How long did you take for maternity leave(in US)?

amother

↑ Ultramarine

Yesterday at 10:52 pm

amother Begonia wrote:

Self-employed, those who work in very small companies don't get this privilege.
Even if the job gets held, most only get paid a fraction and can't afford to take months and months of unpaid leave.

W-2 employees in regular companies get paid 85% of salary up to $1055 a week. So yeah it’s not full salary but it’s better than nothing if u wanna take off but can’t go without any money coming in.

amother

Silver

Yesterday at 11:02 pm

amother Begonia wrote:

For all those who take 4+ months, im curious
Are you ok if your child's teacher, playgroup Morah, babysitter, therapist, OT, PT, Speech, etc take off 4-6 months.
Do you complain?

If there’s an equal replacement no but if you are bringing in a sub who let’s the kids run wild then yes you need to be back sooner

amother

Ebony

Yesterday at 11:09 pm

I did 6 weeks disability think I got like $550 in total then I did 7 weeks maternity leave. I actually took an extra week off but wasn’t paid it was right before pesach so there was only like 2 days of school so I just stayed home. Then I went back to work right after pesach and then took the remaining maternity leave over the summer.
I’m a speech therapist.

amother

Powderblue

Yesterday at 11:13 pm

amother Antiquewhite wrote:

No option for less than 6 weeks

Yup. Looks like not too many to back by 3-4 weeks… I guess I’m unique

amother

Clematis

Yesterday at 11:14 pm

amother Magenta wrote:

I selected 6 weeks but due to yom tov it was 7 weeks.

Same. Boss forced me to come in for a few hours to help with the prepesach rush but I don't think I did anything valuable. I had my baby with me because my sitter was off already.
By my next one I put my foot down and took 8 weeks. I even made a post here about it.

icedcoffee

Yesterday at 11:20 pm

14 weeks this time - I don't know how you guys can go back at 6 weeks or sooner, I'm at week 8 right now and feel nowhere near ready to return Sad

artist770

Yesterday at 11:22 pm

amother Begonia wrote:

For all those who take 4+ months, im curious
Are you ok if your child's teacher, playgroup Morah, babysitter, therapist, OT, PT, Speech, etc take off 4-6 months.
Do you complain?

I never saw someone with that type of job take off for so long

amother

Butterscotch

Yesterday at 11:29 pm

I had a micropreemie. I was entitled to 8 weeks due to my c-section. I think I was also entitled to unemployment or disability due to having to be there for my baby.
I told work I wasn’t coming back at around 3 months. It’s almost two years and I still haven’t gone back to work (baby came home after 4 months)

amother

Jade

Yesterday at 11:36 pm

So I know my situation is very different but I wanted to chime in.
I’m a nursing student and college students in general get crappy time off. I had a friend in PA school take an exam 3 days pp.
My schools policy is 2 weeks for vaginal birth and 3 weeks for a c section but I was so incredibly lucky to have given birth 2 weeks before Tom tov so I had a full 4 weeks with my baby.
If you want to take off more time, you have to restart the course the next year, so that wasn’t a viable option for me.

amother

DarkKhaki

Yesterday at 11:38 pm

amother Powderblue wrote:

Yup. Looks like not too many to back by 3-4 weeks… I guess I’m unique

I work from home. I take much less than 6 weeks

amother

Cappuccino

Today at 5:18 am

I teach
The first few kids I took off 6 weeks
Then I had a kid the week after school finished, It was great all my kids were in day camp already and I did not go back to work until school started.
I told my sister that is it I am now planing my kids to have them now.
I am not a good planer my next kid was born in middle of January, so six weeks.

writinggirl

Today at 5:34 am

amother Silver wrote:

If there’s an equal replacement no but if you are bringing in a sub who let’s the kids run wild then yes you need to be back sooner

Therapists don’t usually find replacements, the agency does. And it is very hard to find a therapist in general, let alone for maternity coverage. But why is that the therapists’s fault?

amother

Strawberry ↓

Today at 8:28 am

I think that 12 weeks leave should be a requirement for everyone I can't understand how people work so soon after they give birth.
I think society should be support mothers to take off that minimum period at least and no one should be pushed to come back to work sooner than that.
Post partum period is 12 weeks that's how long the minimum one should recover for. Never mind be able to bond with a baby.
6-12 months leave should be the norm though.
A society with family values should include allowing women time to recover from birth and bond with their baby and provide high quality, low cost childcare for when mothers go back to work.

amother

↑ Thistle

Today at 8:43 am

amother Strawberry wrote:

All true. But then parents also get kvetchy when their kids teachers/therapists/babysitters dare to be human and have babies and want more than 2 weeks off…

devorah1231

Today at 8:45 am

amother DarkViolet wrote:

I work in a NYC hospital. We first need to use up all that’s left of our PTO (any sick days, vacation, holidays that accrued which can be a lot), then disability for 6 weeks which pays very little, then 12 weeks paid family leave which is 66% of your salary capped at a certain amount. After that you can take up to one year leave but won’t be paid.

Just btw you can take the paid family leave right away. They can't stop you legally, or force pto usage. You can easily look it up and show hr. Hospitals must be compliant, easy to sue. You do NOT need to take disability unless you want to.

Last edited by devorah1231 on Wed, Dec 11 2024, 8:51 am; edited 1 time in total

amother

Mimosa

Today at 8:49 am

3 weeks 😬
Im self employed, and my clients needed urgent seasonal work. I regretted it big time, because I ended up not coping a few months later since I didn't take enough time to fully recover post birth.

amother

↑ Strawberry ↓

Today at 8:59 am

amother Thistle wrote:

All true. But then parents also get kvetchy when their kids teachers/therapists/babysitters dare to be human and have babies and want more than 2 weeks off…

Yes that's part of the problem, we have to learn to support eachother.

amother

↑ Begonia ↓

Today at 9:06 am

amother Strawberry wrote:

Yes that's part of the problem, we have to learn to support eachother.

I mentioned earlier. Im a playgroup Morah who takes of 6-8 weeks unpaid.
The parents who complain the most, the loudest and the most frequently are those who take off 5-8 months.