Paid parental leave: Dad leaves job after snarky comments

The extension of paid parental leave to 22 weeks next year - rising to 26 weeks by 2020 - is brilliant, say parents who have been forced to go back to work after just a few months with their new baby.

Donna and Simon White had to make hard decisions for financial reasons after their first child, George, was born. Donna could only take five months off before returning to work as an ESOL teacher.

Simon and Donna's mothers shared George's childcare between them, looking after him five days a week.

"I would have stayed off for a year if I could," Donna said. "There were a couple of people in my coffee group who went back part-time but I was the first to go back full-time. Most of the others stayed off for a year."

Twenty-six weeks of paid leave - which the new Government has promised will be in force by 2020 - would have made a huge difference, Donna said.

"You're being pulled in both directions ... The first year is so important," she said. "They're developing and growing so rapidly and you feel like you're missing out on all that stuff."

Simon's previous employer often made snarky comments when he had to take time off to look after George - suggesting that that was the mum's job. It was so bad that the day their second child, Imogen, was born, he handed in his notice.

Donna went back to work part-time when Imogen was seven months old. The baby spent half her time at daycare and half with Donna's mother. That was hard enough at first - Imogen refused to take a bottle so from 7am till 2pm she wasn't eating anything. But being part-time has made a big difference, Donna said.

"I feel like I know her better."

Donna said she at times felt like a bad mother going back to work. The extension of paid leave would have been "a huge stress relief", although the Whites don't plan to have more kids so won't benefit from it. "It's good for other people though," she said.

"Simon makes good money in IT. Imagine what people have to deal with if they don't - what if your husband was a cleaner or they're working in a supermarket?"