Picture source: via Pinterest
This was going to be an attempt at a humourous little poem covering all the different ways a child learns by playing. However, my #TheThemeGame with The Reading Residence and Redpeffer will now take on a more ‘debatable’ tone for the word ‘play’.
If you’ve read The Daily Mail article “Shift Victory for Working Mothers”, you will know that PC Michelle Chew has recently won a 3 year sexual discrimination battle with her police force. An employment tribunal has decided that her force breached the 1975 Sexual Discrimination Act.
Now, as a working mum of a small child, I can definitely see both sides of this debate.
Before Child (BC) I would have been more than a little miffed if a colleague got what basically amounts to special treatment and ‘got out of’ covering unsociable shifts and yucky stupidly early starts (although you get that as a parent – but I digress). You join a job knowing the hours and you have to take it on the chin.
But After Child (AC), I can totally see why a working mum (or parent, but this is obviously focussing on Mums) would want to work ‘normal hours’.
After my maternity leave I applied for a flexible shift pattern and was very fortunate to be able to pretty much choose my days and hours with minimal negotiation. But I wasn’t silly. I gave a reasonable proposal, which obviously worked.
Ultimately, being a mum was one of the major reasons for me leaving my job that involved shifts. I simply didn’t feel as passionate about my job since my life priorities changed AC. Juggling childcare was also a major issues. More importantly, I felt I was missing out on tea-times, bath times, bed times – bonding time. You don’t get that back.
Where does this ruling stop though?
The article states that, “Women are more likely than men to be looking after children, so anything that disadvantages those with childcare responsibilities is discrimination against women.”
I might point out here that I worked full-time over an intensive 4 day week at first. Now, I work part-time and I’m very glad that I do. Part-time worker, still a full-time mummy as the label goes
I do fear that this ruling will cause bitterness, resentment and actually positively discriminate working mums…
What are your thoughts?
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