A Mother’s Work Meme

My post for Mother.Wife.Me's 'A Mother’s Work Meme', enjoy! x 


Rules:
Please post the rules
Answer the questions in as much or as little detail as suits you
Leave a comment on mother.wife.me so we can keep track of the meme
Tag 3 people and link to them on your blog
Let them know you tagged them
Tweet loudly about taking part (well ok, that isn’t a rule, but how about if we start a hashtag – #amothersworkmeme)

Questions:
1.  Did you work before becoming a mum?
2.  What is your current situation?
3.  Freestyle – got your own point you’d like to get across on this issue? Here’s your chance…

And, most importantly…. you’re tagged!!



1.  Did you work before becoming a mum?
Yes I had worked at my current company for 6 years before taking my maternity leave.

2.  What is your current situation?
I work 4 days a week and have one very precious day with my daughter, plus our weekends. I work long days due to my commute to work so my day off means everything to me. We've had the same routine now since I went back to work after 9 months and she is now 2 years old.

3. Freestyle
I wanted to write a little from the point of view of the commuting mum, maybe it's just me this has affected but I would love to hear from anyone in the same boat. I think I would happily have been a stay at home mum, but the mortgage said otherwise, so I started back to work after 9 months leave. In the run up to me returning to work I decided I really wanted to go back just three days a week, at least to start off with. I knew that my commuting would mean long hours and minimal time with my little one on the days I was at work and after being with my little on 24/7 for 9 months, this length of time apart felt a heartbreaking prospect. In my head I felt working three days would have meant that family time still outweighed work time, which is a good thing psychologically! Also there was the childcare issue, my mum had offered to help out for two days a week and my mother-in-law for one so it would have been perfect. 


When I looked into it and did my sums however, I found my train travel costs were going to be the same whether I worked three or five days. I would be paying for a service I wasn't using and my options were pretty frozen. It was really frustrating at the time especially for a slightly over emotional mummy, how could this be fair fares?! In balance we worked out we could afford everything if I did a four day week and my wonder mum said she would help an extra day but it meant asking more of her than I'd hoped. 


I've read a few newspaper articles recently about the percentage of wages that are going on travel but they never seem to mention the part-time mum. With reduced wages due to reduced hours, when I work out my monthly pay/travel expenses percentage, it's pretty disheartening. Now I work 4 days a week about 38% of my monthly take home wage goes on travel. If I had gone for 3 day working week I would have been paying roughly 50% on travel, can anyone afford this much? On top of this, during the shake up I also lost my working tax credits which were a big help. I'm realistic that there isn't an endless pot of mummy to hand out but they don't take into account such big outgoings when they look at your wage do they?

All in all I can't complain about life, I enjoy my job and I have a wonderful family. We are a happy little family and gorgeous girl enjoys all her time with her grandparents and also with me, so our routine works out in its own little way. As she starts preschool our routine will inevitably have to change, so I'm waiting with baited breathe to find what the future holds, I've been promised part of it will be massive hikes in rail fares!

Why not head over to the fantastic blog Mother.Wife.Me who started this meme and read the other entries? She'd love people to join in, so you are all invited!


And now the rules say tag three people, no pressure but if you fancy it, I tag...

http://mummyvswork.co.uk
http://whatmeandtheboyssay.posterous.com/
http://i-heart-motherhood.blogspot.co.uk/