Thrisis part 2 -the having of children

[traeemery]

So mawaridi made a comment on my previous post (f-locked). Too which I found I had a very rambly reply. Essentially her comment ends (and I hope you don't mind my quoting, M-ra), "seems like a pretty unsurprising anxiety in the face of a high profile moral panic about career women not having enough babies."

Comments

[saralonde24]

Very interesting! I very much agree with you about career path structuring and how you get from maternity leave to school

[traeemery]

Yeah, the work/life/family balance in professional services is a tough one, isn't it? The topic frequently came up at the annual International Women's Day conference at my last work

[reverancepavane]

Actually, on thinking about it, it's been a very Gen X thing to delay having children. Didn't happen with the Baby Boomers and from what I've seen it's not happening with the Gen Y, who seem to be having babies quite early. The number of my Gen Y acquaintances with kids firmly exceeds those of my Gen X acquaintances. [I'm most talking professional people here. Although it's also been happening with non-professionals too, once they feel they have enough leeway to be able to afford a child - but they also generally have a greater freedom to do so, as they tend to have less of a career treadmill to peddle

[nclean]

As a parent, let me represent the group telling you that one perhaps shouldn't have kids

[traeemery]

Thanks for that very thought provoking response. I particularly like the comparison to one's clients calling 5 times a night. And I completely agree with you about having children for selfless rather selfish reasons. I hadn't really gotten this concept until I was on a training course and one of my team-mates asked, "So are you having children?" To which I responded that it was unlikely. Her response was "But they'd be so smart!" It was the first time someone had illustrated to me that the world might benefit rather than "Oh, but your kids would be beautiful." or "You don't know what you're missing out on." She did't nag me but a couple of time she did say "I hope you decide to have a child someday. They'd be so smart." and so far that has been the most convincing argument I've been given for having a child

[pyrrha17]

Yes, living in a Scandinavian country now, it's opened my eyes to how different things can be

[traeemery]

Interesting. On reviewing the paid mat leave rules for Australia, only if you are going to be the 'primary caregiver' for 6 months is the non-birth mother/father allowed to get payments. Which is interesting since the payments are only for 18 wks. If you are the birth mother however, then no duration of being the 'primary caregiver' required. Just a bit of inequality in that! *headdesk*

It is interesting that a standard working week in Norway would be considered part time work in Australia.