Really don't know how to feel about this.

OSU does give paternity time. I forget how much but I remember talking about it with BF. We talked about (if we ever got pregnant), him saving some time so he could still be with the baby when I went back to work.

We had a student who was pumping this past year. I know she did it during lunch but I'm not sure when else. We will have potentially two teachers pumping second quarter. I'm not sure how it's handled but knowing our P, we won't be inconvenienced. I can't imagine him covering that time though. We only have one P, no AP, so he obviously is very busy.

ETA: found this if anyone is interested http://hr.osu.edu/worklife/Parentalcareguidebook.pdf

 

I'm sorry if I read her post incorrectly. As we know, that's very possible on forums.

About mandated paid or partially paid time off, would there be a limit? Some people like my mother are baby-making machines , and I'm curious if anyone feels it might be too difficult for a company to pay a mother while taking care of her baby and also paying a replacement, and doing that again a year later, two years later from that point, again in another year and half, again four years later... You get my point.

 

Here, maternity leave/parental leave is one year. I can't imagine having returned to work when my children were 7 weeks old.

 

Curious. For parents out for weeks for maternity leave, do districts that use some sort of merit pay or more commonly tie test scores into teacher evaluations take into consideration the teacher's absence? Question applies for someone out for weeks due to other medical or personal situations as well.

 

Is this with new teachers as well? Just curious since new teachers don't qualify for FMLA here...

 

I pumped for a year (and ds nursed for 2 1/2 years). I never once asked anyone to cover my class. I pumped before school, during lunch, and after school. I only had about 20 minutes for lunch and I spent the entire time pumping.

Nursing is very, very important to me and I'm glad there are employers make accommodations for time and space to pump. If my pumping schedule hadn't worked for me I would have advocated for something different. Still, I would have been embarrassed to find out my principal had emailed other teachers and told them they'd be giving up planning time.

 

Caesar, thank you for interpreting my post correctly. I was a bit distracted this morning trying to comment while my eight month old was undergoing a small medical procedure requiring anesthesia (slightly nerve wracking). Yes, there should be a system in place so nobody has to worry about the choices of others. I know many principals will design the building schedule so a mom has a prep period for the year when she will need to pump, etc. Unfortunately, I also know several moms in a neighboring district who have had to give up breast feeding when they return to work because no one will work with them on the issue.

 

Going back to the original post:
I hope to pump for my future babies and would be completely embarrassed if my principal announced a plan like that. That being said, if I were a colleague, I would do it without complaining in the spirit of teamwork yet I would expect the principal to compensate us with ability to leave early, wear jeans an extra day each week or something like that because they are a leader who shows appreciate for that type of teamwork.

All that aside, If I were principal I would consider changing the teacher's schedule even if that meant moving the teacher to a different grade of changing the entire grade level's schedule.

As an aside, my fiance (who works and sales) just discussed the thread for the last half hour and he thinks it would depend on the health of the school culture, but a healthy school culture should involve teamwork. Of course, he doesn't understand our desperate need for all the prep time we can get.

I just think volunteering 20 minutes of your time once a week for a good cause is not that much to ask. Of course, being told feels much different than volunteering.

As for maternity leave, I am already angered for when I become a mother because our maternity-leave laws in the USA are so depressing.

 

I interpreted it the same way. It wasn't just you. And, I, too, was wondering how a school/company would afford to pay the staff member and replacement at the same time. I'm all for unpaid time off, but I'm not sure how companies can be expected to have the finances to pay someone while they are not working.

 

It certainly would be complex and yet every single nation in the world (save the US and 3 3rd world nations) have figured it out.

 

In other countries that provide months of paid leave, is this mandated for all employers? Or are there stipulations regarding company size and so forth? I think small shops that employ fifteen people may not be able to afford paying a mother on leave and a replacement...just simply can't do it.

 

My mom was telling me her company built a new office (not a school) and it has lactation room in the building...nice to see businesses supporting their mothers.

 

I've seen those featured...well, somewhere. Some news program, I guess. I liked seeing it as well! While I have many concerns and questions about the topic, I know why boobs exist and I absolutely support breastfeeding.

 

I think it would be interesting to look at the "whole" picture, with all the facts. Maybe the US is really that far behind other countries, but maybe the data is skewed. JustMe's question is a good one. Also, do companies choose to hire fewer women due to the laws? That way there are fewer employees taking advantage of paid leave, and the company is out less money. Is the overall salary lower than what someone in a comparable position might make in the US, because in those countries they have to come up with the salary to cover both the new mother and replacement somewhere? I'm sure there are other good questions to ask when comparing the US policies to other countries, too, but that is all I can think of right now. I'm just not sure that one infographic, created from one angle, is enough to make a blanket statement about the US being behind the rest of the world in policy. I think we'd have to look at a lot of other factors, too.

 

My husband works at a hospital and gets paid maternity leave but I don't know for how long. It even applies to people who adopt infants rather than have their own.

 

In many countries with paid leave, the pay comes from the government, not the company. It's not always full pay either. These countries also have higher taxes than the US, so I'm guessing the pay comes from a fund generated from tax dollars similar to unemployment maybe?

 

As it of course should.