Time for Parenting...

...because raising children is a full-time job

September 2001 Newsletter

From the chair; Early attachment is crucial; In your own words; Write to your MP today!; What the papers say; Noticeboard; Your letters

What the papers say

Mothers who work full-time are not only worried about the impact on their children but also feel the stress they are under is damaging to their marriages and sex lives, according to a survey of 5,000 working women by Top Sante magazine (June 2001).

In the words of editor Juliette Kellow, full-time work for women with families is 'physically, emotionally and mentally' a major problem. ' The Government wants to encourage as many women as possible into full-time work' she says 'but this survey shows this is blatantly not what most women want, especially those with families.

If work were their only priority, most women would love going in to the office. The Government needs to recognise that most women with babies or young children would rather have a 'career job-share', or dare we say it, be a full-time mum.'

Pressure to get mothers back to work continues, however, with the publication of the Daycare Trust's report The UK at the Crossroads: Towards an Early Years European Partnership. Reported in the Telegraph on 4 September, it criticised the low level of state-funded daycare for under-threes in Britain. A leader in The Times on the same day seemed to agree, urging Estelle Morris, Education Secretary, to de-regulate schools so that they can offer creches on site for the pre-school children of the teachers at the school.

Ms Morris confirmed in the Daily Mail the next day that she would like to see schools become 'family centres' for local communities with the possibility of dawn-to-dusk childcare. No mention was made of the possible impact on children of being institutionalised in this way. How long will it be before women teachers will be put under pressure to stay in work when they become mothers, rather than taking a career break in the pre-school years?

Career breaks are certainly popular amongst Rachel Johnson's old schoolmates. Writing in the Daily Telegraph Weekend on 23 June, Rachel described a reunion at top girls' school St Paul's in west London and found the largest group of her former classmates described themselves as 'FTMs' - thus proving that education is no bar to full-time motherhood.

Not every new mother feels confident in this role, however, and a project aimed at mothers who feel unsure how they can best interact with their babies has been launched in Oxford. Reported in Telegraph Weekend in July, PEEP (Peers Early Education Partnership) is overseen by Kathy Sylva, professor of educational psychology at Oxford University.

PEEP operates on three Oxford council estates and aims to fill the huge gap left in parent-child support between routine health checks and entering nursery school. Showing mothers (and fathers) the importance of talking to their babies, sharing books and activities with them, the PEEP checklist suggests what children should learn to get off to a good start: feeling good about themselves listening carefully talking about their thoughts and feelings knowing stories, songs and rhymes knowing what their name looks like recognising numbers and letters knowing about different reasons for writing wanting to learn.

Good interaction with your children will pay dividends in the teenage years too, according to a detailed survey of the factors influencing under-age sex published by the Family Matters Institute in July. 'Does your mother know?' was compiled by the Institute for the Lords and Commons Family and Child Protection Group and showed that parents who communicate effectively with their children are least likely to have sexually-active teenagers. Other important factors are whether the parents are married and whether they take an active interest in their children's social lives.

The report received coverage in the Times and Daily Mail; summaries and copies of the full report are available from Family Matters Institute, tel 01767-641002 or visit www.familymatters.org.uk.

It seems that much of the Government's new Childcare Tax Credit is going to people already in work, in contrast to the declared aim of increasing employment. In a letter to Alan Bright (FTM's webmaster), former Treasury Minister Stephen Timms says that 82,000 more people are benefiting from this new credit than received the Childcare Disregard - but the labour supply has increased by only 15-20,000.

Maybe mothers are resisting Government incentives to return to work and use daycare? The last word on social engineering must go to Michael Gove, writing in the Times on 19 June: 'Consider why, if this Government is determined to extend the range of options available to women, it actively incentivises work over child-rearing for all mothers. Why was benefit cut for single mothers who wished to stay at home? Emancipation is seen purely in terms of encouraging the progressive dissolution of existing institutions, ... rather than creating fair choices which respect natural yearnings.'