Tasha Rants: Paternity

Ok as you can tell by my title this post is going to be one where I am complaining. I have just seen an article on my Facebook which asks whether dads should be able to share paternity leave with the mother's maternity leave, and I think not. However, I do think paternity leave should be a few weeks longer (though not taken off the mother's maternity), it takes a woman about 6 weeks to fully recover (depending on delivery), so logically a man should be able to have that amount of time off so he can ensure his partner is doing ok, because not only is the woman still recovering but giving birth can have a psychological strain as well, so support from a partner is definitely needed.

The main reason a woman has maternity leave is, so she can get better after birth and feed her baby (the natural way), don't get me wrong I have nothing against women who bottle feed it's their choice, but that is the specific reason why maternity is so long.

Why do both parents need to look after the baby together? Not being harsh or funny, but women have been looking after babies on their own for many years now, why all of a sudden has it turned into such a difficult task? Now don't get me wrong I love dropping my son off at my mother's so she can look after him for an hour or two but that is only a couple of days a week, the rest of the time my son is all mine, like he should be.

Also, in the comment section of this post I read, there were loads of women complaining that paternity pay isn't enough and that you can't possibly live off that much money, and the funny thing is, paternity pay is the exact same as maternity pay £138 p/w (the basic amount anyway), no one mentioned how it's disgusting that a woman doesn't get paid the amount she was earning while pregnant, after she's had her baby and lets face it if you're a single mum £138 p/w isn't going to do much is it?

I also think it's wrong these days how both parents are expected to go back to work, and have your child looked after by someone else, especially since looking after a child is a full time job itself. I know some people will say that I must have a medieval view point but, if the dad works and earns enough to support a family, then why should the mum go back to work? Now don't get me wrong I don't think it's a woman's job to be a housewife but surely having one parent at home is going to be a lot more beneficial for the kids, than sending them to a child minder.