This Woman Wants People Without Children to Get Maternity Leave, Too

Meghann Foye was working as a magazine editor in her early 30s when she noticed a trend: Her coworkers with children would leave at 6 p.m., “while it was assumed coworkers without kids would stay behind to pick up the slack,” she told New York Post. “There’s something about saying ‘I need to go pick up my child’ as a reason to leave the office on time that has far more gravitas than, say, ‘My best friend just got ghosted by her OkCupid date and needs a margarita’—but both sides are valid.”

Since she doesn’t have children, Foye said she never got the desired “me time” that she saw the parents in her office receive. So she invented “meternity leave.” “Women are bad at putting ourselves first,” she said. “But when you have a child, you learn how to self-advocate to put the needs of your family first. A well-crafted ‘meternity’ can give you the same skills—and taking one shouldn’t disqualify you from taking maternity leave later.”

Foye has a book called Meternity on the topic that was released April 26—but Twitter users are not having it:

Some moms opted to open up about what life is truly like when you have a newborn:

Read more: How to Build a Support System of Working Parents

Others agreed with giving everyone adequate vacation time but said that it shouldn’t be equated to maternity leave:

We want to hear what you think: