There's always been the people at work I call The Pregnant People, because they are, you know, pregnant.
Then, they go away for about three months and the rest of us cover for their shifts, and then they come back, they usually work anywhere from a quarter to half of their regular shifts. This is called "maternity leave."
So, especially in nursing, which still is a fortunately/unfortunately female dominated profession, we all get sort of "mommy-tracked" whether or not we have a kid ourselves (or are even female for that matter). Therefore, while practically, I find maternity leave to be synonmous with "work time off I will never get," I also think American Maternity Leave leaves a lot to be desired.
Imagine being a citizen in a country where health and work policy actually concedes that parenthood exists from the time the kid is delivered until the rest of one's natural life, and therefore, one gets paid time off for being pregnant, a partner of a pregnant person, etc, unlike us poor slobby Americans. Because when Americans have their own progeny, we have to supplicate to The Man to take time off to raise The Kid properly. Time that isn't generally compensated for financially. (That's assuming you actually work and pay taxes, because it's a whole different ball game if you don't, at least in this country).
While our system objectively sucks for parents, I also think it sucks for people like me, that is, a person who is completely happy being barren at present. Also, being childless, I am ever so slightly annoyed whenever I think about how lucky people in industrialized countries are to get medical leave time for giving birth at all, even though it's hugely painful and sleep-depriving, etc. Because even despite the discomfort and inconvenience of pregnancy and birth, most people I know seem to choose to do this Let's Have A Kid Thing time and time again.
I can see that, because I can see having another dog. But, if I want another dog, I just go and buy the dog, and I don't have to gestate the dog, or anything. (Hint: if you buy your beloved at a store or find it roaming around on the street (for free!) it simplifies the time and greatly decreases money and effort of having a kid, I mean, a dog.)
On the one hand, ergo, I feel parents should get more time and money for deciding to pop out a kid , because it's not like you can wake up every other month or so and say, "Eh, I don't feel like being mom/dad today. I'll call in sick today, because I've got all those mom/dad hours banked up with the kid, and someone else can cover my mom/dad shift."
But on the other hand, I'm ever-so slightly resentful of maternity leave, because no one ever asked me if I wanted time off to home school Piper or something, and I feel I've done a far better job of raising him then some of those annoying, screaming hellions they call "human children" and I call "the bane of society." (And no one ever asks me if I want to go on maternity leave, even when I stuff a big beach ball under my scrub top, and complain about my my aching back, which is what seems to happen in the months before these women go on maternity leave.)
I'm just kidding about the beach-ball-under-the-scrub-top-ploy, but I am kind of miffed you either can't get more time off as a single person (or maybe earn a bonus) because you are not contributing the world's burgeoning overpopulation, and saving the work force thousands of dollars in Family Medical Leave Act monies.
However, now that I have a very dear friend who is actually pregnant through actual planning and desire for a child (which is intriguing, isn't it, because I always thought family health services, bless them and the good they do, like Planned Parenthood, had awfully ironic names).
So knowing a Pregnant Person now is quite a bit different, because I am genuinely happy for her and her husband, not to mention the small Fetal Person in utero. (And also, she isn't a coworker, and I don't have to be rotated to nights while she goes on maternity leave).
But I'm also wishing single, childless people got a little more, I don't know, time off or something. Or I could get a tax break, because I'm more fuel efficient as one person instead of one plus a fetus, or maybe educational credits, so I can go back to school, and earn another useless degree for nine months (coincidentally the length of an academic semester!)
Because other people's parenthood planning directly has something to do with me, obviously.
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Totally agree. US maternity leave is quite odd - as I understand it, it's based on a temporary disability theory? Oz maternity leave is available for much longer but silly (12 months off but with no pay - show me the family that is prepared to take that kind of hit); because that lead to crap retention rates some employers voluntarily offer paid maternity benefits for a few months.
Saw a doc a few months back which identified USA, Australia and New Zealand as the only developed countries not offering paid maternity leave. At that point, CONGO WAS OFFERING IT.
BUT something needs to be done about the fact that accommodations must be made for parenting people. I used to have to work damned hard full-time, know every file, etc, so the mothers people I worked with could work part-time (and we were not talking mothers of itty babies here). When *I* proposed the same thing be done for me, my former boss (not mother) balked at it - as if it was fine to have expected me to make it work for them but not for me to get the same benefits. To their credit, the mothers thought this was SHIT and are currently lobbying in my favour.
BUT really. What needs to happen is adequate + some staffing in all jobs so that allowances made for parenting or otherwise don't cripple everyone else, rather than every workplace always being run at maximum tolerance.
AND! parenting should never be the only excuse for such deals. I had an HR manager once who just said "if you need to leave early, don't give an excuse, because people will judge it." There's no reason why in principle "I need me time/my dog needs to go to vet/my mother is ill/I want to do further studies" should be a lesser excuse than "I have a sprog," especially since its not like the parents provide proof they have spent this time productively raising a superhuman and not leaving them flaked out in front of the telly.
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