Carnival of Maternity Leave

This blog post is in response to my friend, Victoria's post about which was written in response to her friend, Amber's request for stories about maternity leave.

The first word that comes to my mind as I recall applying for maternity leave is not so much "carnival"... more like "gong show," really. I was completely stymied when applying for maternity leave all three times, and I'm not quite sure why. I'd like to consider myself a reasonably intelligent person, perhaps a little finanicially challenged, but it seems I have a serious mental block when it comes to filling out any sort of government forms.

When on mat leave with my first, Trevor, I buggered up the application. I still don't really understand what I did wrong; maybe I only applied for maternity and not parental benefits, or maybe I omitted a 2 week report before I was approved to be exempt from reporting. Anyway, when Trevor was about 4 months old and the sleep deprivation was starting to be somewhat less paralyzing, I noticed that all of sudden we were totally broke. It wasn't until I checked our bank account history online that I figured out that EI had cut me off. I had to do a written appeal and go down to the office with my nurse-around-the-clock first baby to suck up to a Service Canada agent in person. I eventually got reinstated to receive the remainder of those benefits but lost out on that month of benefits that I missed without realizing it.

My mat leave for Amy came hard on the heels of my first mat leave. I had gone back half-time and summer fell in the middle of my pregnancy so it was going to be pretty tight to make the 600 hours in order to qualify for benefits. I called EI to ask how many hours per day teachers are considered to work and was told 9.1 hours per day. I figured out when I wanted to go on mat leave and realized that I would need to TOC on most of my off-days for the entire fall (essentially working full time) in order reach the magical number of 600 hours. No problem. I actually quite enjoyed TOC-ing and figured I could get the hours in with about a two weeks to spare. I went off on mat leave, Amy arrived a week or so early and a week after that I received a notice saying my claim was denied!!! My SD calculated my number of hours based on some daily average formula and I only had 596 hours. That's right. I was short by 4 measly hours. I plunked the Wiggles DVD on repeat in the machine and set on repeat for Trevor, stuck Amy on my breast and sat on the phone for the better part of an entire day with my SD and EI and learned that I could still qualify for benefits if I worked one more day and then reapplied. Yes, you read that right. I had to go back to work for one day with bursting boobies, a two week old baby that nursed about 25 times per day, and an 18 month old who really couldn't get enough of Mommy at that point. Gong show. Truly. I eventually did qualify for the rest of my benefits, but lost out on those first three weeks just in time for Christmas. Ho ho ho.

This is my third time on maternity leave and I did manage to get the application in successfully this time, but I was definitely a little skittish about it...is my last day worked really the last day I was at work, or is it the last day of that work week?...what about Spring Break, it's a paid holiday?...blahblahblah. I even have access to someone who works for Service Canada who cannot and would not handle any specifics of my claim but who I could call and ask questions (rather than waiting on hold for half a day) about filling out my application. I had to call him multiple times and was still confused. Don't even get me started on the paperwork involved for my district pay the top-up benefits for the first 15 weeks, none of which can be done until after the baby is born and you're completely sleep-deprived!

So, the first change I'd like to see is a simplification and de-bureaucratization of the application process. If I feel frustrated and confused by it and I'm a generally competent and well-educated person, I can't imagine how someone who is socio-economically disadvantaged would cope with some of the hurdles I encountered. Ideally, I'd like to see maternity leave benefits better funded by the federal government for a longer period of time, however, in the current economic climate that's not likely to happen anytime soon. Our family is really penny-pinching this year and we have two incomes; I don't know how a single mom would be able to make a go of it living in the Lower Mainland and relying on maternity benefits. The 50 weeks we currently have is certainly better than what it used to be in the '90's (6 months), but I'd really like to see it extended to two years.

For all my griping about getting off the ground with EI, I really am grateful to have been able to spend that full year with all three of my babies. This time around, I am really appreciating the time I have not only with Gavin but also supporting Trevor and Amy through the transition as we all settle into being a family of five. I am really trying to be in the moment of enjoying this time with my children and not stressing about how fast it's going by and how we'll all have to re-adjust when the time runs out and I'm back to work again.