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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To hate, loathe and detest when mothers

227 replies

Norklessnora · 21/08/2014 21:36

Call themselves a 'full time mum'. You are either a stay at home mum, or a working mum. All are full time parents and all work bloody hard. Hate it.

OP posts:
BauerTime · 22/08/2014 10:41

I dont think its intended as an insult, its more likely to be used as a way of covering up any insecurities they have about being judged on not working outside of the home. They are not having a dig at you, rather trying to deflect negativity away from themselves. Its sad that they feel like they need to justify themselves tbh.

PossumPoo · 22/08/2014 10:52

I just think it sounds a bit twee and if I'm honest I silently judge. Nothing against sahp or wahp but I just think it's a shit phrase.

Its a touchy subject though. A good friend of mine has said she didn't have DC to let someone else raise them so gave up a good job to become dependant financially on her DP who never gives her money so she is always skint. She is happy being at home with DC so I think good for her.

OwlCapone · 22/08/2014 10:55

I dont think its intended as an insult, its more likely to be used as a way of covering up any insecurities they have about being judged on not working outside of the home.

[snort]

And, equally*, mothers who work only complain about it due to their insecurities about working whilst their children are in nursery.

*ie not at all

summerberries · 22/08/2014 12:16

Yes, it's an irritating phrase but your reaction is over the top.

I don't think people who call themselves 'full time mother' necessarily do more 'mothering'. A SAHM with school aged children doesn't spend more time 'mothering' than mothers who work during school hours so it doesn't feel a particularly accurate description unless someone is actually 'mothering' all day.
I also don't think that it is always used a simple description. I have had it used to me smugly, accompanied by 'my wife is a full time mum as it is best for the children' by a work colleague, who knew that I was a working mother.

However, I am fed up with the amount of stick that women (always women) get in the media about whether they work or look after their children. It is such a personal decision and no one else's business.

TheSultanofPing · 22/08/2014 12:57

I think people should be able to call themselves whatever they like. If they were calling someone who works a 'part time mum', then fair enough...but they aren't.

Why do some people seem to see everything as an insult against them?

Surreyblah · 22/08/2014 18:52

Possum, if your friend isn't married and her DP has that attitude she isn't being sensible.

ArsenicyOldFace · 22/08/2014 18:58

I prefer full-time mum to SAHM, which sounds like a mother with agoraphobia

Very true Catsize.

It is odd that if women spend any period of their lives looking after their children FT themselves rather than delegating childcare to employees, society falls over itself to redefine them in terms of their houses.

soverylucky · 22/08/2014 19:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BlackeyedSusan · 22/08/2014 19:50

SAHP here. working is to provide for the children someone has to do it. sometimes both parents need to do it. just another aspect of parenting.

what annoys me is when there is no place to say stay at home parent on forms rather than housewife.

Nottinghill1 · 22/08/2014 20:30

I say that I'm the nanny!!!

Mrsfrumble · 22/08/2014 20:38

"Homemaker" actually appears as a occupation on some forms here in the US. I feel like Betty Draper when I tick it!

When asked in conversation I just say I'm on a career break and I look after my children full-time. Can I say that without causing offence? Because I'm not trying to imply anything about anyone else when I say it, I'm just talking about myself and trying to answer a question honestly and accurately (children are 3 and 1 and with me 24/7).

ArsenicyOldFace · 22/08/2014 20:42

Maybe full-time motherER would be ok?

That is after all what you are doing FT MrsF, not making homes or being married to houses Hmm but practical hands-on mothering (as opposed to delegating part of the time while you undertake paid employment).

Have I cracked it? What do I win?

JoyceDivision · 22/08/2014 20:44

i would say I am a JCB. About the same size as one and spend most ofmy time shifting shit round the house after the dc, but when at work often shifting shitround there too.

With milk.

Can I have a prize?

DaisyFlowerChain · 22/08/2014 23:20

It's a crap phrase, nobody is a part time parent if they work or their child is in school.

You are either employed or unemployed, if the latter then just say you don't work rather than try and make up a title that's silly.

HaroldLloyd · 22/08/2014 23:46

There seems no way phrasing it that doesn't offend or irritate someone.

Maybe it could be communicated through the medium of the dance?

ArsenicyOldFace · 22/08/2014 23:48

Hey! 'Through the medium of dance' is my copyright Wink

ArsenicyOldFace · 22/08/2014 23:49
Goldmandra · 22/08/2014 23:49

You are either employed or unemployed, if the latter then just say you don't work rather than try and make up a title that's silly.

Looking after children full time is working.

ArsenicyOldFace · 22/08/2014 23:53

Indeed it is Gold

WanderingTrolley1 · 23/08/2014 00:00

Surely there must be more important things to get your knickers in a twist over, OP.

A full time mum.

Coffeeinthepark · 23/08/2014 07:01

I've definitely seen this debates before.

I work. Not only does full time mum not offend me, I actually think it is a reasonable description. I do not parent while at work. It is in every way different to being at home with young children. And that is one of the reasons to go to work. Most of the time I do not even think about parenting in work.

Right now I am on maternity leave and a full time mum in every sense. Logically I would suggest those with only school age children during school hours are not really full time mums.

treaclesoda · 23/08/2014 07:35

Unemployed means jobless, or not currently working. stay at home parents do work. Just not in a way that pleases those who only see work as valid if it comes with a monetary reward.

Sootgremlin · 23/08/2014 07:36

Yes, taking offence at the way other people describe themselves is down to their insecurity. Ridiculous!

The term stay at home mum exists only as a counterpart to the phrase work out of the home mum, both are such weird phrases. If you work, you can just say you work? Having to shoehorn 'mum' in there somewhere seems to smack more of insecurity than the reverse.

My DH is a not a work out of the home dad, nor is is he a 'full-time dad' and I doubt he could give a monkeys whether other dads describe themselves as such. Why is it only women that tie themselves in knots over these things? I think it really sets us back, all this weird infighting over terminology.

I am at home looking after children the hours of 9 and 5. I am not performing childcare duties between those hours, I am their mother. If you work outside the home you are not performing mothering duties between those hours, so why does it bother you that someone who is describes themselves as doing it full-time?

I have no vested interest in this btw. In my personal life if someone asks what I do, I say I'm at home with the children at the moment, and then get on with talking about something more interesting.

However, I have been in countless official situations in rl where someone has asked me what I do and whenever I've come up with some waffly response to attempt to describe it, they step in and go "full time mum". Because that is the reason I'm at home. To look after children full-time in my capacity as their mother. If you work you don't love your children any less than me, you are not any less their mother, but you're not wiping their arses while you're at work. It's short hand that everyone understands.

I can see if it's in your face on facebook with people saying "just love being a full time mummy to my wonderful kids" yes that's irritating. But that is really those people, and facebook that you loathe. It's not someone who just wants to make form filling an easier experience for themselves.

marcopront · 23/08/2014 07:44

Two questions.

  1. Those of you who spend all day with your children and call yourself a full time mum, do you consider their father to be a part time father?

  2. Someone said
    It's really quite straightforward:
    Full time mother = one who is physically doing the mothering stuff all day
    Working mother = one who is in paid employment.

I am a teacher, my DD attends my school. Yesterday she was feeling ill, so I went to see her and give her a cuddle. For those five minutes did I stop being a teacher and become a mother. And on those occasions when she is in my classroom or a meeting with me, what am I?

Snowfedup · 23/08/2014 07:54

When asked what you do, could people not just refer to their career or job prior to having children and then say they have stopped since having children ? My mil was a midwife until she had ds that's what I tell people when asked (even though that was 30 odd years ago)

I'm surprised people define themselves so much by their motherhood - surely most people now a days worked before children ?