Babies banned from HoC

[Braggiography]

www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-61987339

Rules have been reviewed and its been decided babies should be barred.

Of course, tantrums in the HoC are immensely disruptive and not befitting the serious nature of the discourse ...

i agree with it personally. Why should babies be allowed there when they are not allowed in other jobs where there is less emphasis on discussion and listening.

They’re not banned from the free HoC crèche, are they? Just the chamber. Which is right because the MPs are there to scrutinise and pass laws, not do childcare. It’s not on to force everyone else to work around your baby.

It's statements like this which make me despair with how out of touch some politicians are.

Ms Creasy expressed her disappointment in the review, saying she had hoped it would make "parenting and politics possible to mix".

Does Stella think babies should be allowed on building sites and in operating theatres to make it possible to mix parenting and gainful employment. Does she think it's only politics where parents face the challenges of balancing work with raising a family? How about campaigning for increased child care availability and more flexible working rather than bringing your children to work.

Isn't the main issue around maternity leave for mp's? So it's not really comparable to other jobs.

MPs don’t get proper maternity cover and that’s a problem. There should be a mechanism for good administrative cover in the constituency, with issues referred to a party central ‘representative’ who is well briefed on the MPs agenda. There should also be a proxy vote. Assuming those things aren’t in place already I have some sympathy for SC’s point on that front, but still babies in the Chamber aren’t appropriate.

I'm not allowed to take my baby to work with me either, but there's no free creche on site for me to leave her in, so Ms Creasey already a damn sight better off than I am.

It has never occurred to me to be outraged that I can't have my kid in the office. You can't work and parent at the same time, didn't the pandemic teach us that? I wouldn't want my representative in the HoC to have her baby with her when she should be focusing on the issues I elected her to focus on.

Look at Jacinda Ardern. She has a baby - her partner is the primary carer and they travel with her/fit into her work schedule. Where is the other parent of Stella Creasy’s baby? He could do the same, or he could look after the baby when she does her job, or they could arrange childcare. Just like everyone else has to. Your GP doesn’t bring her baby into your consultation. Your kid’s maths teacher isn’t feeding her baby while teaching the fourth form. It’s quite ludicrous. And where does it end? If Stella Creasy’s three month old is okay, is a 1 year old? A toddler? My 10 year old?

I accept that an MP - because it is an elected role - isn’t a “job” as such and maternity cover is complicated as a result. But that’s where some thought needs to go. And (as a pp said) into how to make childcare and working more flexible across the economy.

This is a non story as babies are not banned from the MP's workplace just a particular section of the building.

I agree with this. Babies are incompatible with most workplaces.

Good. And yes the babies can go in the free crèche which I think is open until 11pm.

Frankly this is performative garbage, and - like the ever-expanding rainbow letters also accompanied by a strong sense of victimhood - will only backfire on those to whom childcare falls. Women.

I do not want to be associated with these childish demands in any way, shape or form. If I were an MP, I'd expect DH to step up and or make proper childcare arrangements. LIKE EVERYONE ELSE DOES.

And maybe - just maybe - some jobs aren't suitable if you have small kids. I was offered something recently that I'd have loved. But it would not have worked with my home life, so then I remembered it's not all about me and it wouldn't work so I had to decline.

When I had my first child, I was self-employed working at home, and my DH took leave from work for the first year to look after our DS. I had a self-imposed no baby in my office (in fact, DS's bedroom) when I was working, as I needed to concentrate and get the job done!

not that it makes any difference to the substance of the discussion but just to clarify, the crèche isn’t free, convenient resource to have in your workplace for sure, but it’s about £90 a day or so and operates like a regular nursery.

There should be a proper mechanism for MPs to take a proper maternity/parental leave or sick leave.

This sends completely the wrong message. That childcare is not a job in itself and can happily be done in tandem with a very responsible role.

Where do I even begin. It's ablest nonsense. Anyone who's had a high needs baby, tube feeding, baby that needs menatolin to sleep etc knows that popping a baby in a sling and going to work isn't an option for some mums. By saying quiet babies, low need babies etc are ok you'd have to allow high need babies in as well unless you wanted to actively discriminate. I don't think a cerebral cry would be conducive to working.

And if you look at even the earliest development advice, parents need to be present, provide a variety of experiences for babies. Singing, stories, sensory.
Are they going to get the sandpit put FFS?

It just shows she doesn't take.parenting seriously if she thinks it's an add on she can do on top of her role.

I'm not allowed to take my baby to work, so it's ridiculous HoC should be any different. Ridiculous sense of entitlement

I totally agree babies shouldn't be in there, but i also think in this day and age they should be able to get to a position where an elected representative can fulfill her duties while also looking after a young baby. There is no maternity provision, and even approaches for proxy voting don't always work so... what are you going to do? I don't know what the right answer is, but it would be good if they at least made some efforts to think about it. It surely not beyond our wit to enable female MPs maternity leave.

Agree with this.

I would really like to have a system that enables mothers of small children to also be MPs (whilst remaining reasonably present in their children's daily and emotional lives). That would be actual meaningful diversity, where our elected government has a vague understanding of what 'normal people' need, rather than living in an entirely disconnected reality.

This! She has access to childcare provision that is probably amongst the best in the country, but chooses to grandstand about whether or not she can take her baby into the chamber of the House of Commons.

It's worse than that. She can take her child to work, where there is excellent childcare provision - it's only the chamber of the House that she can't take her baby into. Most working mothers would kill for the onsite workplace childcare that Ms Creasy has access to. And yet she thinks that women can have penises, so perhaps she needs to work on getting a grip on the lives of actual working women - or even on defining them.