Parental Leave In's and Out's

What is Parental Leave?

Have you heard of this? I hadn't and when I asked other people, they hadn't heard of it either so I thought I would share what I know about it. 

Parental leave in the context of travel refers to the time off that parents take from work to spend quality time with their children while exploring new destinations. It allows parents to bond with their children, create lasting memories, and expose them to different cultures and experiences.

Us on New Years Eve in Koh Tao

Sounds amazing right - but there are a few things to be aware of:

• Parental leave is unpaid

• You're entitled to 18 weeks leave for each child (and adopted child) until they are 18 years old

• You can only take 4 weeks per parent in a year for each child (unless your employer says otherwise)

• Parental leave must be taken as whole weeks

• You have to have been employed by the SAME company for a year or more

• You're named on the child's birth certificate or adoption certificate

• You must give your employer 21 days notice before the leave is to start

• Leave CAN NOT be delayed or denied unless the employer has "significant reason" e.g it would cause serious disruption to the business
  

The Parental leave doesn't have to be taken just for travel, it can be taken to look at new schools, visit grandparents or generally to just spend more time with the children. 

This will obviously depend hugely on who your employer is and your contract with them but a lot of companies will have no valid grounds for refusal.

So if you can afford to take parental leave and your employer has no valid reason to say no then you have absolutely no reason not to request this.

Jax and I in the sea in Koh Lanta