What to tell my boss??

My boss doesn't have kids, none in her family, and isn't really a "kid person". She doesn't understand why I want to take a full 3 month maternity leave. She actually jokingly said "So you want a 3 month vacation?" How can I help her understand why maternity leave is important?? Her and my immediate supervisor want me to come back 2-3 weeks after delivering. I work in an office and it will be hard for them without me there, but family comes first in my book. They hired someone to do my job while I'm out. I told them from her first week that she wasn't a good fit for the job... three months later she's still an idiot and still not capable of handling even half of my duties while I'm out. I can see why they want me to come back, but I've been saving $$ for a full maternity leave since the beginning of my pregnancy and after working my butt off for them for 6 years, I feel like I'm being cheated out of something I deserve.

Well Family Medical Leave Act is 12 weeks. They don't have to pay you but they have to guarantee your job back. I work for a small family business (about 25 people) so we don't  have to follow alot of the "standard" guidelines but this one they do. My boss has 2 kids and still thought that I would only want to be out 4-6 weeks - HECK NO! I want my 12 weeks.

I'd check into the laws in your state though.

MORON!!! I swear people can be stupid. If she keeps up this attitude is there someone you could report her to? I know (like Liz said) FMLA gives you 12 weeks leave a year and you can take all for maternity. I plan on taking my 3 months off only because I really don't want to deal with the holidays as my first bit back. I am due in October and will be out until January. :D

Oh, and I don't know any doctor that would release you after 3 weeks to go back to work. It's usually minimum 6 weeks out vaginally and 8 weeks out with a section. Good luck with the morons.

I just want to say to people be careful taking your full 12 weeks at once, if something happens to you or baby later what would you do? I just had a 2wk leave in febuary cause I had kidney stones. I took 7 weeks with Molly....If you can take 12weeks thats great!!! Just know thats it for a year. Not sure if it goes calender year or a year from the 12weeks, just know the rules for your state  etc.

Mine is a calendar year so I will be set since the end of the 12 weeks would be the end of the year.

I agree with megan on this one. Be careful in taking all of your 12 weeks, as this is what's going to protect you all year in case of any other medical related emergency. I work for a company with a strict attendance policy and when I put Tyler in daycare after coming off a maternity leave he was introduced to all kinds of germs. he kept a cold and had issues here and there. If I had used all of my 12 weeks I would have been in some serious trouble as much as my baby was sick. Especially during cold and flu season. Save a few weeks for these types of issues. Trust me if you're going to use daycare then you'll definitely need some days. Daycares will send your child home if they have diarrea, a temperature over 100.1 and other things too. Good luck with your boss :)

Gina

My employer is overall awesome. They just don't want me to take 12 straight weeks... or even 6 straight weeks... because things won't go so well while I'm out. They won't have a problem letting me off for illness etc later on or taking a few days off here and there as needed (I'll actually accrue another week PTO this year plus sick time after maternity leave so I'm good on that). I won't be able to claim FMLA, but I've been here a long time and have a great relationship with my superiors. They just don't understand the reason I'd want to spend so much time at home. They've let people take longer than 3 months leave before (there's a girl planning to do that when she delivers in July)... but their positions are ones that could be divvyed up between other people in the office and everyone will get by just fine without her. Mine isn't.

I still haven't made up my mind or came up with any idea as to what I'm going to do. If I come back and work 1-2 days a week, I still won't bring home any $$ after I pay someone to babysit my 2 kiddos and they take insurance and taxes out. My check would probably barely cover the sitter, not to mention the gas for my hour long commute. I've offered to work from home but they weren't took keen on that... even though I could do all of it from home with no problem.