So I have starting looking in to this maternity leave business and you know what I've determined, there is really no such thing in this country. We have FMLA, but it only helps you if you've been with the company for over a year (try not to get knocked up so soon!), and if your company employs more than 50 people (your shit out of luck, you small business workers). Oh, and the other fact: IT'S UNPAID! Now, I knew all this well before getting pregnant, but I'm not one of those people that's going to wait around for things to get better. I fight for them, and when I can't do that all day long, I guess I have to deal.
I have to face that fact that even if my employer lets me carry over two weeks of PTO and I use up all my short term leave, less than half of my 12 weeks, that I really want to take, will be paid for. That means about 5 weeks will be paid for; daycare centers won't even take babies less than 6 weeks old, so I HAVE to take unpaid time off, there is no way around it. After I figured that out; it seems that if I need to take a week unpaid, I might as well take another 6 unpaid and bond with my baby.
Actually I feel like working until my water breaks and taking exactly 480 hours off, just to use it to my whole advantage. I'll labor at work if you make me!
But really this whole thing just makes me depressed. Especially living in a country that constantly talks about family values. I would stay at home and just focus on caring for my children in an instant, but you know what, they don't pay you to do that. And we can't afford to live on just Brent's wage. Part of me is afraid that I will freak out and refuse to go back to work, refuse to leave my baby with someone else. Then what? What do we cut? Food? Health care? Transportation? Could I go back to riding the bus to get groceries with an infant? I guess I could if I needed to.
I actually think I would freak out more about not working. I need something that I have to be at or I get into really big trouble. Even if it's just a couple days a week. I've been unemployed before, I got nothing done. There was no reason to go to bed, no money to spend, no reason to get up in the morning. Now, I would have a baby, but that's different than a job that starts at a certain time. Plus I want my own money to spend how I see fit. Brent and I haven't combined our bank accounts yet, mostly out of laziness, but really, we don't see a point to it yet. Bills keep getting paid.
I try to write up a budget for after baby comes, but it's so hard. I think the main expense will be the birth. And I don't even know how much that will cost me out of pocket. This is partially why I say, "well, the plan right now it to give birth at HCMC," because what if it ends up not being covered for some reason. My insurance is still trying to straighten out my prenatal appointments from this year. I don't know if they will be 100% covered, or not covered at all. I can't seem to find anything online that tells me this info. And I'm not ready to venture into their phone system.
So, I guess we are going to fly by the seat of our pants for a while. Some would say, "why did you have a baby you might not be able to afford?" Well, because a baby's affordability is not something you think about when deciding to have a baby. I would be creeped out by anyone who first looked at their finances. Also, the way I see it, the world is pretty messed up and is getting worse everyday, now's as good a time as ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment