Sunday Times article about working women by India Knight.........

[ssd]

Did you read it and if you did what did you think?

FWIW I agree with her, will probably be stoned now.

orangina, thanks. I think I'm a genius too. Hurrah for me!

Mind you, in my grand New World Order we would almost all be grannies by now. Mumsnet would be called Granniesnet. We would be criticising our teenagers for "delaying having their families in order to take their GCSEs" and calling anyone who waited til they were 25 as selfish and putting their child's welfare at risk through challenging biology to its limits

You know what, lovecloud, I grew up with a working mother who worked full time in order to feed, house and clothe us. And I didn't need therapy for it ? what a bizarre and insulting assumption. I'm proud of my mother, thanks very much, and all her achievements, parenting and professional.

You are extremely rude and just plain wrong. Fine, organise your own life the way you see fit, but don't claim that they way I organise mine is somehow 'worse' than you. Who made you God, anyway?

"they need to get real and save for their childs future therapy!!! "

how will I save for it if I ain't working

I need to work in order to survive.

Very well said Edam!!!

Every time exalted, superior beings like India and lovecloud go shopping, have shopping delivered, contact their council, use any public facilities, get in touch with the police, or use the NHS, or enroll their precious offspring in any kind of state education, who on earth do they think is doing the work?
Public servants can't "downsize" or work from home, partly because they can't afford to and partly because an awful lot of them have to be present in their workplaces for the long opening hours our 24/7 culture demands.
It really is offensive to the 100,000s of women who work f/t or p/t as teaching assistants, social workers, NHS practitioners and support staff, admin in council departments and a host of other low-paid, high importance jobs, to suggest that they put their children in "kennels" for fun and self-gratification.
Hello lovecloud, men don't seem to want to work as librarians, educators, council service providers, health visitors, physios and school support staff. The sort of services you rely on rely in turn on women WOTH.

I chortle over the one when the wolf thinks he is invisible

even dd1 listens with sad kindness on face

India pops out one of these articles about the horrors of nurseries & the appalling nature of full-time wohms at least twice a year. I am convinced it is so she can prove to the Editor that people do read her column because she gets so much post!!!
So depressing to see yet another intelligent woman bleating on about "mothers" putting their children into nurseries (or as she laughably suggests kennels - how tabloid!). Surely it is PARENTS. Why do we persist in the belief that only "mothers" hand over their children to these ghastly institutions where they ignore our precious children all day & just sling in food & water at meal times!!!!!!!!!!!
I think, she over generalised hugely. Of course there are crap nurseries, just like there are crap parents, crap schools & crap drivers. It is a fact of life that we are not going to achieve 100% perfection all of the time. There are also lots of wonderful nurseries, where they have loyal, long-standing members of staff who really enjoy (if not love) looking after children. Why do we have to demonise these places. Lovecloud have you ever been to a daycare nursery? Come & see the one I have used, meet the lovely, friendly people who work there and watch my dd trot in for a big cuddle on the mornings she goes with the people she knows so well. I assure you, she does way more activites there, than she ever could at home & the same went for my ds too.
Very possibly daycare is not as good as a warm, loving, energetic, imaginative, tolerant, selfless, intelligent, devoted, patient one on one carer - but I'm certainly not all of those things, all of the time - so why can't we all (including India Knight, who I usually enjoy) accept that its "horses for courses"?

< re hijacks back to wolves>

did you tamum?? hmm
you sent me a swimmign one

I think most of us agree that leaving a child in nursery/school 10 hours a day 5 days a week is too much. However, rather than having a go at women who want or need to work, it would be far more constructive to campaign for more flexible hours for BOTH parents and an improvement in childcare offered both at nursery and after-school level.

I quite enjoy India's columns even if I don't agree with her. I work fulltime flexi and I am lucky to have a great work-life balance. I would be really unhappy both at home as a SAHM and if I worked so much I hardly saw my children. I think a work-life balace is important.

Are you going to re-prioritise and carry on your life-enhancing research work from a rinky-sink little Cath Kidston-upholstered shed Tamum dahling? Anyone can downsize if they just think laterally...

Excellent idea, darlink. I will don my pinny and then go and set up the pipettes in the wendy house right now.

See, all that selfish me-time spent in a draughty lab was totally avoidable.

oh no! well where thr f
si sit then

Message withdrawn

Choice.
I choose to work part time and have a huge overdraft.

I would rather do that than work full time,pay off overdraft and never see dd and ds

India Knight did make a point or several.But I do not feel pressurised to do what a journalist says so.

I actually agreed with some of what IK says in that article (I'm agreeing with India Knight - shoot me now!) but then I read lovecloud's posts and immediately felt the need to distance myself from any sentiments expressed by IK and defend my right to put my kids in kennels for 10 hours a day if I so choose

Quite right, Marina, we could catch ER on Channel 4 instead of E4. NOOOOOOOO!!!!

I'm throwing my balsamic vinegar away - obviously someone massively more intelligent and thoughtful than me should be making my life decisions for me. If I ran a nursery I would be thinking about suing - oh and the RSPCA run kennels fgs! What does she think rescue centres are? Why do people get paid for writing such complete drivel? Oh yes, and I am always right too, what fun to be so smug!

Bloody hell, Lovecloud, stick your ignorance where the sun don't shine!

Ah Trib, your ARE a genius. Nice to see you. Can't possibly keep up with the June thread these days.

And on that note, I must go so I can get up at 5:00 and go to work to pay the nanny, who incidentally will be serving my children breakfast and lunch -- and this is okay because they lover her and she loves them. I'm not so disillusioned to think I am the only human who can make my kids happy. Have to put my own needs aside to do what is best for THEM!

Marina, marvellous post.

Have told DH about this thread and he's saying things that would have me kicked out of womanhood if I posted them about Lovecloud's POV

Tamum - PMSL at pipettes in the wendy house - beautiful image!