Eleanor Tanner, 29, and Andrew Hutchinson, 30, are expecting their first child in early May. The couple, who live in Tooting Broadway, London, plan on taking advantage of the shared parental leave scheme by each taking six months off work to care for their baby.
Tanner, who is an employment lawyer, will take leave from her job a few weeks before her due date. When she returns to the office, Hutchinson, who works in finance in Surrey, will take over as full-time carer for their baby, using up the remaining leave. “I don’t want to be the stereotypical dad of my parents’ generation, where he goes off to work and she stays home with the kids,” said Hutchinson. “I want to be bonding with the baby when it’s very small. I think it’ll be good for me, it’ll be good for the baby and good for Eleanor as well.”
Tanner said taking six months away from work “feels more manageable” than being absent for an entire year. “I think it’ll be easier for me to pick up career-wise and easier personally,” said Tanner. “I like the idea of our child being cared for by its parents for the first year, but I’m not sure I want to take a year out, that’s a really long time.”
Hutchinson said they may have pursued this arrangement under the old parental leave laws, but the high profile of the new scheme made it easier for him to talk to his employer about leave arrangements. But while the couple have been able to make the new system work for them, they described the legislation as “horrid” and “complicated”.
“I’m an employment lawyer and I find it very difficult to get my head around,” said Tanner. “If it takes me 90 minutes to work out what forms to fill in and that’s my job, what about the poor person who comes across this for the first time? I wouldn’t be surprised if they gave up.” The couple said that among their male friends there was still a fear that if they asked their employer for time off it would be frowned upon and hurt their career prospects.
“Hopefully this legislation will allow more men to take leave, which can only be a good thing,” said Tanner. But she said she would like Britain to go further and adopt a “Scandinavian-style system” where a portion of the leave was only available to the father and would be lost if he did not take it.
“That would be fantastic. It shouldn’t be about the mother giving up her leave to share with her partner, it should be about the father having an entitlement. Hopefully we’re progressing in that direction,” she said.
