The Minister for Women wants to know your thoughts on working and childcare

[BellaLasagne]

Netmums are running a survey here to find out what mums think about working hours and childcare; if you'd like to have your views heard then fill it in!

Hmmm - it would have been nice if there were some boxes to tick about fathers working more flexible hours and fathers picking up some of the slack of childcare.

I agree - it's not the best written survey ever and it certainly doesn't cover all possibilities, but if it's going to be read at the highest level we should certainly take the opportunity to respond.

yes very frustrating - what about dads?
And I ended up ticking mutually exclusive boxes about the best care for preschool children!

i've written the following to sally at netmums:

i'm sorry, but the survey make me really angry in that it just didn't address the fundamental issue facing FAMILIES today: that society does nothing to recognise the importance of both parents in the lives of their children. Your survey totally assumed that mothers would be the primary carers in the home and fathers the main breadwinners.

the govt needs to suppport parenting and extend the choice of families in terms of how they do so: flexible working should be available to parents by law (not just the right to ask for it), parents should be paid a benefit by they state for choosing to stay at home, as well as being given tax credits/vouchers if they choose to work and put their children into childcare. of course maternity leave should be on full pay for at least a year, but this should extend to fathers too. until the state takes paternity leave and fatherhood as seriously as maternity leave and motherhood, how can we expect men to be real parents, as many of them now wish to be?

finally all parents should be offerred midwife based continuity of care during pregnancy and afterwards i.e. 2-3 midwives that get to know both mother and birth partner from their first appointment and stay with them through the birth until the baby is 12 weeks old. and all midwives should receive breastfeeding training as a matter of course.

Well done sophable - I just did as I was told