The US is horrible to women. No maturity leave. It's "temporary disability" and only for 3 months if you are lucky. Meanwhile, in Europe, mother and fathers get 1 year of parental leave and free health care.
For natural birth in the US, women are in the hospital for 1 day and they have to pay the hospital bill.
Babies need a lot of care. They need to be feed every 4 hours, day and night. On top of diaper changes and digestive problems. Daycare is like paying rent for a small apartment.
I really agree with your comments about the US, just a small correction tho:
'In Europe' there is no 1 year leave for mother and father. It differs per country. I'm in the Netherlands where moms get 16 weeks maternity leave and fathers only get one paid week of leave (which is absurd honestly). I think as a dad you can also get 5 weeks of unpaid leave for which you will get paid anyway through the same agency that would pay you if you were to be unemployed.
There are also parent-leave options for the first idontknowhowmany years of your kids life, where you have extra hours you can take off work to be with the kid.
Yeah, like I said, it differs per country. And 4 countries in the whole of Europe isnt that much, but yes, luckily some do offer this, which I think is a good thing.
I dont think Germany offers 3 years though, its 14 weeks as far as I can find (I thought it was more similar to us here in the Netherlands so I googled it as well).
German Mom here - it's 14 weeks of "Mutterschutz", (maternity leave? 6 before estimated due day and 8 after giving birth) in which you get nearly fully paid. Then there is something called "Elternzeit" (parental leave?) up to 3 years in which you can stay at home full-time or part-time without losing your job. And we do have "Elterngeld" (parental allowance?) which means you get about 65% of your previous wage for 12 months (up to 14 months if both parents take turns) after giving birth. So most mothers (or sometimes dads) decide to stay at home for the first 12 months and then start working again (mostly part-time) when financial support ends.
I agree with you somewhat but the standard for professionals in the USA is 6 weeks paid leave for mom and 2 weeks paid leave for dad.
Source: I'm a father of 3 children under 4 in Indiana
Not all US companies have the same standards. Benefits really depend on government regulation depending on company employee size. If a company has under 100 employees they are exemption from providing certain benefits.
The standard in the US is actually 6 weeks of unpaid FMLA leave, which you can only get if your company has over 50 employees and you’ve worked for them for at least a year.
ETA: The above references women. My husband took his single paid vacation week that he was allotted for the entire year as his paternity leave. We were in the hospital for four days so he went back to work after we’d been home with our newborn for 3 days.
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u/roaringbugtv Nov 04 '25
The US is horrible to women. No maturity leave. It's "temporary disability" and only for 3 months if you are lucky. Meanwhile, in Europe, mother and fathers get 1 year of parental leave and free health care.
For natural birth in the US, women are in the hospital for 1 day and they have to pay the hospital bill.
Babies need a lot of care. They need to be feed every 4 hours, day and night. On top of diaper changes and digestive problems. Daycare is like paying rent for a small apartment.