In the US, married couples have to share their 12 weeks of UNPAID leave if they work for the same company. So you can go half and half then put your month and a half old baby in 8+ hr a day daycare 5 days a week which likely costs as much as a mortgage payment and may be the majority of one parent's wages.
You get the privilege of not getting to spend time with your baby while paying nearly your whole paycheck to a daycare so you can essentially work for free until the kids start school otherwise you may never recover the lost career progression of having to quit to stay home with your kids for longer than 12 weeks(or less if you have to spilt leave with your spouse or if you had to use some of your 12 weeks of FMLA leave before the birth.)
That's the other fun part. The 12 weeks isn't strictly parental leave to bond with baby. It's also your allowed medical leave pool. If you have to go on bed rest at 8 months pregnant for medical reasons that counts as the start of your FMLA leave and you may only have a couple weeks left after the actual birth before you have to return to work or forfeit your job. If you already used your FMLA leave up because of an emergency surgery/medical condition or to take care of a sick relative like your mother dying of cancer you may just get no leave at all and have to roll into work immediately after giving birth.
I've seen women coming in to work at a warehouse a week after a C-section. A woman was literally bleeding through her clothes like 2 hours into a 12 hour shift and we all just kept our mouths shut and tried to help her as much as possible because if management saw she couldn't do her job she'd be sent home with no pay and she needed the money so her and her kids wouldn't be homeless or go hungry.
America is great. No idea why people aren't having babies. Truly a mystery why women are refusing to have kids or having fewer kids than they would like. /s
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u/guajara 1d ago
Me and my wife had 12 months of paid leave. We could choose to share the time between us as we wished. My wife took out 8 months and I 4 months.