave for sick days.

I was blessed with a terrible sleeper. By 9 months we were at our wits end. I would have killed for more flexible hours or just 1 day off a week to catch up on sleep/errands, etc. Thus, I also think that in general there should be at least 2 weeks of sick leave on top of 2 weeks of vacation leave. Since having kids, I have ended up maxing out sick leave pretty much every year which takes away from much-needed vacation time.

In other words, I think if leave was more generous all around, it would relieve a lot of burden on new parents.

OP, when are you going to grow up and realize that your employer is not your parents, or your husband, or anyone else who has an obligation or even a need to make your life perfect? Quit your whining and be thankful that you have a job. No one cares about your terrible sleeper. They care about the job tha you are able to do for the company. If you can't hack it, you can't hack it. You should have thought about that before having kids.

??? OP is not complaining. She said, "If we could completely change the FMLA system in the U.S. what do you think is reasonable?" It's a question about what people would want. It's a reasonable question. Many countries offer paid maternity leave, some up to a year. OP is curious. I've thought about it many times myself, because I work for the federal government and therefore get no paid maternity leave (rather, I must use my annual leave and LWOP for maternity time off) (as a federal employee I don't qualify for disability like others do.)

I think four months is adequate to get the baby nearly sleeping through the night and on a reasonable schedule. One thing that killed me the first few months back to work (I burned my leave the first 4 weeks and went on 2 months LWOP after that) was that my baby got conjunctivitis several times within the first few months, so I had to take leave I didn't have.

[Anonymous]

Here it's 18 weeks at 70% of your salary, not including the 5 weeks for your husband(70% as well), then for the 32 remaining weeks, the first 7 are paid at 70% of your salary and the 25 left at 55%.

[Anonymous]

12 weeks paid leave sounds about right, excluding sick leave, so if a parent has an unusual situation, they should get to take their accrued leave after the standard 12 paid weeks.

[Anonymous]

I would LOVE to have the 1 year of mat leave that parents get where I'm from (Canada). Handing over a baby at such a young age (8 or 12 weeks) to someone else to care for, is too young. The longer duration helps immensely, and is such a blessing to see one's little one go through and reach the various milestones. Well, I can only imagine and see the benefit from friends and family back home who did get at least that time off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If we could completely change the FMLA system in the U.S. what do you think is reasonable?

Personally, I think 12 weeks leave is on the short side of reasonable. My infant was sleeping longer stretches at 8 weeks and I was beginning to feel cabin-feverish.

I think we should have 16 weeks of paid leave. I think that is more than reasonable. If you don't use all 16 weeks at once, you can keep the leave for sick days.

I was blessed with a terrible sleeper. By 9 months we were at our wits end. I would have killed for more flexible hours or just 1 day off a week to catch up on sleep/errands, etc. Thus, I also think that in general there should be at least 2 weeks of sick leave on top of 2 weeks of vacation leave. Since having kids, I have ended up maxing out sick leave pretty much every year which takes away from much-needed vacation time.

In other words, I think if leave was more generous all around, it would relieve a lot of burden on new parents.

OP, when are you going to grow up and realize that your employer is not your parents, or your husband, or anyone else who has an obligation or even a need to make your life perfect? Quit your whining and be thankful that you have a job. No one cares about your terrible sleeper. They care about the job tha you are able to do for the company. If you can't hack it, you can't hack it. You should have thought about that before having kids.

Nobody cares about you - bitch. You are a bitch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:up to 12 months leave.

50% pay for first 6 months, then 25% pay for up to 6 more.

applies to employers with 75 or more employees if employed for at least 1 year. for those not qualified, federal government pays 25% salary for up to 12 months, maxing out at $1,000/month. Unemployed people get paid zero.

That's amazing

[Anonymous]

I don't think the government or the employer should be responsible for providing ANY paid leave, honestly. People choose to have children, that should not have any effect on their employer and their need to run their business.

IMO allowing the parent to use whatever sick leave/vacation time is reasonable. Anything else (even unpaid) is beyond generous.

[Anonymous]

20 weeks, full pay, for any new parent. Gov't funded.

Where I'm from, it's about a year, at a percentage of pay (50%?), per family. It is almost exclusively taken by women, as it is here. There needs to be policies which don't penalize higher-earning partners from taking the leave.

[Anonymous]

I think unpaid FMLA is fine. The longer you wait to put your baby in daycare, the harder it will be. If you want to stay a home, be a stay at home mom, but this long-ass, paid for leave will just never be politically viable in this country, period. And guess what, the European countries are finding that they cannot afford it either.