Working mothers

What a sexist post. Are only men allowed to enjoy a fulfilling career as well as being a parent?

Having a baby is usually a choice these days although I admit that (like DGD1 and DGS4) they can sometimes come as a bit of a surprise.

If a woman wants to have a career and children then I'm afraid the couple has to take childcare costs into account when making their decision. What's to stop the father reducing/giving up work to bring up the children? If they both want a career then I'm afraid they'll just have to pay for childcare.

Any help that may be available should be targeted at families where the mother has no choice but to work.

There are also mum's who have babies partly to please their husbands. I don't mean those that are pressured into it just that they love their husbands and want to "make a family" but unfortunately after baby arrives they realise that baby talk and play dates aren't fulfilling enough and they need the stimulus of work.
I know a couple of mums like that.
The work place crèche is an ideal solution.

Over 40 years ago I worked for a large manufacturing company which looked at their costs of training women who then left to have children and didn't come back into the workforce till the children went to school, by which time the mums needed re-training. Their answer was a purpose-built nursery with qualified staff to take children from 6-months to 5 years and it worked a treat. It was open from 6am to 6pm and there was of course a minimal weekly charge to the employees, but the brunt of the costs were borne by the company.

I understand what you are saying in your first paragraph, vampirequeen.

In your second paragraph, I think there is a misconception because these days most working mothers are not cleaners, factory workers etc. A large percentage of them are university graduates, (ever since we allowed almost everybody to attend a university), and therefore they are choosing a more ambitious career path. Many also have to pay back heavy university loans, so they need to earn as much as possible.

In the final analysis, it is possible to juggle career and children, but it comes at a cost. Divided loyalties between work and the family are emotionally hard to juggle and life as a working mother can be very stressful. I'm not saying that throwing money at childcare is the answer and neither can employers be expected to pick up the pieces. The situation is here to stay, I don't think we will ever return to an age where careers will be ditched in order to have children, but I would like there to be a reasonable compromise.