You know you’re watching quality court tv when the defendent objects, “These are baloney-ous allegations, your Honor!”
I have to admit something: I have been one lazy momma today. I had a whole list of things I meant to do.. I had a grocery list, I had some things I wanted to check on, I had some last minute birthday hoorah stuff to do.. and I haven’t left the couch. I took a long bath around noon, took a long nap after that, and am now sitting back on the couch, enjoying Judge Marilyn Milian.
Sure, I got up at eight and cleaned, swept, mopped, put away, and scrubbed, but that was a long time ago and since then, I have been far less than productive.
It’s SOOOO wonderful.
In other news, I want to talk about maternity leave. You know what sucks about our country? The medical leave. Now, admittedly, we’ve come a fur piece from where we were, thanks to the Family Medical Leave Act. Now, we have our jobs guaranteed for us from 6-8 weeks. However, we don’t have to be paid. And that’s ALL the time we are guaranteed to have our jobs held. Can you imagine handing your baby over to a daycare worker you’ve never met before at 6 weeks?! I’m trying to stomach that today. It’s not easy. Sure, I could take unpaid leave after that, but we just couldn’t afford that.Â
And I’ve heard that in Europe, women get as much as a year FULLY PAID maternity leave. In Canada, they get 3 months fully paid. And here we are.. living the American Dream.. and trying to figure out what’s more important: bonding with your newborn or paying for her formula.
ANNNND.. I’m off my soapbox.
Coming up later this weekend: we’ve been talking baby names!!
I don’t even fall under the Family Medical Leave act since there are only 4 employees here. Do you get to use your sick leave for maternity leave? We don’t have anything in our staff handbook about maternity leave and when I asked my boss about it he said “having a baby isn’t sick.” He said he is going to think about what he wants to do.
Just another reason why I need to look for another job. Know anyone looking for a talented person like me? =)
Actually, I’m very lucky when it comes to what the FMLA offers. Our FMLA leave falls under medical leave, which means we get 80% pay during our leave. I think we’re actually forbidden to use our paid leave (vacation/sick) during that point, but we can use it during those first five days before the FMLA kicks in.
You are lucky, as of right now i’m not sure I am going to get a penny while i’m out of work.
FMLA didn’t apply for me either, Jamie. I happened to be in the top 5% of wage earners at the company I was at… And Sarah, technically, FMLA is 4 months. You CAN take 4 months (and Jeff did), but they don’t have to pay you anything.