56% of Parents fear negative career impact of seeking Parental Leave

56% of parents fear their career will be negatively impacted by them asking for parental leave, according to the findings of a report looking at the relationships between parents and technology conducted by Care.com, the world’s leading online marketplace for finding and managing family care. 

The report, which quizzed more than 800 parents in Britain about the role of technology in their families, asked respondents to explain how the impact of screen time, mobile phone and social media usage affected their day-to-day lives. 

Staggeringly, more than half of respondents stated they worried their career would be negatively impacted by them asking for parental leave. A further 41% worried their manager would be insensitive or not understand their reasons for taking time out of their career to have children. 

Commenting on the figures, Katrin Lewandowski, family expert at Care.com, said: 

"Parental leave is an important time for both the parents and the new children. Being able to spend time bonding with their newborn is something most parents value highly and in the majority of cases, this is facilitated by workplaces. 

It is, however, disappointing that so many parents still feel their careers could be negatively impacted by seeking parental leave, suggesting practices amongst workplaces still need to be improved.”