Everyone knows that parenting is a tough and tiring job and that they deserve some much needed rest.
But in Sweden, it seems as though parents are taking advantage of the law for their own personal gain, using their children’s illnesses to take sick leaves and earn money.
According to The Local, Sweden pays 80 percent salary costs to parents if they are unable to go to work because their child is sick. But hundreds of parents have been caught lying about their children’s health.
In fact, there have been over 400 reports on cheating parents says the Swedish police, and that more than half of them are mothers.
Although there are some who fake their child’s illness to get some day off and earn at the same time, the truth of the matter is that caring for a sick child remains a difficult task for all parents.
“Pre-baby I thought people could be faking their children’s sick days. They often called at the last minute. They sounded fine. They were just getting out of a day’s work, I thought. Shame on me,” says Rachel Curtis in her Mama Mia report. “Since returning to work, I can now fully understand the horrible conflict between having to work and caring for a sick child.”
She adds: “I’m not talking about serious illnesses, I’m talking about common colds, tummy bugs or 4am meltdowns. I now realize the reality of how hard it is to do normal things with even a mildly sick child. My pre-baby self thought that a child sick day was a relaxing day off for parents lucky enough to have snotty children.”
Basically, working parents who have two jobs, the one they have in the office and the one they have at home. Parents have to attend meetings, answer e-mails, get stuff done, and on top of that they are burdened with the full-time commitment to their child.
One parent told AIFS, “I have to use my own sick leave for the children when they’re sick and then when it comes to taking it for myself, I don’t have any left.”
Another parent said: “I want some special leave. If you have to do things for family matters, then you shouldn’t have to pretend it is sick leave. We all do it and pretend we don’t.”
People in Sweden were lying about child sick leave to make some extra money, gripes Rachel, meanwhile the “parents in Australia have to lie about their own sick days so they can care for their child.”
READ: Government seeks to increase maternity leave to 100 days
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