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

Write to your MP today!

With a new intake of members at the General Election, now is the time to write to your MP about the needs of children and the importance of full-time mothering.

Lobbying Parliament is an important part of our campaign - and the more MPs who receive our message, the more likely it is they will act on it. The volume of letters in an MP's postbag on a particular subject really does make an impact. So if you haven't written to your MP about FTM in the last year, please take a few minutes to do so.

To give you some ideas, here is FTMs' 'Manifesto for Choice' - based on our aims and objectives. Do use items from this and personalise them to make out your case. Explain that you are a member of Full Time Mothers and enclose a membership leaflet or recommend this website for further information. Good luck - and do write or e-mail us with a copy of your letter and the response. We will print the best (and the worst!) of the MPs' responses in our Winter newsletter.

Full Time Mothers Manifesto For Choice

'Full Time Mothers believe that in reaching a balance between the demands of home and work the first consideration must be the welfare of children.

A growing body of research shows that young children suffer from spending long periods in daycare. The bias against the one-breadwinner family in the current tax and benefit system, and the new subsidies in favour of non-family care, put mothers under strong financial pressure to return to paid employment while their children are young.

The following measures would ease pressure on mothers, improve the status of motherhood and to give choices about childcare back to families:

1. Give married couples the option to be assessed for tax as a family unit If a couple choose to bring up a family on one wage, with one parent engaged in full-time caring, they should not be required to pay more tax than a dual-earner family.

The option to transfer personal allowances from the non-earning to the earning spouse, or the ability to opt for income-splitting, would end this discrimination. It would also support marriage and acknowledge that parenting is a partnership of commitment.

2. Give families the choice to provide their own childcare The government is pursuing a childcare strategy which subsidises non-family care, both through daycare funding and the Childcare Credit. All childcare subsidies should be directed to families, so that they can choose family care or commercial care.

3. Give women the opportunity to return to paid employment when their family commitments are reduced Many mothers are discouraged from spending the vital early years at home with their children because they fear they will be unable to return to the labour market later. Young children are starved of parental attention, and their mothers feel guilty and unhappy about their long hours apart.

Instead of investing in day nurseries, creches and childcare vouchers, employers should be encouraged to support career break and re-training schemes, part-time and term-time working. These policies do not discriminate against families where both parents work, but merely redress the present imbalance.

Full Time Mothers believe every mother should have the opportunity to do what is best for her family.'