Sending kids to school until 6pm - how does this "help families"?

[gretagrape]

To me, it feels as though they are looking at this in totally the wrong way. The idea is that children will attend school until 6pm to help working parents. Why don't they look at it the other way around, eg, create an economy where it is normal for people (not just parents) to work flexible hours and to get part-time SKILLED jobs that pay a decent hourly rate, so children don't have to be holed up in school for longer than most office workers.
I'm so depressed at this government's lack of lateral thinking.

Sorry - I should have clarified "the right to stay at home doing nothing...to earn the money that you are taking from other adults who are working"

Mn magic chicken.also instead if waitrose.and. You'd be embracing competitive thrift

I'm beginning to wonder why I'm responding with polite and reasoned argument to certain posters when all I'm getting back is anti WOHM dogma...

horseto living on the stuff provided by the government is not a life ...it is just survival.

Most people want far more than that for their DC.

Except that when you are skint it's really, really fucking awful. It consumes you. You wake in the morning thinking about it and it stays with you like a pressure on your shoulders all day.

And smiling SAHM suggests you get a coffee, go to soft play ect and you know that if you go to cash point there will be no money so you politely say no. And you skip lunch because you nee to save the food for the kids or you manage a cheese sandwich.

DP's income halved in 2006 recession and I had just had a baby (number 3) and we were drowning, literally I had no winterboots just trainers in the snow, shabby coat SIL had given me. He was grey from worry. So I took my 2 degrees and got a job in a call centre and now I can afford winter boots for the kids and a holiday in the summer. Hurrah! Life is better. And I am training for a new career and soon life will be even better again.

Oh so when kiddie is ill you ring in sick therefore inconveniencing your employer and colleagues and making them work harder to cover your back. I used to be a manager and there is nothing more annoying than the 'kiddies poorly' call first thing in the morning.
You make your bed, you lie in it. Sorry ladies, much as I would love to I am far to busy for all this chit chat, duty calls xx

Risible to suggest changing brand of beans,and shop aldi will deliver sufficent savings

Living on the largesse of the government means you are little more than a prisoner.

You take what you are given.

It is the opposite of freedom.

Well

Having given birth to 3 dc and chosen a life as a sahm and now h. educator, If I am awarded tax credits to make life better I will take them, if they stop I will do without as we did before.
I save the tax payer thousands by H. edding and not taking a school place and will probably do this for a while longer.
Then will look at private schools so save the tax payer again.
Bingo.

Ubik, there is a strong contingent that thinks if you're not willing to be completely fucking miserable, you are a bad mother. Not bad parent, mind you. Fathers who work are OK.

(PS: Good for you. I was in a similarish position before my son, and it was crushing. I cannot imagine it with children. Sounds like you've done bloody well.)

Changing brands of beans, shopping in Aldi and priorities. Don't forget, it's all about priorities. Yawn....

You're out of touch ggh,you're in the used to be world.youre not contemporaneous

Actually at work and a carer day is unavoidable.thers no bed to lie in
There is provision working parents access,to look after ill child

Yes morethan

IIRC you're looking at boarding schools. Bit rich then that you're lecturing decent people about using 30 mins of after school care

Jassy I had to remind you that before you dismiss everyone on benefit as irresponsible, you are also in receipt of a lot of benefit from the state in the form of tax relief for things like childcare.

I can see that high earners are losing more financially if they stop work and that's a decision they have to make but it is personal and they are prioritising their immediate career over their child (our original disagreement). If you don't want to stay at home, be honest about it that it's a choice and you are not forced into it.

I appreciate that if you'd done 15 years like me you would be on the scrapheap career wise (as I am - retraining - hopeful) but most people can work part time to 'keep their hand in'. And again, surely the answer is to force employers to be more sensible about flexible working. The one thing that stops me working is 'I can't have all this time off for random appointments and illnesses'.

DP is jurassic when it comes to domestic matters. He was born in the 50s. The children don't think of either of us as lesser or better because we work / don't work (not sure what you're getting at). They would probably appreciate me being out of the way a bit more after school now.

'Risible to suggest changing brand of beans,and shop aldi will deliver sufficent savings'

Ignorant, too.

Interesting...so you have 3 children, you've chosen a life as a SAHM, and now you plan to send 3 kids to private school. Who's funding all this, I wonder? It wouldn't be someone who - like the rest of us - works, is it?

It's ridiculous to rise to this sort of crap, really.

And Aldi beans are bogging

GGH, what a shit manager you must have been. I manage a team on 30, and people have lives that things go wrong in. Their kids get sick - fine. I do expect that the mother not be the only one who takes time off, and the fathers of small children are probably off as much as the mothers due to child illness. Parents tend to be more productive employees, probably because they don't (or can't) buy into the ridiculous long hours culture. If they have to stay home, they make up the hours and work wherever and however they can. We retain them longer because we're flexible and reasonable employers. Absolutely worth the occasional inconvenience.

Couldn't resist. I don't condemn mums who work, just those that moan about it.
My husband and I are a team, a F-A-M-I-L-Y. I haven't heard that word mentioned much in this conversation.

word

I haven't lectured anybody about using childcare, unless I am mistaken.
Its not for me. I think any new proposal to make the school day longer is good if used for childcare and isn't compulsory for all children.
Its about fairness to all and people having the right to choose how they raise their children.
For the record, my dc won't board unless necessary and she will be much older.

Look old timer,you're in the used to be camp of anecdotes
Modern management,it's liberal accommodating and unlike your approach
The stick no carrot,it's not much in favour

I had no kids at the time, I was ignorant to the demands of family life. Now I get it. Kids come first.

SirChenjin

2 of them are grown ups and are 19 and 22. They fund themselves quite adequately.

I would have found this very useful when my children were younger and I sometimes had to go to meetings in London for work.