This is an amusing article but aside from that it turns the idea of paid maternity leave and baby bonuses on it's head. I think it is somewhat tongue in cheek but it also has a kind of perverse underlying truth to it.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/i-really-regret-it-i-really-regret-h...
Ms. Maier tends to agree with those French feminists who see the country's generous maternity-leave provisions (16 weeks at full-time pay) and its healthy cash payments for additional children (1,000 euros a month for each child after No. 2) as tools of oppression: By rewarding motherhood, the state is preventing the success of women, keeping them out of the work force, trapping them in a prison of domesticity. And allowing women to believe that children are the answer.
Baby Bonuses
Quebec
1988 - 500 for each of the first two and 3000 per child born thereafter.
1991 - 500 for the first child 1000 for the second and 7,500 for each child thereafter
1992 raised to 8000 per child third and subsequent children
Above and beyond the single cash pay outs in 1090 monthly per child payments ranged from 9.77 to 19.49 per child depending again on number of children.
Yet another set of bonuses increases based on the number of children under 6 in the household.
Thoughts?