The headline is correct. Me and Tamara have had an ongoing discussion over the last few months about what we would do this year about the whole maternity thing. Since she now works for herself, she does not qualify for maternity leave and therefore cannot get EI for a year after the birth of *snicker* [insert name here]. So, I do qualify since I have been working steady for quite awhile.
We did some math and did a little bit of investigation into how it all works, and even with me going on parental leave, we can still swing the bills and live. It will be a bit tight at times, but I think that ultimately it will be worth it.
So, the official word is that Tamara is due to give birth on May 12th. For all intents and purposes, we’ll say that I will be off work for basically 6 months. My parental leave will begin about a week after the baby is born, and will end in November. I will return to work on November 2nd.
I do have the option to return to work early if I choose to as long as I give sufficient notice that I want to return early. We’ll have to see how the time goes.
I thought a lot about this and I think that right now, it makes the most sense. The fact is, there are a lot of things going on right now and the opportunity to take this chunk of time off work will not come again. We are not going to have any more children so there won’t be any more parental leave opoprtunities. The chance to spend that much time with the family without the worry about work is something that I look forward to. It will also give me some time to work on some projects around the house, and just take it easy. I’m really excited about it.
It will definitely be weird to have that much time off work… Anyone else ever do that?
