I haven’t written on this blog in two years for a very good reason: I didn’t take a child care leave for my second child.
From April 2010 to March 2011 I took a one year of child care leave of absence from my workplace in Japan, which was a national school and thus was obligated by law to grant me leave for up to two years. When I returned from the leave, I experienced both negative and positive reactions from my colleagues. Keep in mind, however, that (a) child care leave for fathers is being encouraged in Japan and (b) there is a serious lack of children in Japan. Of course, the (b) point could be said for most of East Asia in general, but the (a) point is unique outside the Scandanavian countries.
My second daughter was born in January 2012, at the end of the first academic year back from the child care leave. As much as I wanted, I just couldn’t do another leave, especially not so soon after the first. There were several reasons: my colleagues already resented me for the first leave, I was just defending my doctoral dissertation and was preparing to apply to other positions, and my income had been severely affected by not being paid for a full year. What I didn’t mention in previous posts was that my pension from both my school and from the national pension system had been affected by not paying into either system for a year. Later in 2011, my wife and I began to search earnestly for a house and when we settled on a location, I had to rely on both her and her parents for the down payment (as a national civil servant at the time, it was however easier for me to get the housing loan…)
I just switched jobs in April 2013 to a private university, for better pay, more prestige, and better working conditions (this last one is, apparently, considered debatable, but this is not the proper forum for such talk). I’m better off financially than I have been in years, have successfully published, have a wonderful wife who works extremely hard and deserves all the accolades she earns. My oldest daughter is going to turn 5 this coming May and can speak two languages, as well as draw and play piano much better than her daddy. But I regret not being able to take a leave for my youngest. I feel like I have missed something by her being accepted into the same nursery school as my oldest.
So why write now? Continue reading
Taking Leave 