DH reckons it's not a serious plan - just the government's way of distracting parents' attention from the whole childminding thing, so they put their efforts into protesting against that and forget about us
But to the people who think maternity leave is too long, I might be wrong but I'm just guessing you feel that way because it doesn't affect you...
I am pregnant at the moment and have a 2.5 year old and the thought of having to leave either of my babies with a childminder at 4 months old makes me want to cry - I think it would have killed me.
So I wonder if you'd feel differently if it was directly affecting you.
But has affected me in the past. I had to decide whether to go back to work when my chiildren were 3 months old, or fund myself to stay off longer, which is what I did.
Why should you expect tax payers to pay for you to stay off work until you feel able to leave your child? Why do you not feel you need to save your own money if you want to take longer maternity leave?
I have 7 children and yes i took paid maternity leave after my 6th child but is that not what we pay our stamps for !!!! i was pregnant again 4 month later and took another paid maternity leave.i have worked as a childminder for 13 yr and barely had a break and my husband is an engineer.we are not working the system we both pay taxes and NI and support ourselves and our family.DONT JUDGE US BECAUSE WE ARE A LARGE FAMILY.we are as much entitled to maternity pay for our family as anyone else who works and pays their contributions
Well for one thing, because I have paid tax for at least 10 years, and for another thing, that's the way tax works - it's like saying to someone who fell off their horse "why should you expect tax payers to pay for your operation when it was your choice to ride the horse". It's all swings and roundabouts with tax.
And I have never ever in my life claimed any benefits and have been lucky (touch wood) to not have cost the NHS too much. So I don't feel at all guilty for claiming my full maternity entitlement.
It did affect me just 20 years ago!! I don't understand what you are trying to say? I had 6 weeks at 90% pay and then 6 weeks Star Mat Leave. I was allowed to take a total of 29 weeks after the birth off so the difference between 29 and 6, 23 weeks was un paid and if you wanted it off like I did I had to save before hand to do that. At that stage i still had a job to go back to. If I had had any more time off I would have had to look for a new job.
No I don't feel any differently because it did affect me. I was happier though because dd settled in very quickly with her cm. As an experienced cm of 18 years now I know that if I can have a child of no older than 6mths they will just about always settle much more quickly than one of 9mth to a year old.
I think that it's important for mothers to have the opportunity to have a decent amount of time off, and I think they should still have a job to go back to at the end of it (although I often think that they should have to let their employer know in good time if they intend on returning or not.)
The start of a babies life is so important, you don't get that time back. And I think that (in most cases) babies benefit from being at home with their Mum or Dad rather than in childcare.
BUT I don't necessarily think that mothers should be paid for all this time off. I saved to allow me to have more time off after my son was born. I don't expect anyone else to fund my choice to have a child. I know it's not always easy to save- my second baby is due in 6 weeks and we haven't been able to save much this time round for various reasons but we have tried.
I totally understand this, but me personally I can't imagine anything worse than leaving my baby at 6 months let alone 4 months (hence why I became a childminder)
I just think mothers should have the choice how long they get to spend with their baby - especially mothers who have been paying their taxes.
And I think all us CMs know that saving up isn't an option (or maybe I'm just not charging enough!)
It's not like that at all. You have paid your tax & NI, you are entitled to full maternity benefit. My point is not that you shouldn't get any benefit, but that the current level of benefit is very generous and has become the expected norm.
As for my 'secret' to saving, when you have no benefits to fall back on, you work hard, make sacrifices, live within your means and go without. It seems a talent lacking by many today
But then where would you draw the line with using tax payers money and using your own savings - would you tell someone that if they wanted to have an operation to fix their broken leg they would have to save up to pay for it themselves?
I am also saving every spare penny I can for this baby, but there is no way I could save up enough to cover £500 a month for 9 months. We're really going to struggle as it is when I'm on maternity - even with what I've been saving.
I don't think £500 a month for 9 months is overly generous - we will stuggle to get by on it (as we did last time round).
I don't have any benefits, I work 11 hours a day, 5 days a week (not including paperwork) and I NEVER treat myself. Literally. My mum cuts my hair twice a year. We pay our bills and whatever is left (not much) we save. I know all about going without!
I just did my tax return and last year, from working 55 hour weeks I made just under £10k for the year. My husband makes £16k and our mortgage is £900 a month.
Nobody is judging you because you have a large family. No one doubts that you and your dh pay tax.
All we are saying is that 12 months is a very long time to have off and very hard for employers especially small ones to cope and pay for this.
We are in hard times and we have the privilege in this country of paying one of the lowest tax rates in Europe in Italy you pay 51%.
As a country we do not have enough money going into the pot to keep paying out for all these benefits anymore and like the Pensions people are going to have to pay more themselves or go back to work earlier. My dd went to a cm at 6mths and I don't think it has done her any harm. My niece and nephew went into childcare at 6 weeks old and they are both intelligent well adjusted children.
I never breast fed dd I breast fed ds for 6 months and I can't tell if now they are 17 and 19 if it has honestly made any difference at all to their intelligence or their health over the years. I'm not bashing breast feeding so don't jump on me but it wouldn't be the end of the world to have to stop at six months if you had to go back to work.
In an ideal world we would be able to always do what we want, to but life isn't like that is it? Sometimes we do have to make tough choices.
i dont think any of us are commenting with the hope of gaining more business if mums have to go back to work earlier! i think people are commenting on the effects on the economy overall. i personally think that 6 months is long enough for maternity leave by this age a child can be almost weaned anyway so i think just the fact that mums would find it difficult to breastfeed is a poor arguement for the country to want to fund this huge expense. they may be the children of the future are you saying just because mums have less time off work the child will grow up and not acccomplish as much
yes i think you are very wrong here as you said yourself!! most of the ladies on here have children and we have all had to face leaving them to return to work because we HAD to not because we wanted to! do you think we all happily went back to work and left our babies at whatever age. my daughter was really ill and my son had just been hit by a car and had a full metal cage on his leg but i HAD to go back to work although i didnt want to! it may not be directly affecting me right now because i am not pregnant so that raises the question i wonder if you would feel differently if it wasnt directly affecting you....
It's different- for a start I very much doubt that the person chose to break their leg! I chose to have a baby.But then where would you draw the line with using tax payers money and using your own savings - would you tell someone that if they wanted to have an operation to fix their broken leg they would have to save up to pay for it themselves?
I'm not saying that we should get nothing at all and should fund the whole lot ourselves- I agree with you on that, we would struggle too and I'm hugely grateful that I will get maternity allowance. I just think that you have to draw the line somewhere...
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