To wonder why people have children when they clearly put their career first, by having a 24hr maternity nurse from day one and a full-time nanny from 3 months?

[gogetter]

Call me old fashioned but why bother when you are going to see your child for maybe an hour a day on weekdays?
It's not financially needed for mum to return to work (far from) so why leave your teeny weeny baby with a nanny during the most amazing time of their lifes?

A bit strange I fear!

Also, you're probably never going to learn mathematics once leaving school whereas most people manage to learn how to run a household.

NKF - very true. I learnt a lot in those first few weeks out of home ...

PPl did you not have the option to do Home Ecomomics at school?

I did take it but it was very basic, boiling eggs, balancing a checkbook. I only took one semster because it was obvious that it was treated as a class for flunkies instead of being for those who actually wanted to learn.

NFK you are right, I hadn't thought about quite like that but I still feel that kids should leave scchool better prepared

To be fair Paula, I don't intend to me the kind of mother that does everything for their children so that they are useless when they leave home.

But ironing will probably be one skill that they could be a bit lacking in....

And no, I have no problem with Home Economics being taught at school, as long as it is taught to both boys and girls and not at the expense of maths, english, science etc

Oh I wasn't suggesting that your kids would leave home useless.

Lucyellensmum - a good childminder, like the two that I use (one is DD2's, the other is DD1's after school childminder), is a skilled childcare professional, believe me. DD2's childminder, whom we've used since DD1 was tiny (she doesn't pick up from DD1's school, hence the other one) has worked in childcare since her 20s, and is now in her 40s; it's her job, and she's damn good at it. Her own children are grown up - she did childmind when the youngest was small, but not at the expense of the children she looks after - and no way does she 'fit the kids into her day' because her day consists of looking after them, going to playgroup, dropping them off and collecting them from pre-school, doing activities...it's a busy whirl, I can tell you. Good childminders are utterly fab. I'm a huge fan.

Household skills, ahem: well, I learned to cook when I was 18. I'm a damn good cook. I learned to change a nappy when I'd had my first baby, and am quite proficient at that. I make fabulous cakes - they're not exactly rocket science, ffs. Nobody in the Inferiority Complex irons sheets. I find 'entertaining' curiously simple if you push enough glasses of wine into people's hands. I cannot, however, do a damn thing with flowers, I'll admit.

By paulaplumpbottom on Sun 29-Jul-07 15:08:58
What about baking a cake? How to put together a weekly menu plan? Change a diaper? Build a fire? Are those things useless to?

What? are you for real? you're joking right?

I can just about bake a cake, i have never in my life put together a weekly menu plan, why would i? i can change a nappy , so can dp, i guess i could build a fire if i had to - i just think that most of those things are easy enough to pick up , without having to be specifically taught in school.

As for ironing sheets - life is tooooo short.

You've never used maths since you left school?? I find that hard to believe, what about balancing your household accounts, working out percentages, calculating quickly if you have been short changed, and that is even if you dont use them in your job.

I think HE in school is a bit of a waste of time, cookery, now thats a different matter, we all want to be master chef dont we and that can actually lead to a fulfilling (well filling at least) and often lucrative career. The rest of it is common sense which quite frankly cannot be taught.

If I can learn to bake cakes, any twerp can. Believe me. All you need is a cookbook, really. And a lifetime's background preparation in cake-eating.

On housewives I just meant I'm not sure they really do such a good job these days many of them. They are too stroppy and don't get their housework done during the day and organise their time properly and if yo ulok at all the mumsnet sex threads you will see often they don't even offer sex to their men either. If they were doing the proper 1950s job linked below it would be fairer on their men.

(le, a day nanny comes to your house and does what a live in nanny does except she isn't under your feet in the evenings. It worked fine for us. If you have quite a few children it's cheaper than nursery and there is no problem if the children are sick as they're looked after at home. Also you get more control over how things are done and in some cases less turnover of staff. I just never wanted our in a nursery. Also if you're working late plenty of nannies will agree to stay late or even over night which a nursery doesn't - you are rushing to be there on the dot of closing time etc. Also being in your own house with your own things is quite comforting for a lot of children.)

Xenia pmsl........it was a joke?

Have to laugh at ironing sheets being more important than maths. Why iron sheets, unless it's a job, in which case you'd get some kind of training (about 20 minutes?) - but this is perhaps for another thread. Same for baking a cake etc. I do all those pretty well w/o any training whatsoever. As for making a fire...

I use math on a daily basis, I don't use algerbra or trig.

I disagree with you, there are lots of people out there who know nothing about keeping house or managing accounts.

I never said it was more important but it is as important

But surely if you have to 'keep house', whatever that is (I'm genuinely unsure) you, er, pick it up as you go along?

Not everyone does, especially the young males, they live in filth

If DS chooses to live in filth when he leaves home, that's his business

Xenia - I have a confession. My DH has recently been a SAHD, much like a 1950s housewife... and I LOVE IT! I come home to a clean house and a hot meal after work. If only our finances could support him staying off work permanently...

And actually now that I think of it, most of my male friends weren't living in filth when they moved out.

My ex-flatmate was certainly more houseproud than I (although I never saw him iron sheets)

I would say young males live in filth because that's the peer group and their lives are too busy with drink, drugs & rock'n'roll to dust the worksurfaces in the kitchen or pair up their socks before putting them in the washing machine.

I don't use trigonometry or other subjects in my work either but I'm very glad I was taught this as I LOVED it at the time and it opens your world for abstract thinking in a way that you would find it difficult to do by yourself.

As I said i'm not saying that trig shouldn't be taught

Thought I would chip in by telling you about sil.
She has a wonderful career. only left home because she got pg by someone she had only been with for 3 weeks.
won't get a mortgage
has brand new car on hp
kid gets pushed between 3 family members so she can work and she pays no one for having him.

Tegan - think I'm missing the point? What's wrong with the little one being cared for by family? Unless they don't want to look after him/her?

Sorry - you said him.

Otherwise can't see what the issue is.

The issue is that if you have a child and you have to work surely that child should be with one person and have a routine and not shoved from one to another and have no stability.

and to expect people to do it fro free all the time takes the piss

Me too Cristina, absolutely loved maths / physics and literature. Glad i went to a school where it was ok for girls to love it (v competitive in my year if i remember )
Also great to learn to think in abstract patterns even if you never use it again.
Although was a weekly boarder so loved HE for the food. we were very hungry all the time lol

Potoroo I too have a confession. I work pt and dh took a day of work. Came home to a spotless house, cooked meal and laundry done, very happy ds - BLISS. I can see why men wouldn't want to let get of that little gem....