to be glad that I am not this baby

[PercyPigPie]

[http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1249063/Headmistress-goes-school--7-hours-giving-birth.html here].

Bet she wouldn't be so chuffed if her staff started doing the same.

Well she looks very happy and the baby is certainly very matching! Given that she had the baby eight weeks ago I'm sure she has got over any early recovery problems - given that her birth took an hour, I suspect that she had a very easy labour and I think she acknowledges this.

I think that she sounds very nice, but of course her circumstances are highly unusual. However lets face it the girls she looks after aren't going to experience particularly usual lives either, they will be a highly privileged group, who may very well be able to make similar type choices. Certainly my experience is that the more senior you are the easier it is to work flexibly. In the case of this head she almost certainly doesn't teach (or takes maybe one or two courses that particularly interest her) and can adjust her working life around the baby fairly easily. She has no commute, likely no household tasks and almost certainly a great deal of support. I imagine that the girls at the school love playing with all three of her children, and it is nice that they have the chance to see a baby, especially given that they are boarders.

I wonder whether a further issue is that maternity leave would be very difficult when you have a live in job, as the home comes with the job. I'm sure that there are rules about this, but it might be a consideration.

exactly mathanxiety - people don't mind women doing repetitive domestic work, because they don't really see it as work, just life (and they don't want to do it themselves). But as soon as a woman tries to do something other than that people get all het up about it. I bet that baby has a fabulous time, being close to her mum so much and being cooed over by pupils and teachers and secretaries 24/7.

It is a shame that someone upthread said that they were "lazy" for snuggling in bed with their new baby for a week after birth - that's not lazy it's perfectly fine.

On slightly closer reading of the article, I see the baby was born 8 weeks ago. That would be around mid December. So being a private school, I should think it was end of term carol service and goodbye for a month's school holiday straight away.

Now I'm not so naive as to think that a Head Mistress isn't going to be working during school hols - I'm a Deputy Head myself, but realistically, it's going to be emails, a few meetings etc.

I'm not knocking her - she's a successful woman and no doubt is a great role model, but I think the story is hyped up to sound like she walked from the labour ward back into 20 hour days. I think it's a great publicity stunt, but I honestly don't think it's much more than that.

i think you're probably right there violethill.

Definitely not jealous of her! Why on earth would I be? I loved the 'laziness' of snuggling for hours with DS when he was a newbie, and can't wait to do the same with no 2. Would gladly take a longer mat leave if I could, but freelancers can't be choosers...

Interesting thoughts re school hols, etc, though, violet.

"It is a shame that someone upthread said that they were "lazy" for snuggling in bed with their new baby for a week after birth - that's not lazy it's perfectly fine."

Yep, it's fine. Sometimes lazy is fine too.

I would go so far as to say that sometimes 'lazy' is not 'lazy', so much as 'necessary'.

We live in a culture that emphasises doing over being. Sometimes that's a good thing, but not all the time. That's why we're all so stressed out - what's the point in getting everything done but being stressed, ill and depressed? Welcome to the West!