a coup d'etat

I started breaking the news at work. Not to everyone, just close personal friends. I'm going to tell the students that work with my research project tomorrow (the 2 main ones) and then everyone else will be next week. The people I told include 3 people that were hired at the same time as me, all of which are planning on having children in the next year or so so they were genuinely happy for me (not the "oooh that's great....so did I tell you about this crazy dream I had?") which was fun. Also fun for me for my own selfish reasons of more people my kid can play with (and I can still hang out with my friends and they won't be annoyed by my kid).

But it all brought up this understanding that we all had regarding parental leave. We were all under the impression that we get a semester off of teaching (because we get 12 weeks total: 6 weeks of parental leave and 6 weeks of family medical leave....not really important but it adds up to 12 weeks which is the important part). So they thought I had it made because I'm having the baby in October (besides dealing with the remaining 6 weeks of classes to get through, I'll have a month off over winter break and then the whole spring semester, which segues nicely into summer. Brilliant.) Well turns out it might not be so brilliant (not that I was the mastermind behind all of this). The verdict is still out, but because I am having the baby halfway through the semester (well that verdict is in) I have to take my parental leave right away - and then the FML can start the beginning of the spring semester. So basically I get 6 weeks off at the end of one semester, and 6 weeks off the beginning of the next. Translation? Who knows. Unlike other positions at the university, we are obligated to teach in whole semesters. So right now I am committed to teach the entire fall semester (despite having leave on the second half) and it is questionnable if I would have to teach in the spring when I come back 6 weeks into the semester. That part is still being decided, but if the answer isn't ("of course you don't have to teach in the Spring") we are in the process of staging a coup. Another faculty member is writing the women's organization on campus for their input of policies in other departments. There really should be a standard set for faculty members because this is obviously something that will/does effect people all the time - and the fact that there isn't a real policy about it creates anxiety over something that you can't do anything about now (the baby is definitely coming!). Apparently you need to have babies on Jan 15 in order for it to be clearly a semester off. Either that or I'm thinking of taking off part way through the semester and picking up 12 weeks later :) But the ironic thing about all this - is the amount of money it will cost for them to pay someone to teach a class for me is so minimal. Actually it is $6100 ($3050 per course). So I'm not even asking for a semester off of work (I still plan to keep up my research and committee obligations) I just want someone to teach my classes.