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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Children of working mothers are more likely to mug you

363 replies

chomalungma · 04/12/2019 16:39

I know. It was 13 years ago. It's probably out of context. Sometimes you say things that rattle a few cages.

But it all builds a picture of our current Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/04/boris-johnson-claimed-children-of-working-mothers-more-likely-to-mug-you

"“In the last 30 years an ever-growing proportion of British women have been ‘incentivised’ or socially gestapoed into the workplace, on what seems to me to be the dubious assumption that the harder a woman works the happier she will be, when I am not sure that is true of women or anyone else,” he wrote.

In the book, published before he became mayor of London, Johnson said an increasing number of female graduates tended to pair up with male graduates – a process known by economists as “assortative mating” – and that they then pool their advantages.

“The result is that in families on lower incomes the women have absolutely no choice but to work, often with adverse consequences for family life and society as a whole – in that unloved and undisciplined children are more likely to become hoodies, Neets [not in education, employment or training] and mug you on the street corner."

AIBU to think that his articles from the past reveal much about his views on women, Muslims, LGBT people....

OP posts:
PanicAndRun · 04/12/2019 17:35

I'm looting DD's backpack tonight for my cut of the "muggings".

HigherFurtherFasterBaby · 04/12/2019 17:36

He just hates women.

SAHM? Disgraceful. Single Mum? Burn them at the stake. Working Mum? Also disgraceful.

TriangularRatbag · 04/12/2019 17:41

Is it true?

AutumnCrow · 04/12/2019 17:42

Just seen this on Twitter. He's fucking vile.

formerbabe · 04/12/2019 17:44

So if they didn't' work they'd just be exhausted from having to manage the house. The problem is the husband, not the job

Well it's pretty simple

Job + house/kids is more tiring than just house/kids.

I think a home and children are a full time job in itself..even two people working full time and both pulling their weight with housework leaves both parties tired and stressed, unless they earn enough to outsource.

woodhill · 04/12/2019 17:45

Definitely Formerbabe

RevolutionofOurTime · 04/12/2019 17:49

I believe the wider context is that when Labour were in power, they had clear policies for facilitating return to the workforce for mothers. Eg free nursery hours, dedicated resources in job centres, etc. The Tories subsequently scraped a lot of those policies as part of the austerity drive. Of course BJ, being the consummate Tory, would claim that those measures were equivalent to women being “gestapoed into the workplace”.

Strange metaphor, by the way. Arbeit macht frei, anyone?

Ylvamoon · 04/12/2019 17:50

Lovely... Confused
Back to the 50's it is than. Remember when a family could live on one wage.

HulksPurplePanties · 04/12/2019 17:50

I think a home and children are a full time job in itself..even two people working full time and both pulling their weight with housework leaves both parties tired and stressed, unless they earn enough to outsource.

I agree. Housework & childcare are full-time jobs. But the issue isn't, to me, the death of the SAHM, it's the death of extended family. Expecting either two able bodied young adults, to stay home and care for children & keep house, is asking a bit much. Historically it wasn't the case. The grandparents & extended family stepped in. That's not the case now.

BlackCherryBliss · 04/12/2019 17:57

Dragging shit up from thirteen years ago?

What did you think and write thirteen years ago?

Exactly the same?

No change based on experience and more information?

No room to change or grow in your thought process?

Thirteen bloody years ago, I've changed my mind about shit I typed last week because of listening to good points posted by other contributers afterwards.

I think Boris is an arse but ffs these attempts at voter manipulation on forums like this, very especially this one, are really starting to piss me off.

You are as transparent as fresh air.

EL2019 · 04/12/2019 18:01

So what do we blame the mothers of the rich young men who vandalised restaurants for?

Being SAHM? Working to hard? Not loving them enough? Loving them too much? Sending them to boarding school? Having a Nannie? Not having a Nannie?

Because I’m sure according to Boris the vile behaviour of him and his cronies was all women’s fault too.

churchandstate · 04/12/2019 18:05

BlackCherryBliss

“Dragging shit up from thirteen years ago” is a charge you might level at your cousin on a pissed night out in ‘Spoons. This man is putting himself forward as the most suitable representative of 65m people. Every word he has ever uttered is relevant. It’s called scrutiny.

EssentialHummus · 04/12/2019 18:06

Right - so that’s single mums, working mums, Muslims, Liverpudlians... have I
missed anything from Johnson’s illustrious record?

churchandstate · 04/12/2019 18:08

EssentialHummus

You missed the picaninnies.

EssentialHummus · 04/12/2019 18:09

How could I forget.

EssentialHummus · 04/12/2019 18:11

(Anyone else wondering how many black female single working Muslim Scousers there are?)

cukooboo · 04/12/2019 18:30

the death of the housewife has on the whole been a negative thing for society

For me being a housewife would drive me insane & Im very glad that I wasn't born in the 50s. However I recognise that I'm very lucky to have grandparents close by who are very involved & I work pt, tto & have a DH who can wfh & do flexi hours. As another poster said some working cultures need to change.

chomalungma · 04/12/2019 18:30

What did you think and write thirteen years ago(

13 years ago, I was 36 years old, working with deprived school children.

Much more aware of the realities of the world than Boris Johnson. My views then were not too dissimilar to know. MN has made me even more aware of the issues out there.

OP posts:
BoomBoomsCousin · 04/12/2019 18:37

That exert isn’t blaming working mothers, it’s saying that children from families with too few resources are more likely to become criminals.

On the surface it’s a remarkably progressive piece.
He doesn’t seem to have a problem with graduate mothers working, it’s the non-graduate mum/dad duo with poorer financial prospects and no time (because they both have to work) he’s saying are less able to bring up kids who don’t get into trouble with the law.

From the bit about assortative mating, I would guess this was part of the spurt of articles that came out around then that blamed to widening income disparity on women becoming educated and taking the good jobs from the men. But it could also be part of an argument that graduates, male or female, ought to be the bread winners and marry nongraduates who would become the stay at home parent. Of course that fails to recognise that one of the reasons middle class women started getting degrees and good jobs is because the stay at home parent role is an oppressed one in our society and they wanted the same power as their working husbands.

So I don’t think it’s saying working mothers’ children are more likely to be muggers, but BJ is still a privileged, entitled ass without any true empathy and understanding of others and it shows in virtually everything he says.

chickenandwhat · 04/12/2019 18:52

I don't think how Boris runs his private life is connected to running the country. Lots of very successful people I know consultants , business owners, bankers aren't particularly good at the home life bit.

It's probably a good point about SAHMs, you can't do it all solo, you can buy in help buy you still need to organise it. I think the issue is that women wanted something more than worrying about dinner, they want to use their minds and skills. But now they have full on jobs and still find the majority are worrying about dinner on top of that.

BoomyBooms · 04/12/2019 18:56

I hope they do. I will use my superior working woman intellect and interpersonal skills to teach my children to mug efficiently and for maximum gain. Especially if the Tories get in again, it will be every man for himself in ten years time. Mugging is a life skill.

EssentialHummus · 04/12/2019 19:23

Oh, and gay men. There we go, got there in the end.

PanicAndRun · 04/12/2019 19:34

I think a home and children are a full time job in itself..even two people working full time and both pulling their weight with housework leaves both parties tired and stressed, unless they earn enough to outsource.

Yeah,except men that do absolutely fuck all in the house are also more likely to be financially abusive too and come up with smug gems like "you pay for it/get a hob then" if the wife ever complains. That leaves a lot of women trapped and vulnerable, but hey ho at least they only have the housework to worry about.Hmm

TulipsTulipsTulips · 04/12/2019 19:38

I have no words for this. Appalling. Yet I will still vote conservative because I cannot countenance a Corbyn government. It’s utterly depressing.

Monsterinmyshoe · 04/12/2019 19:43

So he he is saying that it is detrimental to the child if both parents work? So why doesn't he make it financially easier for one parent to work less hours/be a stay at home parent then?

Another example of talking the talk, but not walking the walk then.

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