Inflexible and stressful work harming families, says Nick Clegg - do you agree and if so what should be done about it?

[KatieMumsnet]

The government says it wants to do more for hard-pressed working families, and is launching a report on maternity, paternity, employment and community involvement

Whaddya think?

havn't read thread

the single biggest think that has harmed me and my dcs is high house prices(and all that go with it)

sort that out and you will sort a lot

although I no longer have to worry about them having lost my job career and financial future thanks to politicians (OK mainly the last lot but I'm not getting it back any time soon am I?

You have stolen my and my dcs future and I hat the lot of you (politicians not mumsnetters )

you're just pissing in the wind 'cos you think we're stupid

grr hate

I think this deserves to be criticised fairly without the usual knee-jerk "pah, politicians, all crap" responses.

(Having said that - I second the call for an eye-rolling smiley! There is one on another forum I frequent and it is so useful...)

So...

It would be nice. If families had proper choice and men had proper parental leave. In fact, what would be nicer is if we didn't have to choose between us and both men and women could have a reasonable amount of paid time off after a baby. But I realise it would be hard for this to happen without the economy collapsing.

If the woman chooses to breastfeed this makes it a lot harder. In fact, there is a lot of truth in this Daily Mash report...

I also think high house prices are the cause of much misery and the buy to let boom. So many of my friends were after buying the lower priced houses but they were snapped up by cash buyers and soon up to let.

I know many mothers who are miserable as they feel forced back to work because they have mortgaged on both incomes.

Men choose for wmen to bf too UQD (saving a tenner a week on soy formula made dh smile most broadly )

It shouldn't matter past month one (because of the recovery from birth- not always hard, I did school run same day ds4 born to pick up, but it CAN be hard) and should simply be open to either parent (if man chose to say take second half, would he then lose pat rights after delivery or could it be separated? Just thinking of post DS1's birth when DH was there to make sure I was OKafter illness)

A 'report'! Fantastic! Thanks! We don't need a report to see what is staring us in the face. This coalition government has targeted the needy and the vulnerable including the working family, the disabled, and even disabled children! The very people that should be getting support and help are the people that are being hit the hardest.

I do not pay my tax and NI contributions to house, feed, pay for 50inch plasmas for people from other countries who cannot be bothered to work!

I have a child who has recently be diagnosed as autistic and I would like to be allowed to take some time off to spend with my child, but I am not able to do so. Because they are of school age I would not be able to take a 6 month break from working full time to take income support, unless I can get DLA and carers allowance, neither of which I want. I am unable to get DLA or carers allowance because my child doesn't qualify. After the diagnosis which is very clear, I was told that no statement of educational needs are being processed because they are too costly.

So I continue to work full time, and pay tax and national insurance to support immigrants and the such like, so they can get housing, school places and medication while the system fails my diasbled child at every single turn.No support. Not allowed to take 6 months off so that I can support her myself, no statement of educational needs. No DLA. Nothing. My hard earned contribution have paid for a few medical people to confirm what I already knew. My child has a disabilty and there is no money to do anything about it, and NO, you may not stay at home with your child for a while.

Cheers.

Great thread. I've enjoyed reading the responses around this subject. Myself, I wanted to add my tuppence in support of shared paternity leave. I do agree with Joanneg20 and HerBeatitude's general response. It has the potential to change the landscape dramatically, and be a real changemaker in terms of career equality. I hope with time, the shared paternity will be structured to that end.
And children and fathers will benefit in more unmeasurable ways than the financial ways that women would (aside from the unmeasurables of having as much opportunity as the next person).
Peace.