Mark Zuckerberg Really Wanted Another Daughter—And He'll Be Taking Two Months Off To Bond With Her

Photo: Facbeook.com/mark

The CEO and founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, shared a recent photo of his two-year-old daughter Max, alongside their family dog, Beast, with a sentimental caption about taking time off to bond with her and his wife, Priscilla Chan. “I will always be grateful I could spend so much time with her in the first few months of her life,” he wrote.

In March, he announced via Facebook that he and Chan are expecting their second daughter and touched on the difficulties they’d had trying to conceive Max, which included three miscarriages. His first hope upon learning of wife’s pregnancy was that the baby would be healthy; his second hope was that it would be a little girl: “I grew up with three sisters,” he wrote, “and they taught me to learn from smart, strong women….We are better people because of the strong women in our lives.”

The social media mogul plans to skip out on work-duties to enjoy the latest addition to his family tree, writing: “This time, I’m going to take advantage of Facebook’s option to take leave in parts,” he posted, ”I’ll take a month off to be with Priscilla and the girls at the beginning, and then we’ll spend the whole month of December together as well.” He added that he’s looking forward to “bonding with the new little one and taking Max on adventures.”

Citing studies that have demonstrated the health benefits of family bonding when new babies arrive, he noted that his company offers four fully paid months of maternity and paternity leave. To calm the nerves of employees who might be afraid of stepping out of the office for a long stretch, he wrote: “I’m pretty sure the office will still be standing when I get back.”