Trinkets and Treasures

Thursday, June 21, 2012

Stay-at-home mums lack ambition says Cherie Blair



I couldn't stop laughing when I read this on yahoo news. Cherie Blair was quite firm with her statement. She spoke at the fortune magazine most powerful women event. 
She said and I quote “Women who give up their career when they have children are unambitious and their decision impacts their kids negatively”
To the women who give up their careers to look after their amazing kids, making sure they support them in their early year development stage, which only happens once in a life time, they provide them with love, affection, security and so many other valuable life lessons and as most mums know, nobody can take care of your own child as much as you. A survey by Netmums confirmed 7 out of 10 mums would love to stay at home if they can make it work financially.

She also said every woman should be self-sufficient which I completely agree with. Whatever her view are as we all know are hers and she has every right to express them and so do I.

Here are mine.

Regarding her opinion on women giving up their career to take care of their kids full time, well that’s up to them and for all I know most of these women never really give up their careers anyway; especially with the new breed of Mumprenuers, mummy bloggers, interpreneurs etc. like myself.  The fact that we were not sitting in the audience at the fortune magazine most powerful women event now doesn’t mean we haven’t got a career and that we’re just at home chilling and we won’t be sitting there in months or years to come.

Take JK Rowling for example she became an unemployed stay at home mum not by choice and later tapped into her writing skills. She is now one of the best-selling authors of this generation who would have probably been invited to the event, so Mrs. Blair I suppose you’re talking to her too.

Please understand that I admire and respect working and stay at home mums alike. I just strongly believe everyone’s situation is different and we need to respect that and not judge or generalise.

A woman and her husband/partner may decide he or she stays at home with the kids because it would be financially smarter than going to work especially in the current economic climate. Another like me through staying at home during maternity leave, may have discovered her entrepreneurial spirit by finding a niche in the children's on-line market and tapping into it or another woman who may have to work to financially maintain the survival of her family and the list goes on.

I would call myself many things: stay at home working mum, entrepreneur, interprenuer, mumprenuer, mumblogger etc. but unambitious! I doubt that very much. 

As for my son he is 21months and I would say he is intellectually and socially more developed than most children his age I know.  He learnt over forty words before he was one, he interacts with people easily, he learnt his alphabets using phonetics, he can count to ten, he adores reading, loves puzzles, numbers and he learnt all these before he started nursery. 

Mrs Bliar this wasn’t down to any teacher or nanny it was all mummy’s job well done. You know the stay at home one you mentioned. 

This is to all good mums; working or stay at homes, trying to raise the best model citizens that will probably be the next prime minister, greatest artist, footballers, lawyers, marketer, doctors, accountants, nurses etc. Here’s to the sleepless nights, rushing for the early train after work to catch them before bedtime, supporting them with their homework, endless music/dance classes, football practice and so on. Keep being the best mum you can be, do what you love to do best and never give up your passion because it will be one day appreciated just like in the P&G advert. 

By the way I love the advert, view yahoo article here and P&G Video below to inspire you.

So Visitors, parents, mums leave your thoughts in the comment box below on Mrs. Blair’s statement





4 comments:

  1. Hi dear, like you said everyone is entitled to their own views but it's going too far to say that "stay at home" mums are unambitious. Just like yourself, I'm a mum of two & currently on maternity. I love my job so much but at the same time, I love my children more. If given the choice to stay at home after my maternity is over, I'll gladly reject it. This is not because I don't love to stay at home with my kids 24/7, cos I do but I know I'll run mental at a point because trust me the jobs stay at home mums do is by far more strenuous than working mums and staying at home makes us more able to lay solid foundations for our children's future thus making us seem more ambitious in my own point of view.

    Also, living in this country & with the current economic downturn, it's becoming more & more difficult financially for parents to look after their kids. Most daycares/nurseries monthly fees alone (not to think of other things) are actually more than an average parent's mortgage fee in a month. This is according to a research carried out. Also, government is not subsidising these facilities enough to encourage mums to go back to work. The programme I saw with regards to this issue recently on ITV1 showed different working class mums of different career backgrounds have been made to choose to stay at home & forgo their careers due to these reasons & more. This is Unlike Sweden where there is a formal state funded care for both parents to share maternity/paternity and are given 96wks paid leave on at least 80% of their salary. And their government is heavily subsidising child care & parents there spend just about 6% of their income on child care compared to UK where parents spend about 27%. This gets better & better for them with the more children they have!

    Having said all these & coupled with many more reasons, I believe it's a very harsh statement to make Cheir Blair as it is a very sensitive issue. I hope I don't get to remain at home after my maternity is over ( cos it gets more difficult with the more children you have) but if that's the most realistic option for me, then I might have to do so and I won't expect anyone to say I'm unambitious cos having a degree, ACCA qualification & an MBA & then deciding to forfeit my career & stay at home to look after my own kids is far from being "unambitious".

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well said Tesly. Aren't Swedish mums so lucky, maybe I'll have to move to Sweden lol. Thanks for your insightful comment and I hope you won't have to give up work.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi
    I think she is chating crap. Is it because she is in a good place financially that is why she can express such comments.

    I am a mum of 4 and I have done a lot for myself while home with my children. All because childcare was too expensive. I finished university and even did another professional course, volunteered for over 2yrs just to highlight my skills, all just to get a good career for when I return to working life. I am ambitious and putting that on hold for a few years so my Kidz can have my full attention for their first few years is certainly not saying you are not ambitious.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for your comment Anonymous 10:14PM. My thoughts exactly I wonder how many nannies help raise her kids

    ReplyDelete