I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago, but the wife of someone on my team has just had their seventh child. My company introduced six months fully paid parental leave a couple of years ago, so the next Father of Seven (plus? Who knows where they'll stop as they've already said they want a football team...) that joins the team is effectively going to be working, what, three and half years over the seven years in which they pop out a kid?!
The guy currently on parental leave is going to work six months of this year and still be entitled to full salary, bonus, potentially take the same amount of holiday as me (we have "unlimited" time off) and do just half the months of work. I don't know. I understand the pros of parental leave and having the father around from the mother's perspective, but the thing about maternity leave is that it is - in my view- also the time it takes for a woman's body to recover from the physical and mental effects of being pregnant and giving birth. For a man, it's just six months off work, changing some nappies, giving a few bottles, and getting slapped on the back for being *such a great guy and father.* I do think that if there is going to be this level of parental leave it should AT LEAST be limited to two birthed / adopted children. I'm ok with it for more foster children as that's a completely different scenario.