Parental Leave

The PL stands for Parental Leave, which I am currently doing for six months.

It is a rainy Wednesday morning over here, one boy is napping and one is watching a show. The perfect time to catch up on yesterday. I was pretty drained last night for some reason and the thought of sitting at the computer was painful. So what did I do? I sat at the computer last night and instead of blogging, I participated in a Twitter chat with other dads. I had never done that and it was pretty interesting. It certainly was a great way to interact and add to my followers list. Anyways, then I went downstairs and watched the Spurs put a 36-point beat down on the LeBron James and the Heat. Great way to end the day.

The weather was dull and Charlie was pretty content to hang around the house for the day. Not an exciting day on the PL, but it was fun.

As a dad on parental leave who happens to be very much connected to an online group of dad bloggers, I was asking about other’s experiences.

The more and more I hear from other dads, the more I realize I have it pretty good living in Canada. We have a much longer period of time where we are granted paid leave to take care of a child.

My wife and I were discussing this and she said it would be a good blog post topic to see what the rest of the world offers in paid maternity/parental leave.

So, I did. It is always a good idea to listen to your wife.

When it comes to the world’s maternity leaves report card, not all countries are passing with flying colours.

In a report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2012, the majority of the United States (excluding two states) received a failing grade in providing women and new mothers support entering motherhood. Based on what I hear from friends who live there, this did not surprise me at all. It is hard to believe they get so little time.

I have friends living in the US who are from Canada and this really bummed them out. Knowing they would not get the time to spend with their baby that they would have back home.

In at least 178 countries around the world, paid leave is guaranteed for working moms, while more than 50 countries provide wage benefits for fathers, according to the ILO. The United States, along with Papua New Guinea, Swaziland, Liberia and Lesotho are some of the only countries in the world that provide no type of financial support for mothers, according to a study done by McGill University’s Institute for Health and Social Policy.

The group looked at the top developed countries that are succeeding in maternity leave benefits, and which ones continue to fall far, far behind.

The country with the longest paid leave topped out at 420 days, while the length of time for countries with the lowest paid and unpaid leaves was around 12 weeks. Any guesses before reading on?

Here are the maternity leave benefits for 43 developed countries from shortest to longest periods of time based on data collected in 2011.

A link to all countries can be found at the bottom.

After going through this list, I have to say I am pretty happy to be living in Canada. Granted only having half of your pay is hard, but at least I get six months of it.

Oh Day 39, so close to 40. On this day, everyone was tired. Why? Well the day started at 5:30 am. Sounds about right for this dad who is still enjoying life on the PL.

Pretty quiet day although the naps were short and dad was pretty tired. It felt like a day where I did not get anything taken care of. I guess that is what Tuesday is for once Harrison goes back to school

The Spurs won, the Hawks won and Rob Ford’s world is falling apart by the minute. Now for what happened on the home front.