Why do people work part time ? I've never understood it...

[mozhe]

I never have, but lots of colleagues in NHS did....you end up doing 3/4 of the work for 1/2 the salary, and get passed over in the promotion stakes...And have you noticed that it's nearly always women who do this ? Why ? I actively discourage junior staff from doing this but lots seem to....

Go for it Kama,I wish I could persuade DP to travel more,I love it ,he is a homebird.Am very

i think part timers get the shit end of the stick. usually they doit becuase they have to rather than choice. then they get all the child responsabilities and housework too.

because they want to spend some time with their family and they can manage on the salary?less responsibility?

I think this thread has become insulting and ridiculous - caused in the main by a few women who, it appears, have so many personal issues that they are insecure about their own self-worth and try to justify their feelings by attacking those of us who are perfectly content in our chosen way of life.
It seems you view your personal worth as how many hours you work/ how much you get paid/ what 'status' you have at work?
If so, I would like to suggest that this has nothing to do with believing that f/t is 'better' than p/t but is to do with you not feeling valued at home and therefore crave the recognition you get at work. In addition Xenia appears to have a very 'them and us' attitude to husbands/ partners who work f/t and therefore, as she implies, get all the pay and recognition that goes with that. I am not sure what sort of r/ship you have with your partner but it does not sound like one based on trust and working towards the same goals (not trying to judge as I don't know you but then you don't know the rest of us either). If that is the case, I can understand how you would need to secure your position and feel valued at work. There are women who love working full-time just b'cos they do, there is no competition or false superiority over p/timers.

well said chica

I don't have a partner. Not all women have men and many women are gay and some women choose to have children without a man around too. Let us not be too narrow in our assumptions.

I think I find more assumptions amongst stay at home mothers - that what they do is right psychologically for their children and they don't seem to like it when you point out they may be wrong.

A lot of stay at home mothers but by no means all never earned much and some of them (not all) are not that bright and it often comes across in posts. On average you get insults from stay at homers because they don't have arguments and arguments from working mothers. Anyway all good fun.

Because I did the long hours, high stres work when I was younger. DH and I both did - you know, chasing promotions and bonuses, work hard/play hard - that kind of thing.

And then once I had DS I reached a cross road. I could keep doing that, or I could go p/t. Yes it meant slowing down my career, but I am happier doing less hours and less stress with less responsibility and a lot less phone calls on w/e, holidays etc. I look at the hours that my boss puts in (his wife is expecting their 3rd child this week) and I know I have made the right decision.

Yes I have to be careful to sign off completely on my non-work days and not take on extra work.

DH has also slowed down. He would rather spend more time at home with DS. He can't do part time regularly, but he does do the odd half day here and there when he can.

xenia you dont seem to like it when people point out you may be wrong

does anyone?

xenia - you have just contradicted your own "arguments"!!!! Some SAHM are not that bright (not all), yes you are right, the same as some WOHM (what does that mean?) are not that bright. Some SAHM are obviously very intelligent, as are some WOHM. But a good "argument" must be, why oh why oh why, would you give up the chance to be with your children if your level of education or circumstances dictate that you can only get a menial, low paid job which is quite frankly dull as ditchwater. This is a no brainer (yeah i hate that too) really, the childcare costs may outweigh the benefits, but of course at least they wouldn't have to actually spend time with thier children but thats another issue. If the choice is between an interesting, well paid job or staying at home (my choice IMO) then you have to respect my choice as i am possibly making some career sacrifices to do what i feel is right for my family. As for the common good, i'm all for community spirit and all that but at the end of the day my children come first. So if i am letting the sisterhood down by wasting my education, sorry sisters.

I thought I just stay at home mothers because they are less well educated and not so bright tend to descend to personal insults and you never see that from working mothers.

If they earned a lot and enjoyed their work and were clever mostly they aren't that keen to be home as they see it for the dull thing that being a housewife is surely?

i know someone who works part time and while she is working part time someone looks after her dd she earns £100 a week Childcare is £80 a week so she does all that for £20- imo madness, for £20 she doesnt see her daughter for half the week i dont get women who do this at all

"I thought I just stay at home mothers because they are less well educated and not so bright tend to descend to personal insults and you never see that from working mothers."

Look, why indulge this ridiculous woman?

how did this woman ever come to the conclusion she should become a mother - she'd be better off raising cattle surely, what a shame xenia's kids are going to follow the same attitudes

um, i am a stay at home MUM, never let it be said that i am a HOUSEWIFE!!! wash your mouth out woman! I can't be doing with all things domestic to be honest, we can't afford a cleaner - my house is a tip! I don't care, i do the minimal, and i mean minimal housework. Actually, i cannot fathom how mothers of small children have immaculate houses, surely they do not spend their time cleaning and polishing and neglecting thier children? If that were the case, i would have to "choke, splutter and spit" agree with Xenia that those children might be better off in childcare whilst mummy weilded the duster.

I think I'm a reasonable mother.

If you analyse any stay at home/working mumsnet threads most of the descending to personal insults etc things always come from the stay at home mothers. I was suggesting that was because they were less well educated so perhaps couldn't help themselves but perhaps they are just badly brought up and wicked.

Xenia, I don't understand what you are trying to say. Neither sentence in your previous post is grammatically correct and therefor neither make any sense.

(I used to be a SAHM but am now working for myself, part time. Just so we are clear)

Xenia - you do make me chuckle Could you tell me what you mean by personal insult, just so as i don't make such a fatal error in future.

Yeah right, im dead clever i am, so i must be a wicked, wicked, badly brought up flibertygibbet!!

I think xenias winding you up again girls.

oh and wasn't going to admit to this, but i dreamt about you last night (Xenia!), i can't remember the context and i really don't mean this as insulting but i think your children were guinea pigs - maybe mohze can interpret this for me, in my dream this was perfectly normal and they all seemed fine to me. I do quite like guinea pigs before you ask. Its nothing unusual for me to have messed up dreams like this, i guess it was down to my laying there trying to think of something witty and amusing to say to you, just before i fell asleep. Weird.

One of my twins dreamt his twin died he was just telling me, last night. He woek up as he was about to die which I think you often do in dreams when you get to the really worst part.