Currently, Sweden has the most enlightened and generous policies on parental leave in the world. Parents are free to divide 480 days of paid leave between the father and the mother as they see fit, giving parents nearly a year and a half to spend with their young children.
It’s a pretty far cry from our proposed amendment to the Family Leave Bill which will hopefully award Irish fathers two weeks paid paternity leave if passed.
In Sweden, law requires that a minimum of sixty days of this parental leave be taken by fathers, but only 12 per cent of Swedish fathers opt for the minimum leave. This recently inspired photographer, Johan Bavman, to document the lives of Dads on paternity leave.
He spoke to the Telegraph about the photographic series titled, Swedish Dads:
“I started this project when I was home with my own son; I had a hard time finding anything that was written for me as a father. So I got the idea that I wanted to document fathers during their parent leave, to hear why they wanted to be home with their children and what they hoped to learn from it.”
In the UK from tomorrow, 5 April, parents will be free to divide up to 50 weeks of parental leave between two parents as they see fit, splitting up to 37 weeks statutory parental pay between them.
However according to a study reported in today’s Guardian only 60 percent of new fathers will be eligible to take up the scheme as it is not open to families where only one parent is in paid employment.
Also unless the employer offers an enhanced package the pay will be 90 per cent of the parents earnings before tax for the first six weeks before dropping to 90 per cent of average earnings for the remainder of the leave. This means that many families will be unable to afford to take the leave.
Kenny Dobson wrote in this week’s Grazia about his experience of taking three months off to care for his son after his partner went back to work:
“It definitely felt like I was challenging the norm – friends dubbed me a ‘housewife’; mums assumed I was just ‘babysitting’ my own son – taking that time to bond with my boy was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”
It seems archaic that Irish children and their fathers continue to be denied this essential parental contact.
Last month June Tinsley, policy officer with Barnardos told the Irish Independent:
“That very young age is when children form deep, positive attachments with their caregiver. They have the space and time to form that bond, and it’s so crucial in the infant’s life.
Currently, the new Family Leave Bill is being drafted and will hopefully be in effect by the end of the year but it still only proposing two weeks paid paternity leave. We need to take our cue from the Swedes and British on this one and allow parents to customise their leave according to their needs.
