Maternity Leave is Over!

  The celebration for my second son’s birthday was a ton of fun but for my wife it also marked something perhaps just as smash-worthy, her looming return to work. Life during maternity leave and “normal” life are very different and not only because you now have a little nugget (or two!); your schedules, your finances, your household are all turned on their heads. Maternity leave takes time for everyone to figure out and get into a groove, and it takes a lot teamwork with solid lines of communication. Of course you are only getting a fraction of the sleep you once had, making everything a little fuzzy. Don't worry though, it's also a lot of fun and a deeply special time to bond with your newest addition.

It seems that the case for most families in Canada, ours included, is for the dad to take some vacation time to help get everything settled at home and then head back off to work. Though paternity leave is certainly an option, the Canadian government splits EI Benefits between maternity leave and parental leave (17 weeks for maternity leave and a maximum of 35 for parental leave, for a total of 52), dads do have the option to stay home for up to 35 weeks. There are lots of things that come into play when sorting out who/how the leave will be split (this topic requires its own blog post!) but we decided as a family that it was best that my wife stay home and use all 52 weeks.

Now that maternity leave is over and we are tackling our first full week back to the “new normal”, it’s a matter of adjusting to new schedules, less time with the boys, and less time for things like making dinner! Team planning our week in advance is now vital to ensuring our meals and groceries are ready to go so that we don’t end up broke and only eating fast food meals all week! It looks a part of every weekend will need to be set aside for planning our week ahead, but a little bit of time spent planning saves a lot of time in the long run -- which also means maximizing time with our two crazy boys, the best part of it all. 

Dixon is all geared up for his first day at school!

It’s amazing how 52 weeks can pass by so quickly! We’re lucky here in Canada, though not as lucky as some Scandinavian countries, that mom or dad can take the first year off and spend it with the wee one. It could certainly be a lot worse, our friends in the US are one of only 4 countries in the entire world that don’t have a federally mandated policy to give new parents time off! How crazy is that?! So, enjoy the 52 weeks as much as possible, it will zip by like your three-year-old practicing his flying high kicks!