I was on paternity leave. You should go too!

Our family had grand plans for how we were going to tackle parenting. We even took professional courses, listened to some fantastic podcasts, and read some excellent books to prepare. However, we quickly realized that most of our plans were thrown out the window within the first few weeks. Parenting is quite an adventure!

Even before the birth, I knew I wanted to support my wife in returning to work quickly. She is a hard worker, my own career motivator, and THE successful woman.

Reality was different. Despite being aware of my original plans, it wasn't that easy to leave my “comfortable” working life. AND THAT IS THE MAIN REASON WHY EVERY DAD SHOULD TAKE PATERNITY LEAVE. Believe me, most of us need this kind of #realitycheck.

In our case, parenting isn't in the "ordinary/old school" scheme: dad is responsible for money and mom for our family. As I wrote before, my wife is a superwoman; if she could, she would take care of everything—she is like that by nature. And maybe this is the bottom line of why this role is that hard for me.

So my message here to you, dads, is to take your paternity leave, at least somehow. I was on 50% paternity leave during Q4/2023, and it was an interesting experience. Thanks to that, we had a 50:50 work regime, which was important for my wife. I enjoyed that (even though it was challenging for me), and I believe our son enjoyed more dad-son moments as well.

Additional reasons why you should consider this:

• Even if you are an open-minded and supportive partner, this experience will show you that being on full-time duty with the child is an entirely different game.
• It introduces a new dimension to your productivity at work and will check your work-life balance.
• You will be in a better position to engage in discussions about parenting with your partner. ;-)

I know there are many factors that can influence your opportunity to go on a shorter contract, but that's a topic for another discussion. And because we are on LinkedIn, having a great team behind you is essential. Thank you to my family. And thank you to my team for your support: Tereza Dvořáková , Jakub Vanas , Eva Zubec , Krystof Paleta , and Jakub Pos . Thank you, Miroslav Rech and MultiSport Benefit s.r.o.

Respect to Petra Krištof