Pre kids getting to work by 8.30 looking polished, poised, and calm was a breeze. It usually followed a good relaxing hour of exercise, swim, leisurely coffee and time to administer a complicated beauty and make up routine before heading out, head held high, stilettos clicking into the work environment.
Post children…..no video can capture the craziness of the internal workings of a mother trying to get her darlings fed, watered, dressed and in the car as well as herself before she screeches in sideways to the last car park, runs into her office, pantyhose in hand, hairband on wrist breathlessly exclaiming ….it’s ok….I’m here – wondering if she left any kids in the car.
Having just started a consultancy role where I nominated my starting time as 10am, I am going to campaign for 10am starts for all mums. I cannot begin to tell you the difference in my life and the harmony in the house since this began. It has made me feel like a normal person. It means you get to actually enjoy everything you have to do instead of slapping it all together frantically and doing nothing properly. It means you get to breathe and even have a cup of tea in bed before hitting the trenches. You get to take some pride in what you are doing and enjoy a feeling of accomplishment denied when every second is fuelled by panic and time constraints.
It depends on your work situation but so many women now are dual bread winners so the role they are working in is equally as demanding as pre children. As such there is pressure before and during work. if you have someone looking at their watch when you walk into an office daily, when 5 minutes late is perceived as a critical mistake and a slur on your character it adds more pressure to an overwhelmed mother.
I once heard an employer say they would never employ a mother because of all the time off they needed. This twists a mothers insides because necessity meets common sense. Who decided we had to be super women? Who decided we had to do it all the same as pre children? Why didn’t we question it at any time over the last 20 years? Why couldn’t we negotiate? Why were we so frightened we would lose our much needed jobs that we didn’t realise we had a voice. And why did we let supercilious managers and co-workers who had WIVES, allow us to feel anything but incredibly proud of our abilities?
Thank goodness someone else was outspoken and savvy enough to fight for us and changes are being made for following generations of women. The next generation is savvier, tough, and smart and demands a fair go. We have raised them to be confident young people with good self esteem and wisdom beyond their years. They have all had the opportunity of equal education which few of us, educated in the sixties and seventies had. Cheers Ladies to the future.
