Short Answer Every parent holds a strict statutory right to claim up to three years of job-protected parental leave per child. Your employer cannot reject your scheduling allocation as long as your request arrives seven weeks in advance in valid written form — a plain email suffices for children born on or after 1 May 2025, while earlier births still require signed paper. What Most Expats Don't Realize You verbally informed your team lead that you wanted to take two months off to bond with your newborn during the winter project phase. The manager ignored the informal request and later flagged your absence as an unexcused contractual breach, executing a formal termination while you were caring for your infant — and because a spoken request creates zero statutory protection, the company's position was dangerously strong. Your parental allowance survived untouched, since Elterngeld is a separate application to the Elterngeldstelle — but you lost the job itself and burned €2,800 in legal fees fighting a termination that one formal email would have made impossible. What To Do * Send your parental leave request in writing with exact start and end dates at least seven weeks ahead — email for children born on or after 1 May 2025, registered paper letter (Einschreiben) for earlier births. * Remember the two procedures are independent: Elternzeit goes to your employer, Elterngeld goes to the state's Elterngeldstelle — failing one does not forfeit the other. * "Ich beantrage hiermit Elternzeit für mein Kind für die Dauer von zwei Monaten ab der Geburt." (I herewith apply for parental leave for my child for a duration of two months from birth.) — send this declaration in writing to activate your statutory protection from the moment it lands.