Can you do the school run and run the country?

[HelenMumsnet]

Hello.

We've been reading this story about Nick Clegg "killing himself" to take his children to school in the morning - and we wondered what you all think...

Is Miriam Clegg right to insist that she and her husband share the school run - or should Nick, as the Telegraph suggests, be concentrating on running the country?

[Wamster]

LeggyBlondeNE I am saying that to be truly successful in a political career sometimes demands that other commitments are put aside. Much as I dislike the woman, you wouldn't hear Maggie Thatcher moan about lack of family time, in all fairness to the woman, she knew sacrifices had to be made if she wished to be successful.
If you are a politician, the whole country is dependent on the decisions you make and I'm sorry but doing the school run when the country is going to hell in a handbasket is just not bloody on.

[BrandyAlexander]

I am still annoyed about this article. Dh and I have a nanny and DD goes to nursery/pre-school a couple of mornings a week. We are both high earners in stressful jobs but still take it in turns to do the "school run" in the morning. Why it is so surprising is beyond me. We can't do the afternoon run and its nice not to outsource everything to our nanny if we have the flexibility. I could just do the school run alone, but don't see I should do that just because I am a woman.

[HerBeX]

So wamster, do you think that parents shouldn't be politicians then?

Or that they should neglect their children if they are politicians?

Because that does seem to be the logic of that position.

[HerBeX]

Mrs T's children were grown up by the time she became PM

[Bonsoir]

I don't think working parents need to do the morning school run unless it is convenient for them to drop their children at school on their way to work and/or they really want to do so. As the article rightly states, children care a hell of a lot more who picks them up from school at the end of the day than who drops them in the morning. Miriam Clegg is being ridiculous.

[Wamster]

If they are politicians they have to accept that they may not be able to spend as much time with their children as they like. What can I say? These people have the nation depending upon them. They owe it to the people to put in the hours and if this means that they do not spend as much time as with their children as they would like, they should jack it in and do something else.

[cloudspotter]

I can't decide which is scarier, the article itself or the comments applauding her stance?

Yes it's good that he does the school run, it's important to carve out time in a busy life to be there for your kids. A nanny can't replace the parent, I'm horrified at the suggestion that they could.

Apart from that, it's so glaringly sexist. God forbid that Clegg should do his bit in the domestic sphere to complement his higher earning wife....

Judith feels this makes him a "beta male", and has "emasculated" him?? "Just how scared is he of his ball-breaking missus?" she shrieks.

Women often take a greater share of child-rearing to support their higher earning spouses. Are they also scared of their ball-breaking husbands, or are they simply making a logical economic decision?

I get her horror at women not being able to have their own bank account. Go Miriam. You'd never catch a man being so hideously disloyal to his gender as that lazy ranter trying to pass for a journalist.

[scottishmummy]

ms gonzalez durante is v sensible maintain her career,and if they agreed share duties then ahoud do so where possible.he might as well get used to it .i doubt he'll be deputy pm in few years anyhoo

[Snuppeline]

I have made a firm mental note to ensnare one of those two boys for my own fair dd. Those boys will be fine husbands in due course growing up like they are in an equal household.

On the more serious side, it baffles the mind how we have come so far (in equality between the genders) and yet have so far to go...

[JoleneJoleneJoleneJoleeene]

When he gets his arse kicked at the next elections they will be pleased that she maintained her career, and she can support him. Stick that up your arse, Judith

[HerBeX]

How old are those 2 clegg boys?

[scottishmummy]

aye,good thing ms gonzalez durante works as i think he will be struggling for his next job.

[Francagoestohollywood]

One of the silliest articles I've ever read on MN. And with a hint of racism.

[scottishmummy]

Miriam Gonzalez Durante gone up in my estimation after this

[Bonsoir]

Nick Clegg and Miriam Gonzalez D. is one of the most pathetically obviously self-serving couples in public life in Britain today.

[lastonetoleaveturnoutthelights]

Of all top-ranking powerful jobs in the UK, working in government or top-level civil service is probably one with most potential for flexible hours. As someone said, the more senior you are, the more flexibility you can demand and get (due to massive office staff and having a louder voice in the organisation).

I think Clegg has a duty to do the school run and other family tasks in order to set an example of flexible working and balance of work/home life. It's probably only taking him 10 - 15 minutes out of his day, and he'll be in a ministerial car with his hand's free set up for first conference call of the day and his secretary already in position on the back seat to start briefing him the minute he's dropped them off.

[Wamster]

Do you really think the top people in this country have a flexible work/home life? A close relative of mine is a director at a major international company. He has been summoned from holidays with his family to return to work.
Getting to the top means that he has to make sacrifices. It is so naive to think that people who at the top in business (or near the top) don't make a lot of sacrifices.

[motherinferior]

OK, so some people choose career paths where they end up earning a lot and don't have much of a life as a result. Others don't.

And the generalisations about 'children mind about pickup not dropoff' are just a bit silly, really. Some children like one, some the other. IMO pickup can be hell, with tired hungry grumpy kids. And, as several posters have already said, interrupts the working day far more than a civilised trot to school.

[Semibreve]

Exactly so whats all the fuss about Clegg in this case, doing the school run women do it all the time and have done for eons, give me a break! whats more can you imagine headlines saying,'Woman does school run' man does something in child care and its news of the week-

[lastonetoleaveturnoutthelights]

Sorry, I should have clarified public sector, rather than private. Public sector is more flexible, and I know/work with senior people in the public eye. They have to be seen to make an example as well.

Private sectors are probably more likely to summon you back from your holidays, there are profits at stake after wall!

Of course you make sacrifices to get to the top - maybe Clegg hasn't done the school run in recent years... However, once you get to the top, and especially in public sector, you have more weight to exercise flexible working hours and do the school run. And I think you also have a duty to set an example.

(Disclaimer - national events can also see you summoned back from holidays if you work in government or whatever, but just look how parliament shuts down over summer for one example of flexibility and setting holidays in stone).

[lastonetoleaveturnoutthelights]

Goodness I can't type today. Profits at stake after all, not wall. A rogue 'w' got under my fingers then.

[Miggsie]

Ricardo Semler is CEO of Semco (a large firm based in Brazil) and he works about 3 days a week, he chronicled how you can work and needn't be at the office the entire time in his book "Maverick". His view is if your staff are good at their job he doesn't have to keep riding into meetings like the Lone Ranger saying only he can save the day...

All this stuff about how we have to make huge sacrifices when we get a high powered job is crap frankly, and the biggest holder back of women getting senior jobs there is.

the only times that the school run gets in the way is if there is a big meeting at work and most people can only do 8am, then I miss the school run. Otherwise I schedule meetings after 9am, my company makes quite a lot of money and the work gets done.

There's no reason Nick CLegg can't organsie his diary some days to have meetings post 9am, it's not a logisitical impossiblility is it?

[foxinsocks]

nothing happens in Westminster till about 10 anyway

I doubt he's killing himself at all by doing it tbh

dh does it at the moment though if he had the option of paying someone else to do it, he bloody well would