I'm not a parent yet, but I'll be turning 30 and getting married this year, so the thought of children has started to come up in conversation with my partner. I'm an American woman marrying a British man, so there are some cultural differences that come up when we discuss many subjects.
My career is very important to me. I support any woman who wants to make the choice to be a SAHM, but for me the thought has never even entered my mind. My partner knows this and is supportive of this, but yesterday we were having a discussion and he made a comment about how our future children will feel neglected because they will have two working parents. I was shocked by this. I had two parents in professional careers, as did most of the other children in my school, I never felt unloved or as if my parents were choosing work over raising me. I wasn't brought up to think that being a working parent was something to feel guilty about.
I was reading some of the threads on here and was most concerned about people mentioning that school starts at 9. Is this true across the board? How on earth are you supposed to get your child to school in time to get to work?
I lived in a suburb of a major city that many parents commuted to for work. School started at 7:30 (8:00 for primary) but you could drop your children off up to an hour early at no cost because the school served breakfast and children would be all be supervised in the cafeteria. There were several services in town that picked children up from school and took them to a centre where there were computers for homework, outdoor play areas and indoor recreation. This lasted until were were around 11. After that there were so many after school activities and sports practices that started right when school ended and last until 5 or 6pm. The children who weren't involved in after school activities were very few and far between, and they were usually the ones who were getting into trouble all the time.
So I guess my question is, for the working mothers on here, how do you balance work and raising your children. What are the main differences between my experiences in the US, and what my experience will be as a parent in the UK? What are the biggest challenges for you as a working parent.
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Balancing Work and Parenting
16 replies
Anna275 · 20/03/2016 04:30
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