Babies in the workplace.

Yes, but why all say the same thing, when we can have a good row about it?

I agree with you on the bereavement situation too, MissA. None of these things should exclude the other.

I think we are saying the same thing. I don't think that allowing people to have a baby on the premises will have a huge impact either.

I do, however, think that a blanket ban on allowing babies will make life more difficult for mothers (at least until men take a proper share of the childcare). For that reason, I wouldn't like to see it banned, as has been discussed wrt the HoC incident.

I agree, but alongside that, there is a huge gap which says that if an mp has trouble with childcare, how does a recently bereaved old nan with no family manage?
Isn't it time to address that, too?
Just using me as an example, but family life these days is very much more varied.

I dont really care either way doodle. Take the baby to work dont take the baby to work. It wont have any impact on womens lives, career progression, division of childcare between the sexes (in fact I think it will make that worse). Its the difference between real structural change and tinkering around the edges.

Sorry - my comment above was in response to Galaxy.

MissA that is awful, and I absolutely agree that that should be dealt with. All I'm saying (and I'm going to shut up now, as I'm boring myself) is that the fact that not all workers can have something is not a good reason for denying it to everyone.

No, it's neither. Nobody has (AFAIK) suggested that children should take up space in thew workplace on anything like a regular basis. The discussion started when a female MP brought her baby in to her workplace to vote, as there was no alternative to being there in person. It just feels to me that saying that this shouldn't happen, with all the associated talk af breastfeeding and maternity leave and so on is pushing responsibility for childcare onto the mother, and that the idea that nobody can have benefits in the workplace because everyone can't have them is regressive.

People should take advantage of anything that's offered if it makes their working life easier.
I just think that adequate childcare is a HUGE, and widely ignored issue, that could and should be invested in, so that everyone can concentrate on their job, do it to their best ability, and not have to spend almost all of their wages on.

When my girl died, and I had my grandson, nobody was able to give me advice, even, on childcare.
If I was eligible, how it worked, how to contact anyone who knew.

That really is a sorry state of affairs, considering I was expected to immediately go to work.

Nobody is abolishing it though are they. Up and down the country employers will offer flexibility in an emergency. I am just not going to pretend its feminism or at all helpful to women.

Galaxy

Yes let men try this first and see how it goes. There would be investment in high quality childcare in about a week.

Yes, and if men took their share of the childcare, there would be wholesale popping in to collect papers they've left on their desk, or dropping something off, which is all that's being discussed, really.

Offices full of cots, or children playing hopscotch in the corridor is not under discussion.

Some people have a choice, and others don't. Some people get every Saturday off, and others don't. Some people get annual bonuses and others don't. Some people get company cars, or the use of work laptops, or staff discount, or subsidised canteens or all sorts of things that others don't. Should all of these things be abolished because not everyone gets them?
That seems rather Stalinist to me.

It's that baby interfering with your typing MissA

I seem to be writing my own version of English lately.
Apologies, pedants.

My client group are funded my social services for 1:1 support.
Would that still be the case if I took my baby with me?
Would I be given the job in preference to someone with 4 children, and if so, would that be discrimination?

Yes let men try this first and see how it goes. There would be investment in high quality childcare in about a week.

It’s easy to produce lots of “I did it and it worked well” stories, but as some have already said it wouldn’t work for all jobs. The health hazards, feeding time and changing time and need for attention would not have been suitable for my baby in a KS1 class.
My other concern is, it’s fine for one, but imagine an open plan office with multiple babies.
If you can make it work, you and your management are convinced that it wouldn’t interfere with your ability to do your job, the setting is hygienic and safe enough for your baby, then why not?
On the other hand, in the interests of equality, why not have both partners take the baby into work.

I'm definitely all in favour of working from home wherever it is possible, for a whole host of reasons.
It must do all sorts of good, if properly structured, much the same as phone appointments with gps.

MissAdventure

It just, to me, illustrates and widens the chasm between those who have a choice, and those with none.
That can't be good, long term, let alone the whole idea that women are the ones doing it all.

Hear, hear

It just, to me, illustrates and widens the chasm between those who have a choice, and those with none.
That can't be good, long term, let alone the whole idea that women are the ones doing it all.

Tizliz

I had to speak to BT technical help line last week. It was difficult for me to concentrate with his young child screaming in the background. I feel that we are paying more and getting less customer care.

That must have been really annoying, but it is a separate issue, really. You could have called BT to complain, and it would have been taken seriously.

Working from home should not mean that work is fitted in around childcare (or anything else) unless the work being done is not time-critical. It should mean that the same work is being done at home as would have been done in the office.

In the same way as if you went into a shop and the assistant was talking to a friend instead of serving you, you would have grounds to complain, you are entitled to expect the attention of someone on the phone. But that doesn't mean that shop assistants shouldn't talk to one another when the shop is empty, or that the call handler shouldn't be able to work from home - it means that both people should adapt to situations as they arise. If that means having someone in the house (or office) to pick up the baby when it cries, so be it.

Nobody is saying that if you are paid to be doing a job you can just down tools to read a story or sing 'The Wheels On The Bus' whenever you like. But if you have to pop in to vote (or an equivalent thing for your job), and if having a baby with you wouldn't pose a danger to anyone, then why stop people from doing it just because it wouldn't be possible for everyone?

I just want more for younger women than this. It's like something out of the dark ages.

Not a mention of fathers. Same old same old.

I wouldn't risk my child with the client group I work (ed) with.
It is also the clients house, so entirely up to them who they allow in and if they object one day.

Its 45 years since I took my daughter to work with me ,she was 8 days old .She was there until she started school.
When she was 18 months she went to a playgroup 3 mornings a week for 2 hours ,then back to the office ,at 3 she had nursery 4 afternoons a week for 3 hours
When she started school at 5 she came from school to work
She spoke early ,was very sociable and liked doing wee jobs like sticking stamps on envelopes or "helping" with filing etc .
If we'd been at home she'd have been doing the housework with me ,dusting helping with tidying etc .
The staff all loved her ,they talked to her ...a lot ,she grew up thinking of them as family .
I know not everyone has their own business and we were lucky ,but people ,women,mothers are capable of doing more than one thing at a time .At least the women I know are .
10 and a half years later I repeated the whole experience with my son .

Maybe you should just accept that we dont all want to be SAHM ...and we still want our children to be a part of our day .For some of us a child isn't a full time job ,we need the stimulation of work too