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The father who does not teach his son his duties is equally guilty as the son who neglects them



I have to go back to work on Wednesday. My workplace has no paid or unpaid paternity leave policy (we don't even have a maternity leave policy), so someone has to go out and keep Henry in grapes. That lucky someone is me!

I have managed to save up all of my annual leave, TOIL and have wrangled some sick leave taken as carers leave (as allowed in the award) to give me two weeks paid leave, and then working two days a week for five weeks. Then it is back to full time.

I was fortunate enough to have circumstances allow me to work from home ninety percent of the time for Henry's first eight months, so let's just say that I am far from content to go back just a few weeks from Ezra's birth. That said, I'm in a better position than many fathers. If anyone has the secret ingredient for managing to get BOTH parents a greater slice of the parenting pie, I am all ears!

To satisfy myself, today I am going to have a 'Henry and Ezra jamboree', and post a few pictures through the day, so that I can load them up on my desktop at work and feel homesick.
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Comments

Rachel E. Adams said…
The best way to get enough paternity leave that I know is to move to Canada.
4 August 2008 at 15:05
Kitty said…
parents have it tough, in general. I dunno how you do it.

I heard a poll from NPR that said more people with kids feel unhappy than people without kids. The reason they gave was not the kids themselves but the lack of support society gives to parents, and the cost of raising children.

there is so much sacrifice involved. Amazing that our population is increasing!
9 August 2008 at 22:12
Kris McCracken said…
Kitty, I think some people have kids thinking that it is all sweetness and light, and are thus unhappy to find out that it is often a grind and way more difficult than the child free life. Personally, I think that it doesn't help that people are compelled to say "I wouldn't have it any other way" when quite often you quite rationally think to yourself "oh for a time when I didn't have kids!".

People are only human.
19 August 2008 at 20:46
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