I have been on parental leave since our oldest was born. With the youngest starting school halfway next year many colleagues assumed I would show up full-time again soon. With the news leaking out I will not, I got some interesting questions (interrogations!?) showcasing how stuck most people are in their old-world ways.
Parental leave in the Netherlands
Many people over here use their right to parental leave. Unless you are a government worker the leave is unpaid and both parents can take up to 26 weeks. The original idea being that if both parents would work 0.5 fte you can be at home for the first, intense year. Most people including us seem to use it differently. Both parents work 4 days and they typically do so until the youngest one goes to school at the age of 4.
By that time you run out of days and you automatically fall back to your contractual work week. Unless you indicate you prefer to decrease the size of your contract and only show up 4 days a week for the rest of your life. Makes sense to me.
You lazy bastard!
Not all my older, white, male-dominated colleagues are agreeing. Some call me lazy. I disagree. They seem to forget their wives don't work. This brings their family workload to 5 working days a week. We do 8 working days equally shared between the 2 of us. We also equally share the family workload. Sounds fair and not lazy at all to me. Feels busy enough anyway.
You will have a lower pension!
This I cannot deny. If you work 80% your pension will be 80%, plain and simple. However, this is old-world thinking. You spend all your money every month and your life style requires a similar amount of income after retirement. Not us. We have a savings rate of 35%. While both working 4 days. No need for more pension. I have no interest in pumping more money into a broken system.
What are you gonna do all day long?
No offense but these kids drain your energy and time. Although I have no concrete plan what I'll do when I finally have some own time again, I am sure I will enjoy it! I might do more sports. I might use my bad knee as an excuse not to. I might cook more from scratch. I might decide after the first attempt that making your own pasta is too much work and never do it again. I might write more posts. I might binge watch Netflix. I might find a new hobby. I might sit on the couch staring in the distance enjoying the silence.
I have no concrete plan but I am convinced I will enjoy my part-time, prepension every Friday!
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