Should men get paternity leave from work?

iuangina

Who in the h#@$ did you reproduce with? I guess some women just don't know how to pick a good dad

Only if they are to sign a contract which states that they will really help with the taking care of the baby and house during the time off. Write a duty log which the wife signs off each day.... LOL...

marieautumn

As soon as your wife gives birth, you lose all rights in the relationship. Nothing you do, not even 3 tours in Iraq can compare to giving birth.

childbirth is not fun by any means...but its not THAT bad.

s1lence

I believe that the men should have paternity leave as well. When my son was born my husband was only allowed three days, and he had to take those out of his vacation in order to help me and to adjust to the new schedule. I worked at a place that had less than 50 employees and no medical insurance so nothing was covered, and I couldn't use sick or vacation time to cover my leave. I knew that I had a job when I went back but I still had to call almost everyday or my boss would call me to verify that I was coming back. The first few weeks were hard enough physically if my husband hadn't been there for the first few days I'm sure I would have either gone nuts, or over did it since I was suppose to be healing and I don't sit still very often.

skinnyjeansdiva

I think they should get a week or two possibly paid so they can bond with baby and help mom while she is recovering anything more than that can be unpaid I think they have fmla they can take

YummyTpn

I just want to say, YES, in answer to this question.
Here in Canada, a couple (if there is a couple) is given 12 months leave from work (with 80-85% pay covered by the federal government). This twelve months can be taken by either, or both parents. So, when my brother and his wife had their child, he took 6 months off and so did his wife, to equal twelve. Or, the mother can just take the twelve months, or, even the father can take the twelve months...I belive it's up to each couple.

When I had my daughter in the States, I was given 3 months mat leave, which I had used up before my daughter was even born (I had a very high-stress job that my doctor removed me from during the pregnancy). If I didn't have a husband, like I did, I have NO IDEA how I would've lived after that 3 months ran out...

As well, to only give a parent three months with a baby after it's born is ludicrous! At three months, babies are still so tiny and in need of being with their primary caregiver! As well, when I was down in the States, most daycare didn't accept babies until they were one year of age...So if a mom had to go back to work when her baby was 3 months old, and didn't have family to care for the baby, what the h. does she do? NO PARENT should be put in that situation!
Anyway, I am happy with the way it is here in Canada...it just seems like families are valued.
-END RANT-

wow 3 months here (the U.S) would be amazing! My youngest daughter got 6 weeks off last year and my middle daughter will get 12 weeks off this year with only 8 weeks paid. They both have to work to pay for unimportant things like health insurance, etc. We live in an insane country and if I could pick up all my loved ones and move.......I would!

We'd love to have you!

skinnyjeansdiva

As soon as your wife gives birth, you lose all rights in the relationship. Nothing you do, not even 3 tours in Iraq can compare to giving birth.

childbirth is not fun by any means...but its not THAT bad.

are you kidding? child birth can be horrible or great depending on what you have to go thru. for someone like me with toxemia and delivering early with NO pain medication I'd say it would not compare to anything else in the world then when your vagina rips and you feel it and they have to stich you back up oh yes, it's that bad. I can't beleive you would say that, you must not have children or you got an epidural

marieautumn

As soon as your wife gives birth, you lose all rights in the relationship. Nothing you do, not even 3 tours in Iraq can compare to giving birth.

childbirth is not fun by any means...but its not THAT bad.

are you kidding? child birth can be horrible or great depending on what you have to go thru. for someone like me with toxemia and delivering early with NO pain medication I'd say it would not compare to anything else in the world then when your vagina rips and you feel it and they have to stich you back up oh yes, it's that bad. I can't beleive you would say that, you must not have children or you got an epidural

actually i do have a child and he is five. like i said, its not fun at all, but its only a short term experience. i dont think its worse than being deployed to Iraq, but thats my opinion.

YummyTpn

So if the US were to offer the same options as Canada, what would that mean for us as taxpayers?

I've lived and worked in both the US and Canada, and I paid just as much tax in the US (Illinois)...without the social benefits.

fteale

I actually thought that paternity leave was originally intended to help with the care of the child and the mother's recovery (if necessary). Maybe I'm mistaken. If that's not the case, why would we also grant the same kind of leave in adoption situations?

I also thought it had to do with some kind of gender equity thing. Plus, who is supposed to take care of the newborn in a situation where two gay men use a surrogate if there is no paternity leave?

You can't be serious that men only get paternity leave to take care of the mother. That's just silly.

Paternity leave is not needed.

Child care is woman's work.

I have no idea if you are being serious or not, but that is a stupid thing to say. Men don't get paternity leave to look after the baby. They get it to look after the mother who will for the first few days (or weeks in a surgical birth) not be able to do anything. I was in hospital for 5 days when our son was born, and that was after 2 days of labour. So that was a week my husband need off for a start. Then I wasn't allowed to lift anything for another 2 weeks, including the baby I had just given birth to. I had metal staples in my abdomen literally holding my insides in, and couldn't walk more than 10m without heavy bleeding and being at risk of fainting.

Men should have a MINIMUM of 2 weeks off to make sure the mother of their child is well enough to start doing it on her own.

Well, actually, yes, that was the original reason for paternity leave. As I said in my first post, I think parental leave should be transferable between parents, and I think fathers should get more than they do.

When I say originally, I mean pre-equality bills and gay rights.

fteale

As soon as your wife gives birth, you lose all rights in the relationship. Nothing you do, not even 3 tours in Iraq can compare to giving birth.

childbirth is not fun by any means...but its not THAT bad.

are you kidding? child birth can be horrible or great depending on what you have to go thru. for someone like me with toxemia and delivering early with NO pain medication I'd say it would not compare to anything else in the world then when your vagina rips and you feel it and they have to stich you back up oh yes, it's that bad. I can't beleive you would say that, you must not have children or you got an epidural

actually i do have a child and he is five. like i said, its not fun at all, but its only a short term experience. i dont think its worse than being deployed to Iraq, but thats my opinion.

No one is qualified to comment on how bad or not anyone else's birth experience is. It is totally individual. I could make a huge amount of assumptions based on my own experiences of one very very traumatic crash c-section, involving a lot of blood loss and near fatally low blood pressure for the following 12 hours, and one absolute walk in the park, 4 hour natural labour with no pain relief. But I won't, because everyone is different.

Unless you have nearly died of blood lost, and nearly lost your baby from a traumatic birth, how can you compare?

ArroganceInStep

As soon as your wife gives birth, you lose all rights in the relationship. Nothing you do, not even 3 tours in Iraq can compare to giving birth.

childbirth is not fun by any means...but its not THAT bad.

are you kidding? child birth can be horrible or great depending on what you have to go thru. for someone like me with toxemia and delivering early with NO pain medication I'd say it would not compare to anything else in the world then when your vagina rips and you feel it and they have to stich you back up oh yes, it's that bad. I can't beleive you would say that, you must not have children or you got an epidural

actually i do have a child and he is five. like i said, its not fun at all, but its only a short term experience. i dont think its worse than being deployed to Iraq, but thats my opinion.

No one is qualified to comment on how bad or not anyone else's birth experience is. It is totally individual. I could make a huge amount of assumptions based on my own experiences of one very very traumatic crash c-section, involving a lot of blood loss and near fatally low blood pressure for the following 12 hours, and one absolute walk in the park, 4 hour natural labour with no pain relief. But I won't, because everyone is different.

Unless you have nearly died of blood lost, and nearly lost your baby from a traumatic birth, how can you compare?

*Because I like fanning flames*

The same could be said of doing a tour in Iraq.

Hell my friend was run over by a car when he was 8 and it took them 3 years to put him back together, so the same could be said for walking across the street.

k8blujay2

I don’t see why they would want it. You don’t get paid your full wage when you are out on maternity leave. I think its 65%, so if both parents take leave that is a 70% decrease in wages for the time they are out.
I guess if you can afford to do it then it’s a good idea, but I don’t think most people can.

Actually, that would still be a 35% wage decrease for their combined income...

tladame

I don’t see why they would want it. You don’t get paid your full wage when you are out on maternity leave. I think its 65%, so if both parents take leave that is a 70% decrease in wages for the time they are out.
I guess if you can afford to do it then it’s a good idea, but I don’t think most people can.

Actually, that would still be a 35% wage decrease for their combined income...

That's about what it would have been for me. So I just took 12 weeks of vacation time (luckily I had a lot of time saved up), while my husband was given 4 weeks paid paternity leave from his employer. He got a hell of a deal!

I probably did do most of the baby care in those first few weeks, but he was a huge help. Nothing's more beautiful than a man who's willing to change diapers. No way could I have done it alone!

Roni_M

They already have that option here in Canaduh. Mat leave is 52 weeks paid (capped percentage of your prior income and your job must be held for you while you're gone. Men can take paternity leave but however many weeks they take is deducted from the mother's 52 weeks.

That's because yer a pack damn dirty commies!

This is such an ignorant view of Canada. We are FAR from being commies, we just take better care of our people! We happen to value life, health, family, and education, and we all pay to have these supports. Jealous? You should be, because we have all this AND FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY!!!

Hmmm, ask the business owners who have to pay for all this federal overreach how much freedom they have when they are required by law to give employees 52 weeks off AND hold their jobs because they chose to have a baby.

I think a modest amount of paternity leave is a reasonable benefit for a company that seeks to attract and retain quality employees. I am not at all in favor of the government requiring it. That should be solely the decision of the person(s) who put everything on the line to build the business.

I am a small business owner. I understand your point. In fact, we just dealt with this issue. Small company, 4 employees who are essential to our daily operation. Our senior employee just had a baby and we were in a bit of a panic over what to do if he decided to take paternity leave. Although it's his right to do so, it would have crippled our company... he is very valuable to us (and treated as such). Luckily he just wanted a week to get his wife settled with their first baby. We were more than happy with his decision and worked it out with him so he wasn't without pay. For small companies this can create major issues. I don't begrudge a fathers right to spend time with their new baby, but the flip side is that trying to hire a "temp" licensed plumber would have been impossible!

mrshbrn

No I dont think men should get paternity leave. Why should they. They aren't carring the baby, they aren't feeding the baby, they dont need to recover as a mother does. Men have it easy.

marieautumn

As soon as your wife gives birth, you lose all rights in the relationship. Nothing you do, not even 3 tours in Iraq can compare to giving birth.

childbirth is not fun by any means...but its not THAT bad.

are you kidding? child birth can be horrible or great depending on what you have to go thru. for someone like me with toxemia and delivering early with NO pain medication I'd say it would not compare to anything else in the world then when your vagina rips and you feel it and they have to stich you back up oh yes, it's that bad. I can't beleive you would say that, you must not have children or you got an epidural

actually i do have a child and he is five. like i said, its not fun at all, but its only a short term experience. i dont think its worse than being deployed to Iraq, but thats my opinion.

No one is qualified to comment on how bad or not anyone else's birth experience is. It is totally individual. I could make a huge amount of assumptions based on my own experiences of one very very traumatic crash c-section, involving a lot of blood loss and near fatally low blood pressure for the following 12 hours, and one absolute walk in the park, 4 hour natural labour with no pain relief. But I won't, because everyone is different.

Unless you have nearly died of blood lost, and nearly lost your baby from a traumatic birth, how can you compare?

Sorry, you had such a bad experience. i had a beautiful delivery and i dont remember the pain as much as the happiness it brought.

ArroganceInStep

No I dont think men should get paternity leave. Why should they. They aren't carring the baby, they aren't feeding the baby, they dont need to recover as a mother does. Men have it easy.

I could make a whole bunch of sexist comments in response to this right now...but I like posting on this forum.

zoombie_bear

here in québec dads get 2wk paid from their boss
and the women can share her wks with them, we have 1y off paid with the kids,
it's fun to share

Dilfster

Im a stay at home dad right now so my answer is an obvious yes.

grinch031

No I dont think men should get paternity leave. Why should they. They aren't carring the baby, they aren't feeding the baby, they dont need to recover as a mother does. Men have it easy.

Very ignorant response here.