Working Mothers in General

Choosing to return to work and leave your child with completed strangers is the hardest decision in the world. I agonized for weeks about it, looking into all the possibilities of how we could manage without me working full time. The bottom line for me was we couldn't manage and I had to return to work. My mother didn't help me much as she thought I should be at home with my child whatever the cost, but things were different for her when I was small, my father was able to work all sorts of hours to cover our costs and keep her in the life style she became accustom too. I didn't want my partner doing that, how would our child ever see ...  Read the complete review

Every persons circumstances are different, so I don't think that there is a right or wrong in this debate, I only know of my experience. When I fell pregnant with my son (who is now seven months old ), I was hoping to take the maximum one year maternity leave so that I could spend as much time as possible with my baby. Also, after working 40 hours a week for the previous ten years I was looking forward to a little career break. Unfortunatley, because we had failed in our quest to save money before the birth (impossible with all the bits and bobs we had to buy for the new baby), we found ourselves struggling financially just a few months into the ...  Read the complete review

It is very difficult to label such a diverse group of people into convenient cliches as some would like to do, things like "irresponsible working mothers deserting their children" or "career woman sacrifices family life" or the idea of the super mum who can do it all, successful career, loving family life and happy children. The fact of the matter is that for most people it is an economic necessity to go to work after having children, such is the cost of houses these days most people need two incomes to cover the mortgage and cannot afford the luxury of living on a single level of income, those that are able to are in a very fortunate ...  Read the complete review

For me I would consider being a mother a full time job in itself so how someone can also consider following a career is beyond me, surely the decision to bring a child into the world is a conscious decision and involves a commitment on behalf of both parents to raise the child and as such the idea that both parents would immediately go back to work and pass the child off to a child minder or nursery to care for is a strange decision. Surely the decision should be that the lower earner is the one to remain home and care for the children, this makes financial sense and if that higher earner is the mother the the father can step in and provide the daily care for ...  Read the complete review

I too am one of the guilty ones. my daughter is seven now though and I only work when she is at school. Like most people we planned ahead when i was pregnant. I would work up to 4 weeks before the due date and have off the full paid amount of maternity (this was only 18 weeks at that time). then i would return to work part time and my gran would help with the babysitting if necessary. However, Nothing went to plan. I had my daughter 10 weeks prematurely. I was due to be off that day but was meant to be working the following day, i had to phone in and my boss didn't believe me, anyway, we spent 7 and a half weeks in the Special Care Baby Unit, and ...  Read the complete review