About us

Hello. We’re Kat and Dave, and we took Shared Parental Leave when our baby was born. We knew we wanted to parent equally from the start and so took Shared Parental Leave instead of “maternity” and “paternity” leave which allowed us each to enjoy time off as primary parent. We did four months each as primary parent, with a month overlap together in the middle.

We both loved seeing our baby grow and we developed as parents ourselves too as we learnt the ropes. Each taking time to look after our little one whilst the other was at work meant we both knew what it was like to be at home with a baby to care for, feed, keep safe, happy and entertained. And we also knew what it was like to return to our work selves too. We took joy in the milestones, smiles, rolling over and first solid foods and it felt good to share our experiences with others and do our best to role model shared parenting.

There were however some surprises along the way - it seemed there was mis-information, lack of knowledge and available support, plus the loneliness that can come from being in the less than 2-4% of couples who take Shared Parental Leave each year. So Kat’s subsequently been speaking up for Shared Parental Leave both as a case study, in media pieces and through this site. Right now, sharedparentalleave.com’s goal is simple: to get more dads to take Shared Parental Leave in the first year of their child’s life.    

We’re continuing to shape the site, and we want to create something positive and useful that can help parents take Shared Parental Leave here in the UK. We’d love to hear from parents who’ve taken leave, didn’t feel able to, or are wanting to take some but aren’t quite sure how - you can all help us shape sharedparentalleave.com into something helpful.