re: How much time did you get/take off when your first child was born?

2 weeks paid paternity leave for both kids.

quote:

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Maternity and Paternity leave I this county is arse backwards. After you have a kid you need a week or two to help your wife and kid and just be at home learning to be parents. I got 4 days off and my company threatened to fire me. The first month was brutal. People who believe otherwise don't have kids.

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100% agree. I didn't really understand while people needed such longer maternity/paternity leaves until I had my first child. Thank God I work for a company that pays me while I'm off, because they're in the minority. My husband took a month off (tons of PTO) for the first and two weeks for the second. I need him off for no less than two weeks since I can't even drive for that long after I have a baby.

I needed every second of my 12 weeks for baby 2. She was a preemie and low birthweight, therefore it took her longer to catch up and sleep more than three hour stretches than her older brother. Had I gone back to work any earlier it would've been hell. She just started stretching and sleeping 6-7 hours, thankfully. I don't see how parents function in a professional job with a baby who's up every 2/3 hours each night. I know people do it, but I think I would be worthless everyday.

I'm not saying the USA needs to give European standard PTO for a baby, but we do need better standards. I have friends who go back to work after 3-4 weeks because their employer won't pay them. That's terrible for the mother and baby. I was barely able to function 3-4 weeks post baby.

2 days

I took two weeks paid off offered by my company. Took another week of vacation after that so 3 weeks total. Did that for both. The second kid was basically me hanging out with older one for 3 weeks to get him out of the wife's hair while she recovered.

I took about 10 work days (built up sick leave).
Wife took about 4 1/2 months (unpaid).

That felt about right to us, but the right amount is probably different for every parent/child.

I think had my wife stayed home another couple weeks she may not have gone back (which would mean our kid wasn't going to college).

For the gent who said he went back early to build up goodwill with his boss so he could come in late a few days during turkey season - I wouldn't tell that story to any woman holding a weapon.

2 weeks of vacation both kids.
Wife took 6 weeks for the first one, and 4 for the second. Her boss gave her 8, but she was going stir crazy being at home that long.

Daughter was born on a Saturday, I was back to work on Monday but did it from the hospital since I worked remotely at the time. Went home Monday afternoon and just worked around what they needed for the next couple weeks.

I worked.
Wife was back in the fields 3 days later. The midwife insisted on 2 days off.

I was back at work the day after mine was born. My retired mother in law stayed with the wife. I own a few small companies, and this was after the 2009 recession and we had to lay off employees prior to, so it wasn't really an option to take more days off. Normally I would have taken 3-5 days off.