My parental leave

February 20, 2006

During the winter 2005/06 I had the chance to spend a lot of 'quality time' with my kids at home. A rather nice Canadian law lets parents in Canada take time off to spend with their baby up until the kids turn one and pays them employment insurance benefits for several months. The University of Lethbridge, my employer, tops this up for 17 weeks so it actually became feasible for me to spend time at home. Of course, my boss also had to agree to let me go for a while. To these institutions/people goes the credit for me having this opportunity in the first place!

The main point was to watch the kids - of course. While Jasper is the actual reason why I could take parental leave in the first place, Berend with his three years was a lot more demanding in terms of depth of interaction. Reading books is always an easy thing to do and got me out of a lot of trouble (even though I started rethinking the idea of reading him Grimm's fairy tales for bedtime stories - my current favorite is 1001 Arabian Nights) and he loves to visit with other kids (incredible how hard it is to set up play-dates; there just doesn't seem to be any time in a day!). We were also tremendously lucky that this winter was ridiculously warm and we were able to spend a lot of time outside and on playgrounds.

I even got some of the big activities done as I had hoped: We went to the Buffalo Jump, Writing-On-Stone, horse stables, and swimming or gymnastics every now and then. Sometimes this felt like a full schedule but, stretched out over four months, it really wasn't very busy at all. Berend loved the Buffalo Jump and really enjoyed the idea that bison jump over a cliff. He re-enacted the event on the visitor's platform (tumbling himself off a big rock) and told me a slightly adjusted story of chasing lions and jumping tigers several times over. Whenever he sees cliffs by a river he tells me that this is where the bison jump. I was quite happy he enjoyed the trip.

Jasper went through so much developmental progress during these four months, it is quite stunning. He started 'reading' books, speed-crawling through the house, waving for good-bye, throwing kisses, throwing balls, etc. He is a very happy little guy who only very rarely has to cry vehemently because nobody understands what he needs. He is so out-going and people-oriented, I am really curious to see whether this persists through the years.

What can I say: Of course, these were great months. I learnt a lot about myself and came to appreciate much more what it means to raise a child. The time has been very busy. Just so many things happened left and right (above and beyond 'just' taking care of the kids) that I felt like I was drowning more than once. But life always goes on and so I will be back to work after this week. I look forward to be able to actually do some work on all the exciting things that should be happening in 2006. And I look forward to more time with Jennifer and the boys in 2006.

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