AranaDiscoteca
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I am going to lose my work bestie in April, possibly forever. I already lost my last work bestie which totally sucks. Teaching can be super isolating and having co-worker friends means a lot.
At the same time, leaving your baby after 12 weeks? Of course that's hard. Not getting any income for 3 months? Way harder. It's impossible for a single teacher, and even if your kids are older, we don't get much in the way of sick days.
This is ridiculous. The majority of teachers are female, you'd think we'd have accomodations but no. Let's churn and burn.
Florida sucks.
bezobzira
Serbia, full year fully paid for the 1st child, 2 for 2nd and onward. State funded . full health insurance for all pregnant women regardless of employment, with dental.
darkoshen
Florida, eh? Whodathunkit.
MadamPuddifoot
@op if you're anywhere near central FL, dm me. Not a teacher, but a friendless adult!
Nyxaura
Not a teacher but In az I had to use short term disability, which is 8 weeks for a c-section, but you only actually get 7 weeks paid. I had to take two weeks of pto before and after it. Went back to work at 9 weeks because even making over 65k a year I couldn’t afford to not get paid for 3 weeks.
DeadyBearr
Y'all don't have a union?
AranaDiscoteca
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA our union is struggling to convince the district to give us a raise that keeps up with the cost of living. We're stalled trying to get higher than 1.6% They only asked for 3% Cost of living is 5.3%
vicmango201410
As a Floridian, Florida sucks
Jkenda1
Oh shit, Florida still has teachers? I had kind of assumed they'd done away with that by now.
AranaDiscoteca
Fortunately, the writing of the laws are frequently as dumb as the reasons for writing them. So, there's a million ways around a lot of the dumbest ones. Have to talk about the Bible? Sure, let's learn some world religions. Can't read a book about seahorses? Have kids choose an aquatic animal for research to share. Not allowed to say DEI stuff? Just... Do it anyway, it's not like law makers actually care to check in a classroom.
CelestialSea
It's all part of the plan. The right-wing has spent decades undermining education so people are dumb enough to elect leaders like Trump.
Gearwarz
@OP were in FL too and I totally understand what you mean. My wife is the teacher and for kids 1 she had accumulated a lot for sick time. But for kid 2 it was only a weeks worth then short term disability witch we hade to pay into a year ago.
You're correct, teachers get nothing for maternity leave.
BillBarian
It’s a struggle when your superstar leaves for the 12-weeks. I’m feeling it right now at my company. Damn, we all want her back and are feeling the pain being 1-down in a small business. Gotta play the long game. Rule of life: Take the short-term pain.
JohnSmithterms
Try looking for professional, well paid part time jobs. Its almost impossible. As a parent its deeply frustrating.
VoidScreamer
Even if they do get paid maternity leave, they still end up not coming back because daycare for infants is expensive as hell. Between daycare and all the money teachers spend to supply their students adequately, they likely save money staying home and not working.
secondgoaround
Oklahoma tryna make teachers take citizenship test to get teaching certificates.
MissSiesta
Leave Florida. It's a burning dumpster fire.
SunBrolem
This is deliberate. The point is to collapse the education system. Stupid people are easier to control.
AranaDiscoteca
In the worst case scenario, what you are suggesting is that they're willing to change pay scales so that one parent can afford to pay for a household while the other does childcare. Because if school is daycare (as it is in a lot of minds for some reason) and they collapse schools in the way you're suggesting, parents mostly cannot work because they can't afford daycare. Productivity goes through the floor.
AranaDiscoteca
The education system must exist because if nothing else, they want cheap labor to go to work. This necessitates a place they send children. Men typically do not teach because of the low pay making it traditionally considered as a women's job. Unless there's a sudden change in the zeitgeist, men aren't going to be suddenly filling these roles. Collapsing education doesn't make sense from an economic standpoint in the way you are suggesting. It's under educating that's the problem.
AranaDiscoteca
Poorer schools are graded by test scores which allow districts to buy expensive programs from friendly companies to "fix" the reading gaps. Non necessary subjects (social studies, science) are stripped because reading scores and math scores are so low. Richer schools have those subjects, project based learning, and field trips which grow their experiences and thus their understanding of several different concepts. THAT is how schools are dismantled. Education gets turned into a Scantron or else.
spittytrinkles
12 Weeks equals 84 Days, Not even Three Months.
jimmythehat1
That's by design. They're crippling public school teaching so they can privatize it and funnel tax payer dollars into billionaire pockets under the guise of "better" education than what you would get from public school through a voucher system that the public would ultimately pay more for. Of course the public that could afford it would be fine, but the secondary purposeful effect is to disenfranchise poor people further
AranaDiscoteca
This is true but not at all relevant. Unless there's some robot teachers or somehow they're going to make a cultural shift wherein teaching is a job for men.
greentights
It's to create their version of education. They had Hitler youth programs. I expect something similar
OriginalAndWitty
Continued GOP strategy against public education- replace it with religious schools
AranaDiscoteca
Religious schools also don't have maternity pay and, traditionally, have even more children. How would that work?
OriginalAndWitty
That's the neat part, male priests would teach all the classes. Silly heathen, women are for staying home and getting pregnant(and/or dying for lack of healthcare).
AranaDiscoteca
Even when the country was far more puritanical and universally religious teaching was a profession for unmarried women. It's why the pay scale is so low. The idea that men are going to take over teaching is like the idea of Americans taking back the jobs that immigrants do, and for the same reasons. Teaching is inherently relegated to a caregiver profession and by those exact standards you're citing? Not a job for men. Next you'll say there should be male nurses /s
BeardicPerformance
They would probably have daycare on-site. For all their flaws (and they are legion), I have yet to see a religious org that couldn’t rustle up a half dozen women to run a daycare rotation so the rest of the moms can do whatever church activity.
AranaDiscoteca
Utterly and completely agreed. But, with the caveat that it's almost assuredly going to be women who are teaching and running the daycare. The whole thing of the good little wife is that she teaches her children and rears them because so much of early education is social. Even if it was a full on boys school, girls school... The girls are going to be taught by women.
VodkaReindeer
I have a solution: pay them a lump sum to return to work. That's we did to keep Finns from staying in Sweden where they found work during vacations decades ago.
LitchLitch
There is literally no reason good enough to continue living in Florida.
NoodleKween
Yup. Just left last July after living there my whole life.
ayeseaturtles
Our family lives here because our elderly parents live here. Staying here to take care of them. Otherwise, I'd leave immediately
LitchLitch
They can be moved or left behind if necessary.
shano510
If they need to go to a home, Florida has the country's worst, most corrupt, poorly serviced homes. Get out of Florida.
AranaDiscoteca
Unless you are going to front them bill for them to do so... And, hey, if you're doing that? You can buy our house and my mil's house so we can move her to a better place, too, right?
shano510
Totally, send me the bill 👍🏻
ayeseaturtles
I completely agree that the assisted living places here are trash. That's why we're here to help. If I could get both sets of parents moved somewhere else, where would we move to? Seriously, where is a safe place in the US right now?
LitchLitch
Wait, youre literally saying you cant leave florida because you wont make as much profit from your investments as you want?
Enjoy your future in aunshine hell, I have no sympathy for you.
AranaDiscoteca
Nice logic long jump! But, no. I can't leave Florida because it would mean paying for a home in my new place WHILE STILL paying my mortgage in Florida. I can't afford that. If I sell my house for less than I bought it, I owe money still. It would need to be as close to cost as possible to be able to afford it. At the same time, I'd need to establish a savings so I could afford to move, independent of my house selling costs. Let me break it down more simply:
IJustWantToMakeAComment
tHerE’s a TEaChER sHoRTaGe drrt drrt. Nope it’s just impossible to be a teacher and also eat food and live inside and do exotic things like go to the doctor when sick (you definitely get sick more often as a teacher- former office worker turned teacher can confirm)
Angel337
I was wondering what state... then got to the end. Have you thought of moving to a blue state?
AranaDiscoteca
My family is from Ohio and the only potential option since they'd let me live with them. Provided I found someone to buy our house we still have a mortgage for, they helped pay for us to move and also gave me the extra 1k to get my teaching license moved to Ohio. I do miss home. We live in Florida's blue dot and would go to Ohio's. Otherwise... I can't afford to move to ANY blue state. They don't pay cost of living here, saving up to a place with a higher cost of living is a pipe dream.
tesseract4d2
Keep in mind, this is intentional. They're destroying the public school system intentionally in order to allow them to divert those funds to private religious schools that don't have to follow approved curriculum. So they can teach the Bible as factual
measuredby5
The best part of being a teacher IS the time off.
maday1br
Y'all for anymore of those work from home jobs?
AranaDiscoteca
A lot of my friends do online teaching they seem to love. But, things with China have gotten really weird lately so who knows how that's gonna go
AnbaricDragon
Where are these work from home jobs? My work cut me from 15 hours to 6, which is no longer enough for me to save!
AranaDiscoteca
One of my friends got a job doing data entry. Another one does English teaching online for kids since we have an online school for kids who cannot be in class for whatever reason.
AnbaricDragon
I are goodly in English. But data entry sounds like a nice boring job to listen to music to
Jandegrote
Right but nobody is shocked this is the plan no teachers means stupid people means the right can rule without people standing up this is all part of the plan.
Exyr
Being in california its weird that people don't get paid materinity leave. Its weird enough that they only get like 80% income here. But at least it's paid and protected.
thisisnotwhatthebrochureadvertized
I mean it's disability leave... Not maternity leave. You had a baby so you need time off to heal. I adopted my son and I got nothing bc I didn't physically have him.
DeadyBearr
You also get paid baby bonding time. 6 weeks Short Term Disability and 6 weeks baby bonding time as of 2023. (Source: gave birth in California in 2023 and asked my HR everything I needed to do)
BeardicPerformance
Was that legally mandated or just company policy? And does it apply to everyone? Do waitresses and janitors get it too?
DeadyBearr
https://edd.ca.gov/en/disability/paid-family-leave/
You got a pay into it and work for a place that also does it. Unfortunately it's not universal but if you're paying benefits you probably have an STD option
Short Term Disability (may leave) and paid family leave are different. Birth parent gets the std first then pfl.
BeardicPerformance
So it’s just a company benefit. I’ve got that too, it’s not unique to California and it’s not legally required like it should be.
GreenJayBird
I used to work for a Texas company. Had to work half the day before I went to my best friends funeral, and then had to make up the hours the rest of the week. Switched to a California company. Got 12 weeks paid *as a dad* when my son was born.
Exyr
Yeah. And the cool thing is you don't have to take it alm at once. Split it between parents.
GreenJayBird
It is. I took 6 weeks when he was born to help around the house, and then 6 weeks right before he turned one. I think it was great to be able to spend that time with him when he was older, because we bonded more.
ILike2TouchButts
Paid and protected... for now....
Exyr
States rights. Right?
Puntifex
You genuinely believe anything is truly protected by the State right now?
ILike2TouchButts
... sure...
swedeonamoose
Imagine not having paid maternity leave, what kind of 3rd world shithole would that be.
ILike2TouchButts
fishysquishy
Even 3rd world countries have paid maternity leave.
AyrA
a0b1
Always that one country, what do you mean no data, wtf greenland
awkungen42
BurnieCinders
Nestle makes baby formula.
TheInitiated
Point well made
BudgiePower
In Sweden parental allowance is paid for 480 days for a child.
MeRoyMinoy
It's always insane to me that a lot of people around me blame the US for this kind of stuff while here in The Netherlands we have 16 weeks maternity leave out of which you have to take 4 or 6 weeks prior to your due date.
People need to stop saying 'at least it's not as bad as in the US'. No.. but it can be a lot better here too
AranaDiscoteca
Imagine the majority of your workforce being women, typically younger women, and you're like "Let's make this as hard as humanly possible."
Dranton12
Imagine all that plus they keep taking away your options so that you’re forced to pop out babies while dealing with all that other bullshit. Barbaric.
Throwawayaccountnumbernegativethree
Well of course; y'all do it for the love of the job, right? So why do we have to pay you anything? Plus you're women; it's not like you're the breadwinners.
(/s Gah, society sucks)
AranaDiscoteca
One of my co-workers is a single mom who had a... Challenging divorce that came with a restraining order. She has two kids under 6. Daycare for a month costs the literal whole of a paycheck and her kids definitely could use therapy to get through what just happened. They have nightmares and don't sleep so she's exhausted all the time. Then, she has 6th graders from 7 to 3. It's not possible.
Throwawayaccountnumbernegativethree
omg, I'm so sorry for her. =/
Fun fact: the reason scandinavian countries have such robust support for parents isn't because they are bleeding heart hippie liberals. It's because they realized a long time ago that having kids is hard, and if no one has kids, the economy goes all pear shaped.
I really don't get why people here don't understand that. And I really don't get why the bleeding heart liberals here don't hammer that home every day.
Rhythmaster
Well, you see, the oligarchs in America need to siphon as much money as possible from the workers, and the government, and the whole economy and society. Helping workers would cost some of that money, so they dont. But don't worry, now the plan is they will just force women to bear children, even if they can't afford it, so, problem solved, the economy will be able to be ransacked continuously for generations to come!
AranaDiscoteca
You know the two cows economic discussion? American capitalism sold one cow, forced the other to do the work of six cows, then had a bunch of meetings to examine why their one cow died. That sums up a lot about how the country thinks. There's... No cultural long term understanding for benefits; obviously it helps me if kids are raised well because I kind of want doctors around when I'm elderly. But others see it as "I don't have kids, why should I support education?"
spittytrinkles
Americans have been trying so hard to turn kids into profit. But as hard as they try, they always end up grifting the parents. But all that could change soon! Once the Orange Buffoon has deported the agricultural workforce he could repeal all those pesky Child Labor laws and spin it as "I created more jobs than Obama."
Streiquer
One of my clients from Vancouver, Canada just went on maternity leave… for a whole frigging year. I thought she was joking when she told me how long. Not sure if company policy or Canadian policy, but either way, hats off to her for the benefit, her company for not finding a way to fire her beforehand, and also Canadian government policy if that is the case.
eastherbunni
Vancouverite here: you get 12 months of benefits but can allocate the benefits over 18 months if you want. You can also split it between both parents.
AranaDiscoteca
That's amazing! Like perfect.
qazxswedcvfrtgbnhyujmkiol
We are about to have our first child in Germany. My wife will have paid time off 2 months prior to the estimated time of birth to focus on her health, and then has 12 month of paid parental leave at about 2k a month. It's not much compared to her salary, but it's obviously enormously helpful, and as an American I am very, very thankful.
DonmeccaYYZ
Paternity leave too! From what I remember I could have taken Paternity leave and received the same EI pay as my wife BUT it would have eaten into her time. Like if I took one month of Paternity leave she would only get 11 months of Maternity leave pay. Something like that.
kanybal
Yeah I think that's the really amazing part. You get 12months and decide how to split it between partners.
Had we had that in France when I gave birth, things would have been so different for me. SO only got 2 weeks off and then I had the rest (total 10weeks after birth) alone with baby. I was eager to go back to work after that.
upvoteFLUFFYthings
In addition to the info provided by @DonmeccaYYZ, some companies also pay a top up, bringing your maternity/paternity leave income to a higher level, I've seen some companies offer a top up of 75% of your regular pay for a year of leave. Mine topped me up to 80% of my regular pay for 12 weeks.
My work benefits also paid for a private room for us. Pandemic bonus, parking was free. All we paid for was food delivery because EW hospital food.
Streiquer
Thanks for the additional color, much appreciated!
DonmeccaYYZ
Good call - I forgot about top-ups!
AshesVonDust
Canadian law, her job is safe for the year. I think she takes a paycut but I'm not sure how much. And I think paternity leave is a year also, so a couple can get a good headstart with the baby.
Streiquer
Thanks for the clarification.
v
upvoteFLUFFYthings
18 months can be shared between mom and dad
Blunderwriter
Shared. But not at the same time. Don’t want to confuse any Americans they might think we’re spoiled. We missed the 12 month mat leave by a year. Came in to effect the year after our last kid. Shucks darn. Shoulda had more kids! 😝
AshesVonDust
Ooh ok, did this change recently? Tbh the last time I looked into this was before my nephew was born lol
upvoteFLUFFYthings
It changed in 2017. It's not easy though! You get the same amount of money as a 12 month leave, it's spread out to 18 months. Hard for households with tight budgets.
We were luck y enough to be able to do 18 months comfortably. I really cherished the time I had with my kid and wished for more when it was time to go back to work.
spittytrinkles
Mom first, to bond and feed and those Godawful shits! Dad will swoop in later, after you've trained them.
upvoteFLUFFYthings
I was going to do that but when it came to decision time (you can change your mind at 12 months and take 18 months) I took it all. He got none. No regrets! Hahahahahaha
spittytrinkles
Those first years are so important. He can kick rocks.
DonmeccaYYZ
It may have changed but when my wife went off it was something like this in Ontario (other side of Canada from Vancouver):
-maternity leave is 12 months (or now 18).
-You get the Maternity pay from EI (Employment Insurance) at something like 55% of your previous pay.
-That weekly pay has a minimum and a maximum.
-You have to have worked 600 hours in the 52 weeks prior to getting the pay to qualify for it.
-If you take 18 months you get the same total pay as 12 just spread out to 18.
veesee
You forgot that this is parenteral leave and not gender specific so either parent can take it.
DonmeccaYYZ
I thought about that after and did another comment about it. It’s up there somewhere!
DonmeccaYYZ
Also - your job is legally secure while you are off. If your company makes changes (like they eliminate your role completely) they would have to give you something of equal value.
DonmeccaYYZ
And last but not least - the healthcare system…
For each of our two kids we spent a few days in the hospital because of emergency c-sections. Total bill to us on the way out the door was something like $200 each time because we upgraded to a private room.
If we hadn’t upgraded the room it would have been a bill of $0.
Nyxaura
Dang, I paid the hospital 2k just last Oct for a planned c-section, and I still owe them 1,500. I’m in Arizona.
Streiquer
Awesome detail here, much appreciated!