Would you stay at home with your kids? (5 Viewers)

[minka]

oh, and re "you can work from home and mind children if you really try":

ahahahahahahahaha. seriously.

 

[Pantone247]

In France I'm guessing that the State subsidises creches, which means more taxes, which we won't vote for.

yeah but cheaper creches = larger work force = less dole + more income tax

Q.E.D.

so remember folks, VOTE PANTONE on November 12th

 

[muffin]

my mum stayed at home till i was about 6 then went back to work because her and my dad wanted to move house and couldnt afford it on one persons salary..although i love the time me and my mum used to spend together when i was little i love the fact that she went back to work to try and improve mine and cprs quality of life by moving us to a nicer neighbourhood..and i never resented her or my dad for not being there when we got home..

 

[whathappen?]

I don't have any kids but I know for a fact that there is no way I could stay at home looking after them . The reasons are
1. I would prefer to have a job outside of the home
2. I would probably find it very boring...busy but not interesting for me
3. I would never forfeit my financial independence .
4. If the father wanted to stay at home I would have no issue with that and would probably enjoy earning the crust for the family

They are just my preferences and I in no way have anything against people who do stay at home to look after the children.

Although, if I did have a job that could be done from home for example I would love to run my own online vintage store then I wouldn't mind staying at home. The only thing I would be worried about, and again I am saying this as a person who does not have any children, i s that I wouldn't have enough contact with other adults and that my brain would turn to mush.

 

[Diddles]

I manage to work at home all day with two crazy dogs killing each other under the desk, constantly knocking out the modem, barking at their 'enemies' on the street and chewing everything they can find. I don't think having a kid at home with me would make a blind bit of difference.

 

[whathappen?]

I manage to work at home all day with two crazy dogs killing each other under the desk, constantly knocking out the modem, barking at their 'enemies' on the street and chewing everything they can find. I don't think having a kid at home with me would make a blind bit of difference.

are you being sarcastic I can never tell

 

[billygannon]

The social stigma of being unmarried and childless is ridiculous for a woman in her 30's. I swear if I am asked one more time, "why aren't you taken and time's a runnin' out better get making babies!" I am going to scream. People have kids because that is what is expected. I think if more people were honest with themselves or more comfortable to say, "hey, that's not what I want..." the world would be a much better place.

From what I know of this many women who are in the mid to late 30's really start wanting to have kids (if they haven't already).
There is a very real biological urge, but there's also the fact that when you get to your late 30's you start to think quite seriously of your retirement years.
Most of the childless people I know over the age of 50 have a very salient sadness to them.
And I don't think it's because most of their friends have children and they don't...

 

[billygannon]

Simple fact, kids are expensive..

They're not that expensive.

 

[Anthony]

kids are as expensive as you want them to be.

 

[Wilbert]

In my job you can do term time, where you take a couple of months off during the summer while the kids are off school and your 9 months wages are spread over 12 months. If I had kids i'd like to do that if i could afford it.

Thats essentially how wages work as a teacher. Your wages are spread over 12 months, so it's kind of an illusion that you get 3 months paid holidays, in a way.

In another way, it's exactly like having 3 months paid holidays a year!

 

[nlgbbbblth]

kids are as expensive as you want them to be.

exactly,

Loads of people have said to me 'kids are so expensive, you'll never be able to go out / buy records'

Crap.
Breast milk is free.
Child eating our food = no money on babyfood
Clothes = you get a hell of a lot as presents

yes, there are expenses but it's definitely nowhere near what the ill-informed vinyl-hating doom merchants foretold.

I love looking after Matthew and think I would like to do it on a full-time basis. Since Wendy went back to work (four day week) he went to a childminder (someone I knew since 1976) and that worked out well. Now she's off work again until at least next summer so she's back minding him. The domestic workload and responsibility will double very soon but that's cool too.

 

[muffin]

exactly,

Loads of people have said to me 'kids are so expensive, you'll never be able to go out / buy records'

i love the fact that yr rage is based around people saying you cant afford vinyl..this is one of the many reasons thumped parents rock.|..|

i think if ya dont know someone the actual setting up part like buying cribs and stuff can cost a lot so thats why i think people think babies are expensive...personally im just not ready for the responsibility

 

[cpr]

I wanna stay at home and look after my dog full time.god knows what will happen if I have kids!

 

[F. Fred Palakon]

thats a brilliant idea, most businesses will go a bit quiet during the summer months anyway so winners all around.

The family friendly policies in the civil service sound great in principle but there's a fair bit of ironing out still to be done. One the one hand, it's great that people can balance their private lives with their work lives and I fully endorse this. On the other hand, it can be frustrating for the people still working full-time if it is not managed sensitively.

I used to work in an office with:

- one person that didn't work on Mondays
- one person that worked from home two days a week
- one person that worked Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday the first week, and Monday and Tuesday the second week
- one person that worked Wednesday, Thursday, Friday the first week, and Monday Tuesday the second week
- one person that worked mornings only
- one person that went on term-time in the summer
- a boss that worked 3 days a week (I can't remember which)
- and about four other people that worked full-time.

Clearly, this is madness. It was impossible to remember who was supposed to be where, scheduling was a nightmare, and there was absolutely no sense of teamwork or whatever. Over time, I became quite resentful of the fact that if something needed to be done late, most of the work-"sharers" had a child to pick up or a commute to start, and it was invariably the younger, childless people that got stuck doing it.

Actually, it started to feel a bit like some kind of internment camp where your colleagues would just drop in to say hello and tell you tales of the Outside. Obviously this is a irrational - the people working part-time were only getting paid for the hours they worked. The point I'm trying to make is that family-friendly policies aren't a cure-all and have a knock on effect that should be considered.

 

[billygannon]

exactly,

Loads of people have said to me 'kids are so expensive, you'll never be able to go out / buy records'

Crap.
Breast milk is free.
Child eating our food = no money on babyfood
Clothes = you get a hell of a lot as presents

yes, there are expenses but it's definitely nowhere near what the ill-informed vinyl-hating doom merchants foretold.

I love looking after Matthew and think I would like to do it on a full-time basis. Since Wendy went back to work (four day week) he went to a childminder (someone I knew since 1976) and that worked out well. Now she's off work again until at least next summer so she's back minding him. The domestic workload and responsibility will double very soon but that's cool too.

Do you live in a Wendy House?

 

[nlgbbbblth]

 

[egg_]

The domestic workload and responsibility will double very soon but that's cool too.

Number 2 on the way already? Brave man

 

[snakybus]

It'll actually more than double, heh heh

 

[Pantone247]

remember you told me you were having another kid and I laughed and laughed and said "have you forgotten what it's like?!?!"

I still feel bad about that...

 

[snakybus]

Ah that's okay, you can babysit some...week.