OOh you SKIVING CUPCAKE BAKING SAHMS....read this

[HoorayHenry]

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/janice_turner/article5484714.ece

isn't or wasn't she a mumsnetter?

No-one is forced to be a stay at home mum - but unless you have a nanny/inlaw/relative etc on hand to drop everything for the UNFORSEEN things like illnesses/ staff training days etc you are between a rock and a hard place.

What she[journalist] means is high earners should not choose to be SAHM the rest of us do not matter in the workplace or anywhere else.

I bake FAIRY cakes, not cupcakes

Stupid article.....

"Work Raising children is good, it can even be noble. It can make us forget ourselves. That is what we should tell our daughters. It can be hard, thankless, scary, joyless at times. But you will feel useful, purposeful, part of the world."

Won't it be lovely for Rachida Dati's daughter in years to come when somebody digs out this article and she learns how wise it was of her mother to rush back to work and not be unencumbered by such a trifle as her.

I choose to be a SAHM and love it. F/t work and having a baby didn't suit us but I tried it. I prefer to keep my time for me and my family than loose it/sell to to an employer. If I was to work, I would rather do voluntary or meaningful work which didn't just line someone's pocket.

I just don't understand how someone can go back to work 5 days after having a c-section. Hats off to Rachida Dati, it was all I could do to get dressed and make myself a cup of tea! I'm assuming she's not doing anything as inconvenient as breastfeeding.

thanks washersaurus - I KNEW we never had "cupcakes" when I was small but couldn't think what they were.

Stupid article indeed - can't be doing with it. Some women are SAHMs because they want to be, some are because they have to be. Some women are WOHMs because they want to be, some because they have to be. GEneralisations in this area are shite and trite.

Children are harder work than a job, but the desire to be with them is very strong.

I hear the siren of the cupcake. Fortunately I make cupcakes at the weekend and still work full time.

Having said this, I identify with the themes in the article. Maybe a London thing? Same in Surrey. I think the ultimate aspiration of the mums I know is not a successful career, but the ability to choose between work and home. Ideally to be able to afford to give up work while the kids are small.

I am a Surrey/outer London girl too, the only thing I agree with is that the ability to choose is important and to be able to give up work pre-school if possible, if you want to.

what a deluded woman who wrote that article...

Cloudhopper... I work full time and get my kids to make cupcakes at the weekend.

Perhaps I've 'got it all'!

violethill, I actually think the cupcake, knitting etc is something you yearn for IF you work full time.

If I really gave up/cut down work, maybe I would sit on mn the whole time instead?

When time is no longer a luxury, it doesn't seem necessary to pack it full of 'fun' activities.

my problem is not that I can't afford to give up work but that I can't afford to work full time

bet Janice Turner hasn't many pals like me

"Work is good, it can even be noble. It can make us forget ourselves. That is what we should tell our daughters. It can be hard, thankless, scary, joyless at times. But you will feel useful, purposeful, part of the world."

I could use exactly the same words to describe bringing up children.

I go out to work, but I also made biscuits AND cupcakes with DD this weekend. What does that make me?

That reporter must know Xenia, I reckon.

must be Xenia you mean!

just had a quick skim of a couple of her articles

looks like the mistress of generalisation

what TWADDLE pah

It's just a lazy piece of journalism with no real point to make.
AND, the only person I have ever met who has actually made a cupcake is a barrister with no children.
There you go - article debunked.

Sandcastles, you are so right to substitute 'Raising children' for 'work' in that quote.

I feel quite sorry for Ms Tati. No doubt her hormones are all over the place, perhaps she would've loved to have spent time with her new baby but didn't feel she could because she'd lose her place in the reshuffle. She's a muslim female MP & no doubt there are plenty of people who would be keen to see her fail.

No doubt traditionally she would have a month at home with the baby, being waited on by other female members of her family. It's rather sad.

What? Newspaper columnists need to get into the real world. I reckon they all cluster together and never see any real people!
I have a first class degree and a couple of postgrad qualifications and a professional career and would love to stay at home and have time with my children when my maternity leave finishes (although my current life doesn't involve the things she describes). But we just cannot afford it long term.
I shall tell my DD to let no one convince her that bringing up children is less valid than having a career. Both are great things to do with their stresful aspects and she should choose whatever she thinks is right for her.

The red flag for the misogynist crap was that Dati's legs were mentioned in the lead paragraph.

The Times is shit. It's the Daily Mail for people who like to lie to themselves that they read a broadsheet.

It's a waste of pixels. I haven't read it since Caitlin Moran and her editors saw fit to mock the appearance of Madonna's daughter. This is the first time since then I've clicked on a link to the Times and I'm not surprised to discover it hasn't changed.

gosh ninedragons i did not know about lourdes

Yep. It's a paper that thinks the appearance of a pre-teen girl is (a) newsworthy and (b) fair game.

Utterly revolting.