To think that this Indeed advert does working mums no favours

[ABrotherWhoLooksLikeHellMugYou]

Just seen an Indeed advert showing a mum looking for a new remote job to fit in with her life. So far so good. Except the final scene shows her working from home with her kid sitting on her lap while she's supposed to be working.

Brilliant. Thanks Indeed. All those preconceptions about how mums are asking for remote work so we can fuck about at home with our kids instead of working are really going to be contradicted by this masterpiece. Yes. I work from home but my children are in childcare SO I CAN WORK. Working remotely means I don't have to put them in for as long, because I'm not covering the commute, too, but it doesn't rule it out altogether.

AIBU to think this just adds fuel to the fire about women wanting remote work and flexibility? It's so damaging.

YANBU. I've worked from home and still paid extortionate nursery fees because I'm not as efficient with my child there. Anyone who claims otherwise is blagging.

Awful. Twitter complaint campaign?!

I hate those stock pictures of happy mum typing away on laptop with baby on lap, laughing it up and on top of the world. Any woman who's ever actually tried to work with an awake baby on their lap has them pounding on the keys with sticky banana-y fingers and then sticking them in your mouth and pulling your hair while you shriek "get down, don't touch, STOP THAAAAAAAAAAT".

Hurrah for childcare, say I.

It's never dads is it.

Heaven forbid a man should be pictured balancing work and home life. A baby perched on one knee while they tap away on a laptop, with a cup of coffee to the side the presumably be imbibed through osmosis.

Usually in a tight white top and perfect hair and make up.

It's insulting.

I don't have Twitter, but feel free to start one and link to the thread!

Yeah fuck that, awful ad. That said, in my company there are several male colleagues who have kid noise in the background some times esp post 3, covid has helped normalise parents juggling a bit more than before, if you managed to hold onto your job and some of your sanity through all the lockdowns!

Even worse were the stock lockdown photos of mum and immaculate child working quietly side by side in a sunlit, tidy kitchen or living room.

For example:

behaviourspecialist.co.uk/blog/8-lockdown-homeschooling-tips

It looked like this for literally nobody.

Gnnnnnrrrrr. I am now partially WFH but have negotiated school hours working for those two days so I don't have to pay for childcare. So although I'm not paying for it, I get less income. But I do get time with my daughter. No one can work effectively from home with small children around. I do pay for wraparound care on my office days.

Lockdown school for us was a lot of shouting, a fair amount of crying (mostly me) and borderline alcoholism by the end. I did not make one banana bread.

My friend got through her PhD while she had a small baby. She tells a story about being hunched over, with a nipple in her baby's mouth, miserably depressed, typing away to get it done. Hadn't showered in forever, no support from the dad who had buggered off.

No glamorous laughing, clean top, gorgeous hair here.

I suppose ads with mums with haunted hungover faces typing with an air of desperation whilst the kids pull faces at their screens wouldn't sell anything!

YANBU it's infuriating!

Seriously. Where do they find the mutant children for these stupid stock photos? Homeschooling at mine looked like me sitting next to DC1 doing literally everything for him while trying to keep my voice at merely "exasperated" rather than "screeching harpy", while DC2, then 2, wailed and tugged at my arm while I tried to fence him out with my knee. No working at the same time on my part was ever attempted past the first five minutes. I briefly trialled taking calls via headphones while walking with the DC on the local nature reserve, but either I didn't pay enough attention to stop the DC falling in the river or I didn't hear a word of the call.