To think taking a baby to Parliament is ridiculous?

[iawbuwes]

Stella Creasy MP taking her baby to the Commons - I think it is utterly ridiculous.

Everyone else has to find childcare. Labour have lost the plot and don’t seem to care what people think (I say this as a life long Labour vote who cannot stomach voting for Labour as it now is). Parliament even have a nursery! www.parliament.uk/about/working/nursery/

A woman with a three month old baby will have far more clue about the state of maternity care in the UK, which would be useful experience and insight to bring to bear. . .

She can take maternity leave but she thinks it isnt fair on her constituents to have nobody to represent them.
The baby didn't disrupt anything, what's the problem?

She's female and this is mumsnet, is the problem.

Lots of people on here elected a complete tosspot whose parenting overload is directly impacting his (already impaired) ability to govern the country, but they need to start threads complaining about a new mum showing that she cares about her job AND her baby, and who could teach Boris everything he doesn't know about work-life balance and equality.

200 Stella Creasys and their newborns are very much needed in the HoC. Give me a newborn crying any day instead of the sound of those loudmouths braying and shouting hear hear or hurling insults at each other. It might make them remember what they are there for. To represent people, not egg each other on like football supporters. She shouldn't be forced to use the Parliament creche if she doesn't want to*.

I do wonder if those who think it is better for someone to hold a tiny baby in another room, rather than have the baby asleep in a sling being carried by its mother, have ever met a tiny baby?

Apologies, fat thumb accidentally hit ‘post’. Meant to say well said.

@Dotell

I think this an own goal situation. What are women fighting for here? For women to work and care for a baby at the same time? How many men are being applauded for taking their babies to work? How many men take their babies to work? Who does this benefit?

How many men are breastfeeding a tiny baby?

@iawbuwes

It is unreasonable for elected representatives not to be given maternity leave - they are elected as individuals. But if they are speaking in parliament they can surely find childcare for that time period. And maybe your term in parliament is not the ideal time to have a baby, give that your focus is meant to be on your constituents.

There’s a Tory mp round here who has been a back bench mp for at least 20 years… how would that fit with not having a baby during your term in parliament?

@nancy75

And maybe your term in parliament is not the ideal time to have a baby, give that your focus is meant to be on your constituents

Has anyone told Boris this?

T.H.I.S

She can take paid leave? I'm sure they said she can on the news.

@skodadoda

She can take maternity leave but she thinks it isnt fair on her constituents to have nobody to represent them. The baby didn't disrupt anything, what's the problem?

She's female and this is mumsnet, is the problem.

Lots of people on here elected a complete tosspot whose parenting overload is directly impacting his (already impaired) ability to govern the country, but they need to start threads complaining about a new mum showing that she cares about her job AND her baby, and who could teach Boris everything he doesn't know about work-life balance and equality.

200 Stella Creasys and their newborns are very much needed in the HoC. Give me a newborn crying any day instead of the sound of those loudmouths braying and shouting hear hear or hurling insults at each other. It might make them remember what they are there for. To represent people, not egg each other on like football supporters. She shouldn't be forced to use the Parliament creche if she doesn't want to*.

It is not about noise or disruption it is the fact that she makes working mothers look like fools. The image (and to the PP who said she is a real person, yes she is, but one with a national platform and as a person who is discharging a public function - so the image she projects has meaning and impact) she projects is that mothers would really love to have their babies with them even when they are performing their jobs. It is high school protest which is exactly what Labour is about - zero substance (and again, I have voted Labour all my life but can’t bring myself to next time)

[quote GivenchyDahhling]@JustLyra But MPs are classed as self-employed, how many self-employed people, especially if it’s just them as a freelancer or whatever, can get someone to do their job in their absence when they have a baby, not to mention the fact MPs get full pay!

I don’t think it’s right to say constituents aren’t represented either because as well as a proxy vote they have their office staff. As someone who lives in Leigh on Sea I appreciate that being unrepresented is not ideal but the job of an MP is not concentrated on one individual alone.

The thing is it isn’t a race to the bottom, I want self employed people to get maternity pay, I think MPs should get cover to allow them to take proper maternity leave etc. However, I think that by taking this stand Stella Creasy is risking a lot of resentment from mothers who don’t get the privileges she gets and there are better ways of campaigning for change which don’t involve her flaunting her privilege.[/quote]
The point is that there are lots of things that only the MP can do therefore get her constituents would be unrepresented. Unlike the last time when she was allowed to have a full locum. Office staff can’t fulfill certain parts of the duties.

They have taken a major step backwards in making being an MP accessible for women and she is right to shout about this.

Anyone feeling resentful toward her should listen to everything she’s saying as she’s using it to highlight the issue of childcare being a work barrier for women generally, and in particular she highlighted zero hours contracts.

@julieca

I do wonder if those who think it is better for someone to hold a tiny baby in another room, rather than have the baby asleep in a sling being carried by its mother, have ever met a tiny baby?

The luxury of the middle class

The number of people who think her campaign is about actually wanting to take her baby to work is quite staggering.

Astounding level of hard of reading comments on this topic. YABU.

It’s amazing that a woman highlighting that men have made it harder for women to be MP’s is getting the flak

Personally I think part of the wider problem is that we, as a society, have decided that women's equality means women behaving like men have traditionally behaved and as long as they do that, they can be equal all they want. So women can have baby's but then need to hand them over to someone else and not be visibly a mother because it's somehow lowering her status to acknowledge that motherhood brings caring responsibilities alongside her career.
In my view this is not equality at all, it is just trying shoehorn working women into the established patriarchal order.
I disagree that this makes working mothers look like fools. I do not believe that motherhood should reduce a woman's status and be a thing to be hidden.

@iawbuwes

@ wincarwoo this really is the preserve of the dim MN poster - don’t agree with another woman’s view? They must be a man. Pathetic

It would seem the only basis for the ignorance you've shown. Perhaps you had a nanny for your children back in the sixties. Things have changed since then.

Boris hasn’t taken his baby in to the commons in a sling.

@Dotell

I think this an own goal situation. What are women fighting for here? For women to work and care for a baby at the same time? How many men are being applauded for taking their babies to work? How many men take their babies to work? Who does this benefit?

It benefits all of us.

Babies have rights too. If it takes a bit of statement-making, bring it on. Babies need to be seen, heard, and celebrated. And put in nurseries only when their mothers are happy and able to do that. Our parliament needs to reflect the values of the people who make it work. At the moment it reflects the values of the incompetent overprivileged tosser who's in the wrong job.

@JustLyra

The number of people who think her campaign is about actually wanting to take her baby to work is quite staggering.

You need to think about how ‘normals’ read it.

@iawbuwes I am not middle class.

And yet elsewhere on mumsnet, mums of young/breastfed babies are berated for trying to defer jury service… apparently civic duty and participation in public life is essential then. In the absence of a magical wet-nurse fairy, I don’t know what they expect mothers to do sometimes.

I think she makes working mothers look like people who can juggle their job and their baby, if it is facilitated. She makes working mothers look like people focussed on doing their best for their employer, as well as seeing to her family's needs.

The not so honourable PM and far too many of his cronies could stand to take a leaf out of her book.

The example given by this MP, as opposed to that engendered by the PM, or Matt Hancock, is a startling and laudable contrast.

@ wincarwoo more simplistic argument.
No nanny, wasn’t alive in the 60s and do a demanding job.
What about you, seeing you are so intrigued about me?

@forinborin

I am a working mother. I don't understand the point she's trying to make. I don't like the message that a full-time job with lots of responsibility can be done in parallel to looking after the needs of a 3 month old baby without any childcare. Because it cannot, and this message doesn't help working mothers at all.

Yes. It is a sort of virtue signalling.

You need to think about how ‘normals’ read it.

Wtf is a ‘normal’?