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....

maybe we should use privy

'Common'? What a frightfully lower middle class word.

lol

I have an idea. Why don't we all sub-divide into groups based on working status AND class. 'Posh SAHMs' versus 'Working class WOHMs' versus 'Lower Middle Class part-timers' and so on and so forth. Perhaps we could even break off into groups based on our hair colour (Xenia, would that suit you?).

I hereby delcare myself founder of the 'Part-time working AND brunette AND working class upbringing-but-educated-and -now-live-in-a-leafy-London-suburb-so-suppose-I-must-be-middle-class-if-anything Mums Club'. Hurrah!

No, I like different people mixing. It's much more interesting.

lol@muminfife!!

Lunch and dinner - is that supposed to be posh or (draws breath in order to utter that frightful word) 'common'?
I always thought it was a southern versus northern thing (obviously not if you're in Fife and I'm in London and we use the same terms). Always thought 'tea' was very Coronation Street. Or am I just an ignorant wench?

Referring back to the OP - what's to understand? Working part time means you can have the best of both worlds - your career and your children! And some of us even work for fairly enlightened employers who still consider us for promotion etc whilst we're part time. Yes, most of us realise we can't have everything and have to scarifice a couple of rungs on the ladder to the top but, on the other hand, we get to spend time with you children without feeling vaguely disatisfied that we're neglecting our intellect (as Xenia would have it).

As for the argument that SAHMs are generally less intelligent than working mums - I can't believe that some see 'The City' as the zenith of a professional career. From what I can see (at a distance, granted), it's full of competitive tossers practising for 'The Apprentice'. OK, so you can earn big bucks, but to my mind anyone who actively chooses to get out of the city, via childbirth or otherwise, is demonstrating a higher intelligence through that very act alone.

Suely intelligence is working out a way of living and working that means you can continue your career (if you so wish) and bring up your children with a little help for a couple of days from a childminder or nursery. NOT working 12 hour days 6 days a week, knocking yourself out and ignoring the fruit of your loins.

I have never wanted to be a full time SAHM but that's just me - I certainly don't view my friends who are as being less intelligent than me!

Xenia 'likes different people mixing'

Yay!

But only if they avoid saying certain words.

This is the funniest thread I have ever read.

I think Xenia is actually just a short hairy bald man with erectile dysfunction and likes riling women for kicks because we'd never talk to him in RL.

And come on... please don't say 'kids'?
PMSL

I think LoveAngels response was hysterical.

Henceforth, all of us lesser educated numbskull SAHMs who have only just learnt to stop dragging our knuckles on the floor long enough to change a nappy, put on a purple velour tracksuit and clean a toilet, should refer to toilets as 'dunnies', children as 'kids', and cite Catherine Tate Do I Look Bovvered Do I Do I' at every possible opportunity.

Oh, and I am lucky enough to be a natural blonde therefore illustrating my stupidity and trophy wife merit from a distance, all you other idiots better hop off to Boots and pick up some Clairol quick!

No it was the opposite I said - the trophy wife has the dyed blonde hair. If I said natural blondes were trophy wives that would be racist. Nothing wrong with blonde hair. I've 3 blonde sons.

Blonde people are a race? Xenia, are you German?

loveangel, are you suggesting German people are racist? because that is emphatically not true.
blondeness is a racial characteristic, xenia's comment was ok in that context.

this thread is a load of hairy dogs bollocks, xenia and mozhe have got to be trolls, they are winding eveyone up and people are letting them, ignore them and they will soon crawl under their bridge when it gets cold.

Xenia you are a hoot (not of the owl variety in this case). I have laughed so hard reading all the posts since yesterday. I agree with the lady who suggests you must be a hairy balding old man (or woman) with little else to do but post rubbish on mumsnet. Whatever the case I do not believe you have a high powered job or ANY type of job come to think of it. I think you live in a dreamworld where you imagine yourself to be someone else. Are you under the influence of some illegal substance or sniffing the dunnie cleaner again?
Think about it - if your youngest is 22 ( was that what you said or just a figment of your imagination?) then you are not facing the work choice/kid issues that most of us are facing. So what exactly are you contributing here again..?

LoveAngel you have brilliant posts!

im a SAHM looking for part time work, come get me

Just catching up with the thread. I had used "Quality" in the old-fashioned sense as Aloha described it.

I work part-time because:

• I have a disabled child and there is next to no after-school childcare for her
• I want to spend time with my children when I can
• we need the money but can manage with my part-time salary

I was avoiding being racist. If people say all blondes are thick then that's offensive just as saying all blacks or whites are thick is racist. Whereas I was making some completely unimportant comment about younger trophy wives who might be dyed blonde.

I am reading Blood of the Isles at the moment by Bryan Sykes. Invaders came over thousands of years and largely impregnated our women rather than people being separated out.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORING

Who the fuck would work at all if you didn't have to eh?

With or without kids I could so easily have been one of the idle rich. Work is a mighty bloodless substitute for life I say.

As they say in "Three men in a boat": "I love work. I could sit and watch it for hours."

I work 4 days a week (2 days at home, 2 days in the office, 1 day off) for the same company I have worked for since I left college.

I get paid £xxx for (basically) my 2 days in the office and am so much better off for it. If I worked full time I would be fairly well paid.

It also means 3 days out of 5 I can take my children to school, can pick them up, do not have to pay for childcare.

I am a single mum of 3 children (one receives DLA) and own my own house (mortgaged).

If I did not work, my children would have a disheartened mum who could not provide a roof over their heads (unless I received benefits) and would not be having holidays, nice clothes, good time with me, etc.

I feel bad that I work but I cannot see any way out of the situation.

As we say in my native country, dros Tue 22-May-07 22:38:29, 'Fuckin'A RIGHT' (=spot on).

Work is the most overrated crock going.

Tell me about it expat!!!! Off to work tomorrow again for my PT hrs of 24 and have to battle with that voice in my head screaming ' What a load of wank if I were knocked down tomorrow or if we were all killed......' You know what I mean.