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....

Mozhe is it possible that the really clever ones chose a career where it is possible to do well, be 'successful', respected and get paid for it, but which also allows less working hours, or going parttime? - so when the little ones are young they dont feel so second place.
(not a great believer in sahmdom, yet, but i couldnt deal with all that working fulltime business when i just want to take it easy) .
Aussiesim what do you do that pays £700 a day? sounds good to me

bettybobo - definitely, the really clever women are the ones who manage to work before children and save up enough money not to feel anxious about their future, then make sure they do are in a career track with lots of flexibility when they have their children so that they can take a break for as long as necessary and go back to work part time when they and the children are ready

I though mozhe and xenia might like this article on flexible working

May I join in? I work because:-

(a) we need the money now. I think anyway. Maybe we are a bit guilty of consumerism, though.

(b) as a family we will certainly need my income in the nearish future as DH has a condition that means he will be unable to work in the medium/longer term (not a ploy for sympathy, just to explain a bit of background). If I take time off now, I re-enter the workplace with vastly less earning power. Sad but true.

(c) I enjoy working. This is actually quite hard to admit because it does sound (and I know it is) selfish.

(d) I don't think I would be very good as a SAHM because I need external drivers and motivators to get me going.

The point of iterating all my reasons for working is to make the point that all those factors are very specific to me and our family circumstances. I'm lucky to have the choice. We're all lucky to have the choice. As Tinymum says - isn't feminism about choices?

Incidentally some of the cleverest and most talented women I know are SAHMs. Even though, personally I do wish they hadn't left the workplace because it means that there are so few women with children at work... making for less understanding workplace environments etc

But I've often had men with children at work and they understand. I know men who get home in time to let the nanny go every day because their wife's work isn't as flexible. The one I'm thinking of takes all school holidays off too.

Thanks for the Guardian link - yes very generous flexible working options are offered where there is a market case for it. In fact often men take it up too even those without children. I know a gay man who is adopting a baby at present who will need time to work around that.

But don't assume everyone wants to be with the children all the time. It isn't some golden nirvana to have to trudge up to the school every day. Plenty of non working mothers happily delegate that to the au pair because it's dull.

Also no problem with doing things because you like them; many men and chidlren do that and I think women should too so they are happy and balanced. There are huge loads of fed up martyrs amongst women in the UK complain complain complain but never change anytyhing and therefore responsible for their own fed up ness.

none of us should even have to explain why we work part-time, I would think the answer(s) were obvious, but I will follow suit: I work 19hrs a week and for that I get to spend more time with dd and I have to say I make more effort to do interesting and exciting things with her the days I'm not at work also I get well paid so that at the end of every month I buy us all nice treats, plus I get abit of me time and having been a SAHM I freely admit to liking it

LoveAngel

I love you, you are an angel

And I'm not a lezzy and I have been on m/net for a million years but thank god someone has had the guts to speak sense.

:-)

Xenia - my partner "trudges up to school everyday" - actually, he adores it. His ex never, ever goes to school - not to drop the children off, not to a parent-teacher meeting.

Just take one wild, random guess as to which parent knows what's going on in their child's life? And which one doesn't have a clue?

Okay, that's good. I don't understand parents who don't want to be involved or go to the school.

You still avoid addressing my point, Xenia. I understand you're very busy working long hours and extended breastfeeding and posting on netmums and all the other important stuff you fill your days with, but...* taps watch * ...waiting!

LA, which point? Write it again. I can't be reading every single post and responding to them all.

Xenia: Why is meeting your children from school dull?

In my experience, women who go to work because they think that looking after children is boring are just lacking in imagination and creativity!

(I'm not talking about women who work for other reasons by the way)

Also, re childcare, - you put in what you get out of it. Yes, if you want to/are lazy, you could probably get away with not using your brain, but for the intellectual hardworking parent, childcare can be full of stimulating challenges and remarkable and imaginative problem solving!

deestings......HEAR HEAR

Well said.

It's boring in large measures but not in smaller doses. Occasionally collecting them is great. Every day is dull as anything.

I'm sorry Xenia but I don't agree. It's what you make it!

Many would consider communting to work, filling in expense claim forms etc etc dull!

Well a lot of women find being a housewife, cleaning and even childcare dull if that is all they do. I don't think I'm the only person who thinks that. I also have spent 22 years being a mother so I'm obviously not anti-child, not like a lot of workers who have chosen not to have children and in fact often dislike them. I love being with them and I woudln't have liked a childless life at all but I couldn't have spent the last 22 years at home. It's unimaginable for me.

LMAO@Xenia. Oh God. Can't your secretary / maternity nurse / bitch scroll down and re-read my post to you so that you can dignify it with a response? On second thoughts, don't bother yawn Off to have a glass of Shiraz and a snog with my DH. xxx

I cannot wait to jack in this crap job and work part-time.

If you are still a full-time mother xenia as well as work full-time, why would anyone want to have 2 full-time jobs

deestings - I agree with you, I also find that women (or men) who find bringing up children dull and prefer to go out to work -for that reason - lack imagination and creativity/

I also find that, by not having children straight out of school/university but having lived life to the full for quite a few years first, I have all sorts of skills that I would never have had in my early 20s that mean that I am more resourceful and am much better on my own for extended periods. It's less restricting to have children later in life IMO.

One small point to add to the (very enjoyable!) debate - entirely agree that it's what suits each, but P-T does give you more life, with or without kids. I retrained as a solicitor and cut to four days in my other job and one day per week to study at home - even though I was studying I got sooo much more done with that day at home and became much more efficient at work. Also interested to hear a friend of mine, who's cut to P-T since having her daughter, say that she wishes she'd done it years before, before becoming a mum, as it gives you so much time for yourself.

If work is your life, that's great - I've always got great satisfaction from it but I could see myself going P-T if possible (or even taking a break)- there are so many things to do in life!

I don't think I was the person who said I was a full time mother. But I understand the concept of it. All parents are mentally full time but my children are at school from 8.15am every day so whether I were a housewife or not I wouldn't be there with them all day unless I taught them at home. Most parents share childcare usually with their spouse, grand parents, child minder, nanny or whatever. I think it must be quite hard to say you are a 100% full time mother. I suppose a single mother with a baby who co sleeps and never lets it out of her sight might be that.

I think a full-time mother is a mother who has physical responsibility for the child at all times.

I would qualify myself as a full-time mother. If I want some time to myself without my daughter, I have to pre-arrange it with someone else. There is no-one else in her life who regularly takes care of her while I do other things.

Obviously I am not physically with her every minute of the day. But, since she is 2.6, I cannot leave her at home alone and, obviously, outside the home she needs to be watched every second.

Obviously all mothers are 100% in the sense that they are also 100% daughters, sisters, cousins, aunts. But the biological relationship is a separate one to the nurturing relationship (as all adoptive parents will know).

Mothers who work outside the home are 100% biological mothers, but they are not full-time mothers if they have regular nannies, nursery care or any other form of childcare that frees them to go to work. Some SAHMs are not full-time mothers, either, if they have nannies to leave their children with