Child Care

[Audraia]

At 6 weeks with my DD I went back to work and put her in daycare, as I had to work. She did great and they did great with her. My only thing was she was sick the WHOLE time she was in daycare. I mean it couldn't really be helped. She did love the ladies who took care of her, and they have so many regulations that your child will be well taken care of. In the US there are tons of laws, and for babies only 4 babies per worker, so they do get MOST of their needs met.

I did wind up quitting a few months ago and staying at home with her. She was just too sick too often and I felt I was missing out on things. Things are tight but we make it work.

 

[iiTTCii]

I will be having 12 months off work, then will be going back part time and my mum will have baby on the days I'm in work.

The US maternity leave is awful, I always assumed that the US would have one of the best in the world!

 

[spunky84]

I think maternity leave just really depends on where you work. Some people hardly get anything where as some jobs are excellent with their maternity benefits.

I emailed HR today about maternity leave benefits, but from what I'm hearing from others, it's only 6 weeks paid regardless if the dr requires more time off. And I don't know if that includes being signed of early or from delivery date.

Someone at work will have been off almost 3 months (if she returns when she said she will - he return date has been changed so many times). Her FLMA has run out and they are still holding her job.


The good news is that even if the university job doesn't work out, we might have a sitter! DH's friend's wife is a SAHM who said she would do it for cheap. Which is a plus, and she's close by, we know and trust her. So hopefully that will remain an option for us.

 

[xdxxtx]

Sounds like things are working out very well!!! Yes, daycare is waaaaaaaay too expensive. I stopped working because it cost about as much as I'd be bringing home... and I was using my partner's benefits anyway. If your DH's friend's wife doesn't work out, there are websites for babysitters/nannies/caregivers who've been verified to be safe and sometimes have resumes right up there on the site. You might have to pay to use some of the sites that are verified, but it's probably cheaper than having to run your own background checks and everything.

 

[MamaFlick]

Omg here in Ontario Canada we get a year ... I couldn't imagine walking away from my 6 week old baby for an hour let alone an entire work day ... That just seems crazy to me lol

I couldn't live off of disability pay for a year. I'll be off for 4.5 months. 3 of those will be disability pay which won't even cover my bills.

Same here - well, I'll probably be off for 3 months. I do have Aflac disability but it will only pay for 6 weeks I think (whatever the normal recovery time is for birth). I'm still not sure I'll be able to take the full 3 months. My employer's HR dept doesn't really seem to understand maternity benefits, so they said I have to wait till about 1 month before I give birth and then meet with our outsourced HR people, who will then finally explain to me what my benefits will be.

 

[Annie77]

I am get 8 weeks full pay, and a further 18 weeks 1/2 pay with SMP top up, followed by another 13 or so with SMP only. I am planning to take 6 months off minimum. If I can save enough I will try to afford another month on SMP only then take all next years annual leave which is about another 6 weeks.

I have used private nursery & my parents with previous children. This time I am hoping to go back 3 days 9-5.10pm and have my parents watch her 1-2 days and a childminder 1-2 days. My parents aren't saying much this time about how much they want to help out which s worrying me a little but, as my mum was ill until a year ago, we knew they may OT want to help as much with this one.