Reply to How much unpaid leave would you take?

Forum Index » Expectant and Postpartum Moms

Reply to "How much unpaid leave would you take?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m the primary breadwinner by a lot and had 6 weeks paid leave and 11 weeks unpaid leave for both kids. I would have taken more unpaid leave if it was permitted. My first was not sleeping well when I went back to work at about 4 months and it was really hard. My second was sleeping great at that time and I was working from home then and it was much easier to go back at 4 months. [/quote]

Similar here. My husband and I make equal amounts (HHI around 700K) and with my first kid I was able to take 22 weeks - only 2 unpaid (but husband took no paternity leave and I was the primary parent, so it was actually the toughest), with my second I only took 13 - and that was all my vacation plus STD  plus parental leave - my boss got fired right before I left and I didn't feel comfortable enough to take more than 13 weeks - our Corporate Secretary even commented that I was "taking a lot of time" (this weirdly worked out well since I was remote and husband was also remote and we had a nanny with our older child who could pitch in during my mat leave when our older child was in preschool), and with my third I'm taking 26 weeks all paid, but splitting my time into two because I'm having the baby at a very busy time. I'm doing 6 weeks STD (but will still be on email and working for the last 3-4 weeks) and then working twelve weeks and then taking 20 weeks, although I'm going to Europe and Nashville for short work trips during that time. Not ideal, but I will be remote the entire time and my husband has 20 weeks of paternity leave, so he will be able to help during the 12 weeks that I am going to be on. It sucks that I have divide my leave up, but this is where I am in my career. I've fought extremely hard to get where I am and I'm also going to be 14 months into my role when I give birth, so for optics and everything else I need to take this route. I'm very lucky in that feeding has been easy for me with my babies and I physically, emotionally, and mentally bounce back very fast during the postpartum period, but I would never suggest this to a first time mom who doesn't have a postpartum period beeline.

I think 16 weeks is a great amount of time and I probably wouldn't take more than 2 or 3 weeks more PTO, if any. I know this may be unpopular, but I would also read the room at work when it comes to leave. If you worked at Deloitte or a Big 4 which gives women 6 months of leave than I would say go for it, but I've worked places where it was not common for people to go over the allotted leave -- and if you do you get a lot of snarky comments. I would just brace yourself if you're taking more time than average, because it may be frowned upon. I know that technically no one can say anything, but people definitely make assumptions - especially if you are early in your career or if you are fairly new. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics