Yeah, I’ve got a bad wrist, a bad elbow, a bad shoulder, my knee hurts a lot, I get a lot of stomach pains…thanks for your concern, though. 
It’s all paid through Employment Insurance.
I just read that website. 15 weeks for maternity, 35 weeks for parental, and either parent is eligible. That’s pretty incredible. Of course, there’s also benefits paid for care of the elderly, care of sick children, care of any family member, etc.
My wife just said “How the hell do they get anything done up there?”
You were doing well until the last bit. I am hardly wailing and gnashing, and I fail to see how anything I’ve said indicates that I lack personal responsibility. Anyway …
I think I said paid leave - if I didn’t, then that was my mistake. Even so, I know I said “by choice” and I personally don’t feel that having one’s mother die of cancer is a choice. And we certainly didn’t have the choice to pay someone else to take care of her, hence the necessity of my SILs to come out. The costs of having dogs has nothing to do with it since we didn’t expect or get any outside help, other than her Medicare.
Not at full salary. Its 55%, I believe, and capped at some value that I don’t recall at the moment. We still went heavily into our line of credit with our last child for the first year.
Capped at $48k, or so. That’s higher than our maximum unemployment benefits down here.
Is the woman in the video Canadian? I thought she was a self employed woman from the US?
She has to be talking about a different video, based on that description. Must be.
Sorry, my irritation with the video from the OP is separate from the maternity leave discussion (although I guess it all fall under the same broad umbrella). I didn’t make that clear enough.
Just a note for anyone who is new here, curlcoat is crazy.
Your irritation is not rational. The video is directed to other parents trying to put a funny spin on how your day can get derailed. It is not an actual apology, nor was it ever meant to be. It is not trying to tell the child free how tough parents have it at all. The woman is laughing at herself and her family life and trying to make a little money off of it. That’s it.
Both you and your husband seem to be finding a whole bunch of stuff to get pissed about from this video. I can’t imagine why this would even impact your life at all.
It’s not the choice to be child-free that I think is weird, it’s the resentment some people have towards children (who are, you know, people just like you and me).
And, by the way…being gay is NOT a “lifestyle choice,” like deciding whether or not to have children. I find the comparison rather offensive.
It is hardly unforeseeable that our parents will die. If your wish is to take care of them when they are ailing, it is your responsibility to prepare for that. From your telling, you and your husband didn’t do that and that is a pity. What that doesn’t allow you to do is outright lie about the situation. You clearly stated that the only leave allowed, by choice, was maternity leave. You even underlined it. You were doing well right up until you backpedaled.
Being born lacking whatever it is that makes people want to have kids isn’t a lifestyle choice, either.
That is so not the same thing as sexual orientation, I am flabbergasted that you would even begin to think it was.
Now I am confused; I never made a choice to want babies or not want them - I’ve never had any interest in them. Gay people don’t make a choice to be gay or not; they are born gay. Seems similar to me. How do you think the two are different?
Wait, what? I don’t even know what to say here…
No being gay is not a lifestyle choice. Neither is being born without the urge to procreate. Your “lifestyle choice” comment suggests to me that you expect gay people to also procreate because that’s just what everyone does. I find your lack of understanding of this concept offensive.
No one has started a thread to condemn you and your wife for not having kids. Good try on the straw man, though.
Oh and on your edit, jeez, you got even more ridiculous. Yes, us mommies expect gay people to procreate. Really?!? You are both a little nuts about topics involving children.