Live webchat with Fiona Millar, Tuesday 3rd March, 1-2pm

[RachelMumsnet]

Fiona Millar will be visiting us at Mumsnet Towers for a live webchat on Tuesday 3rd March between 1 and 2pm. Her book The Secret World of the Working Mother: Juggling Work, Kids and Sanity will be out on Thursday 5th March. Fiona is a well-known journalist, educational campaigner and mother of three. If you can't join us on Tuesday, post your questions in advance on this thread.

who said MN had become boring?

I also find it really cringey when the live chats get rude and shouty.

I'm finding BFs stance incredibly patronising and elitist - her argument that women absorb crap and listen to our mates and base things on our personal experiences rather than reading the academic research underpinning policy. And Moondog's comment that ' FM has a bog standard degree that in no way equips her for holding forth with any authority on educational methods and theories'. Both make it sound like no one but academics are allowed to have any kind of opinion or at least dare to share it.

I can sort of understand the irritation with books being flogged on a forum which is fairly democratic, but I don't think that opening up this debate in this way is really going to result in people mindlessly and unquestioningly purchasing it. It's an interesting and valid topic, and it's been written about by an interesting woman with some interesting experiences, if you don't want to be flogged anything then you won't be, but I don't really understand the vitriol behind some of the posts at all.

Hi Fiona,

My question to you is: what do you think about the current divide between working mothers and non-working mothers? For example, here at mumsnet but also in real life, people can get very defensive about their own choices and find it hard to understand other women's perspectives and life choices. Can we find some common ground as mothers? Where do you think the debate will go regarding women, work and childcare over the next 10 years (especially during the current economic climate?)

Also, with regard to your thoughts about the benefit of more middle-class parents sending their children to state schools ... I think we're starting to see a trend towards this, with lots of middle-class families being unable to afford private schools due to the credit crunch and some state schools becoming increasing overwhelmed with children. Do you think this is a positive trend for the state system in the long-term?

Fiona do you think that private schools should keep their charitable status?

would you ban private schools from having such utterly stupid uniforms?

Boaters etc?

especially anything brown

Snort @ "anything brown"

I kinda agree with Moondog.

And I do recall someone saying something a short while back about an author who, whilst wasnt a mother, wrote parenting books that she "straps babies to rockets and fire them into south lebanon". She got an editorial and authoring gig from that gem too.

It's a funny old life, isnt it?

I look forward to reading "Moondog's Roundup" on Mumsnet VERY soon.

Boffinmum, you are fucking brilliant.
The eloquence of your posts and your angle on things are really gratifying to read.If I am correct, you are a fairly recent and valuable addition to MN. Good to have you.

Have had a long strenuous walk through the mountains of Snowdonia me (juggling all the while natch) and have now opened a beer and am hotting with laughter at the way that Morningpaper has brought Rosa Parks into the debate.

Rosa Parks!!!!!!

She'd turn in her grave at the desecration of her memory and acts.

I'd invite you all to dinner if I could - well, FM excepted as I have yet to hear her erudite or pantwettingly funny pov. But you have made me choke on my lobster and sauvignon 2004. And I love you for it.

I would LOVE to come and have dinner with you ggg. Living sans France has absolutely nothing to do with it. Oh no....

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Would it lower the tone terribly if I asked Fiona what the correct point in the year is to switch over to your summer handbag? What would Cherie do?

The thing is, you can only be angry about someone's credentials when you know what they are - until then they are normal human beings.

For example, when I was pg a friend of mine sent me a set of books by Vicki Iovine. the Best Friend's guides to....etc

I read them avidly, related to them, laughed, cried and recommended them to every pg woman I met.

But if my friend had said 'Hey, would you like to read some books about babies written by an ex-Playboy Bunny?' I'd have said no.

LOl at Gina Ford ref..

Can I ask who is her target audience for this book? A book on "juggling" various roles written by a woman who lives a hugely privileged life, with access to all the help she needs (other than her partner who doesn't do nappies - why does she allow him to believe that she does??) is presumably aimed at similar women. Or does she think that the problems she faces are similar to those women who earn peanuts, most of which is taken up by childcare costs, leaving the family struggling to meet basic needs? Does she think that the fact that she sends her children to state school means that she can empathise with the lives of the rest of us?

Does she struggle to afford school uniform? Does she have to tell her children that she cannot afford to send them on the latest school trip? Does she sigh with despair at the latest letter home from school requesting a "voluntary donation" for whatever or her child won't be able to benefit?

If the answer to those questions is yes, then maybe she has some insight into life for the vast majority of us. If it is no, then perhaps her target audience is only women who live hugely privileged lifestyles with access to all the help that they need. And, at £12.99 for the book, it may be they are the only ones who will be able to afford to buy it.

Moondog hohoho. You are just being insulting and not making any actual points. You have no intention of engaging - you are just hanging around to name-call. It's a bit depressing tbh.

I've told you what my point is.
It's mainly to do with pushing ads into a talk forum.Not only that, but having them take precedence over everythnig else by hogging top positions for days on end.

You ate the one who chooses to be obtuse and not see this.

When it comes to insults, nothing written on here come even close to your staggeringly ill judged and offensive comparison of a slef satisfied Islignton journalist to a heroine of the Civil Rights movement who had seen people abused,torured and murdered.

Shame on you.

oh moondog

That wasn't the point AT ALL was it? You are a clever woman and you know that. I didn't compare Millar with Parks. Boffinmum was saying that high-profile campaigners such as Millar shouldn't be high-profile, because they aren't academic enough. So swap the analogy to any high-profile campaigner you like. Make it Jamie Oliver and chips if it makes you happier: the point is still valid. You just don't want to engage.

OK you don't like sponsored chats being stickied at the top of Active Conversations. Point made I think?

Fiona, what are you encouraging / hoping your children to do for a living when they grow up?

Will you tell them how poor they'll be if they decide to become teachers instead of surgeons?

Engage????
What the hell alse am I doing??

I despise the cult of celebrity in this country, the way that anything serious has to be marketed and spun.

Thus reviews into maths aren't good enough.The Conservatives have to wheel in Carol Vorderman (a woman who persuades the proletariat to get involved with loan sharks and eat crap from Farm Foods).

Efforts to raise money for good causes invariably involve phone ins and telethons and 'challenges' and gurning 'celebrities'.

I hate it,I fucking hate it so much and refuse to believe that people are so stupid and malleable.

To me, the most important thing the Internet can offer is dissemination of useful information for free. I understand that MN is a business,and have no objection to adverts which are clear about the fact that they are adverts.It's the sneakiness of this that I hate.

MN is crammed full of people who in a heartbeat can give you advice on health/education/where to buy the best knickers/how to cook a simple meal.
For free! FREE!!!!!!!

I am heavily involved in the field of specialist education for children with Autism and post regularly on forums where really well known people put huge amounts of effort into sharing their expertise. Virginia Bovell is one. She was awarded an MBE last year fro her services in this field.She is a wealthy and privileged woman (ex wife of Nick Hornby). She;s not trying to flog a 'lifestyle guide' to people.She just gets on with it and is a decent and moral person for whom I have enormous respect.

I 'juggle'. I work f/t, am involved in research in the field of MN (finishing my MSc, starting PhD later this year). I run a business.I look after 2 small children alone as my dh abroad for 6 weeks at a time.
I'll tell you how to do it and it won't cost you £12: fucking 99.

1. Work hard

2.Be disciplined

1. Be organised

That's it.

Goodness me there are a lot of people who haven't posted for ages just coming on to insult MNs webchat guests...

Still, no hard feelings eh chaps?

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