DianeCA: Sometimes we are forced to make a choice and I believe family is usually the right one. Your resume will take care of itself in due time!

DianeCA: Such good benifits for women Belgium had, at e very early time in history! I didn’t know that. I am glad to hear that there are good benefits for both the youngest and the oldest in Society. Norway also has excellent benefits, but everything can be improved However many other places don’t have as good social regulations, and that is something women collectively must speak up about. I am originally from USA and I was always a working mother, I had very little choice – we couldn’t live on one salary. However in many places the ideal of the SAHM is a myth. Okay not exactly a myth, but is not the dominant practice in reality. My mother worked, my grandmother worked, all my aunts worked, and my great aunts worked. We were Irish immigrants and most of my moms family worked in the same factory (produced clothes). The women were in the work force but the benefits weren’t there for the familes…as you say…we all turned out fine however!

First of all,Id like to thank you for the messages that you left on my blog.I really appreciate them

you have a healthy topic here.yeah,women of today can do everything and still striving to play every role of human being being a working mom,the major conflict for me is spending quality time with my children and husband.i made the solution,i lessened my working time,im lucky im free to decide about that.

through my observations here in Japan,women get tougher everyday,claiming good salaries that drive them to feel that their hubbies are no longer necessary in their lives.LOL!for me,it doesnt mean “ruining” their families,although i sympathize the kids that suffer psychologically.

great post you have!

DianeCA: Being a working mom is a tough job. We all have our challenges, thankfully mine are a bit better now that my kids are teens. I also work part time so I can study, plus be mom and wife. The only problem with reducing our hours for our families is that in many countries our pensions are based on our earnings when we are in the work force. After we have reduced our wages to take care of our families, we live in poverty when we retire because we don’t earn as much as men. Yet the men, who are also parents, usually don’t wind up in the same situation….

Thanks for your comments and support!! Looking forward to seeing your home!

thanx for the advice about our house searching.we`re finally done and it was a relief!

ghee

DianeBA: No there is no turning back, and why would we. We deserve education, we deserve a social network and jobs we love….we need a new plan. However nothing makes waves like family politics…everyone has a strong opinion on how it things should be..and tradition is hard to change. Let us follow along with politics in society and do our part to change things for the better.

Though we do have more opportunities to work from home here in Sweden on many work places, not only for Mums. (*giggles* Mums in Swedish means Yummy!) What I think is that the whole attitude must change towards humanity. Much more humanity-thinking must be forced upon this society we have today. If we had that in mind all the time, all kind of problems would not even show up.

Since you’re mentioning it, I’ll bring up the care for the elderly too. It’s similar to the child care actually, the difference is that the elderly hardly have anyones that is defending their situation. To help them when they’re treated badly. I actually think that it has been more of a storage of the elderly (and the kids too) than to be called CARE. Even if it’s on its way to change, but it’s changing too slow.

I’ve seen really bad examples of this with my own Mom which nearly cost us her life. All the time we have had to rescue her, the staff hasn’t been able to understand/read the signs – or care – that she was that sick. How many elderly is actually dying because they don’t have any relatives that can warn? No wonder there are role conflicts here too.

Swedes work all the time and can’t take care of their elderly too – or as in our case, our Mom is too ill to be at home since she needs supervising 24/7. Some people works so long hours that they hardly have any time for their own kids, no wonder their elderly never gets visits from them! And there the bad conscious carousel is spinning once again….

My Mom is lucky, because she get visits almost every day from her children (she is famous all over the building for that actually , because the others seldom get any visits at all! That’s truly confirming my “storage” thoughts. I have to end that with saying that it’s a change on the way, the staff is getting much more education in those kind of matters too, but it’s not enough and not fast enough. It’s humans suffering there meanwhile. Sometimes I’m thinking: the old way of doing things was not so bad, at least the families could be together then…. Oh, I would have loved to go back in time to check it out, to be able to compare to nowadays. Which is worst? The poor conditions back then when it comes to standards, work conditions, health etc – or the stressful, rich (?) society we see today? Best for the humanity?

It’s an interesting question…

DianeCA: It’s an interesting question and a real dilemma! What we need is a more holistic approach to society and care for all the people. We need workers, and lets face it many of us women (definatley me) love our jobs. We need to keep on having babies…otherwise the population will die out…and we are living longer then ever before. These problems need to be seen as a whole and solved! I have worked in the preschool system in Norway (Daggies? in Sweden) and we did the best we could to make sure the kids had a good environment to be in, but lets face it…its a challange. The system for elderely care in most parts of the world is awful, it really is mass human storage in some of these so called homes. The policy of keeping the elderly in thier own homes (alone) until it is dangerous for them is no better. I don’t have the best modell or anything but change would truly be a good thing here!

Maybe the traditional family wasn’t so bad, multigenerational families solve these problems by providing both child and elderly care. However the conflict comes in with the new individualism and self development, which also does have its positive sides. Multigenerational families also have their unique problems as we all know familes are not always so harmonic. (A brief thought of sharing a home with my parents again…..shivering…..) Nope we can’t go back, we must go forward – and we need to find new solutions to take care of all.

Thing is – there IS a lot of positive changes that have transpired across the last few years that have been impacted by Australia’s baby boom and this trend has been progressively increasing with time. Businesses are changing how they’re doing things, but people too. New mothers (with careers established before childbirth) are forced to become so resourceful that it is exactly like that cartoon in this post. No time to waste – let’s get on with changing our lives and finding better ways to do things more efficiently.

Some wil manage things remarkably well while others won’t. I’m in contact with many women(mothers) in Down Under that have done some pretty amazing things. Here’s one fantastic example of constructive change taking place already:

Kate Skyes (mum) – founder of Career Mums
website: http://www.careermums.com.au
She created a jobs classifieds website connecting mums to family-friendly employers. The service provides advice for women getting back into the workforce, but also communicates the benefits of considering flexible working arragements with businesses as well. Job-sharing, work-from-home, parti-time/casual arrangements with flexible hours.

I facilitate Newtown Mums
website: http://www.newtownmums.com.au
We are very keen to hear from & support other businesses who are doing similar things that advocate for more family-friendly policiies & ethos in their communities.

DianeCA: Newtownmums looks like a great place for Mums to meet and share and laugh at themselve and the world a bit. I like the edgy, fun loving feel of this blog…and the header fascinates me….Careermums is a great idea. I am all for positive action. It is wonderful to see mothers helping mothers find out of this sticky business of having it all. I’m glad that after 7 years your situation feels stable…let me assure you it won’t stay that way LOL – just the voice of experience here. You think it gets easier as they get older but each fase has its charms.

It’s important that we take positive action to help eachother through and to redifine how we would like society to be. I see a lot of resourceful women reflected in these sights but keep in mind that resourcefulness varies. Some situations are more difficult than others, some women are so worn out from making ends meet that they don’t know where to find help and don’t have the mental energy to try. Thats why we need to also let our government know that we want legislation which protects the rights of families. Our children are their future and it shouldn’t be “survival of the fittest” but rather “united we stand”.

Thank you so much for you positive efforts through Newtownmums and for sharing with us here.

Could write a whole bloody thesis on this subject, so i’ll check in later

DianeCA: Hehehe actually at my workplace they could use a bit of that kind of management. It would be an improvement! If you write a thesis send it along, I’ll publish it!!