maternity leave and quality childcare

[Tony Ryan]

Most pregnant women and new mums just want to think nice thoughts, and serious issues are not welcome. If this is you, do not read on.

Sadly, certain investors see children as a source of profit, and maternity leave as an incumbrance to accessing profits. In other words, there is a lobby at work in Australia that wants to end maternity leave and so force mums back to work and their babies into child care. Like most Australians, I believe this is monsterous. Again, unfortunately, money talks and the media coverage about community concern on this issue is drying up.

I have been asked to write an article about this threat to maternity leave, and to the replacing of quality care and childminding, with profit and expansion as priority criteria. I would not bother you mums and mums-to-be, if it were not for the fact that time to protect motherhood is fast running out.

The newspaper I am writing for is new and will be published nationwide. It represents concerned Australians of all walks of life and the values it subscribes to are simply those of the vast majority of Australians.

If you are able to help with information on this vital subject of motherhood and influences which appear to work against it, please contact me on tonyryan28@gmail.com or on this forum.

If it helps that you know a little about me: I am a grandfather with experience in education, child protection, community development and social research. I was married to a midwife for 25 years and was one of the first dads to insist on being present at the birth of his children. Thanks for listening. Tony Ryan.

[~Emmylou~]

This is a subject I'm very interested in.
What sort of "information" are you looking for?

[Fairyfloss]

what are the details you are looking for?

I respect the decision, some mums make to become SAHM, and stop working. As much as I look forward to motherhood, but as a mum I am going to be responsible for the well being of my baby, and I have come to the conclusion, that me working is one of the best choices I will be able to make for them. I might be one of the handful lucky people who gets 52 weeks of maternioty leave, with 14 weeks of it being paid. but I work for government, and it is a large organisation, so I think I am very blessed in that aspect, that teh new IR laws, does not really effect me at this stage, my problem is the mums being pushed to go back to work, as early as 6 weeks after the birth of their child, yet there is no ssytem in place to support them, I am a shift worker, and even though I will be working only a couple of days a week, but I have to have my child in full time chidcare, cause my days are not fixed, ven then my DH has to give help me with dropping off and picking the baby up, as I start work, before teh childcare opens, and finish work well after they close. I am very worried about the fact that I registered my baby with the childcares available in my area, from when I was 7 weeks pregnent, yet none of them can gurantee me a place for Agust 2007!!!. that is 20 months in advance!!!. I have no idea what I am going to do, come the end of my maternity leave adn no place for my baby to go. I am sorry thsi post is long, but this issue is somthing I think about almost every day, trying to think of a workable solution.

PM me if this is not what you were looking for.

[nemosmum]

Do away with Maternity leave?

WTH:mad:

I had heard through the grape vine that some government positions were going to offer a 2 year maternity scheme? Perhaps my sources were wrong, I took this to mean Australia was finally heading in the right direction!

I think we should be extending materniy leave :yes: not cutting it:shame:

I would love to have been given 2 years maternity leave instead of the one(even though I went back to work before my maternity leave officially ran out)

[Manxie]

I think we should be extending materniy leave not cutting it

I would love to have been given 2 years maternity leave instead of the one

I'm with you on that Nemosmum. I am comming to the end of my maternity leave 12 months and have just requested an extension of six months as I do not feel ready to return to work. Would need to rush through weaning bubs, training hubbie to look after her etc:rolleyes: The female manager who has herself just returned to work after no 3 bub said that she would not have a problem with this at all but her male boss says nup:no:

No doubt they will be advertising in this weeks career section with their usual tag line that they are family friendly:mad:

I am therefore going to have to resign and loose all my long service leave etc.

[rynosmum]

Tony, I can see two points of view to this debate.

Firstly, a mother such as myself who wishes to do the best by her child but also needs to go back to work for any number of reasons (career, sense of self, income etc). In this position, I will fight for maternity leave every time.

Secondly though is corporate business who have strict limitations on headcount, a commercial organisation to run etc and are bound to leave a woman's job open for up to 12 months, with no guarantee that she will come back to the role. In the meantime, they need to employ someone else to fill that role, train them, integrate them into the environment, proceed with business projects and then swap back to the maternity leave owner should she decide that she is indeed coming back to work.

I took 6 months of maternity leave and returned to my job but left a month later for something much more flexible. Where is the employers guarantee ? What was the cost to the organisation ?

Ultimately though I did what was best for me and my baby, my priorities had changed and they were great about it.

I don't believe that businesses OWE us maternity leave however it is a Godsend, it allows us to have children and return to our careers if we choose to. Smart businesses will improve the maternity leave offering to maintain good staff, women can offer so much in skills to an organisation, but surely there needs to be a guarantee for them as well ?

I have a flexible multinational employer who cares about their staff and focuses extra attention on women's issues in the workplace in terms of flexible jobs, female mentoring programs and work/life balance commitment. I also have found high quality childcare for my son. My employer is aware that I wish to have more children as I noted this in my interview to them.

What we need is a government backed balance for employees and workers. It can't be all one-sided.

[mumma_jessy]

Tony, i am a big beleiver in maternity leave and beleive that this government is obviously not supporting the Mums that want to step up and bring up their own children, they want child care workers to do it!

Unfortunately their plan is working and even if a Mum wanted to stay at home it is just not possible financially. Thanx again Mr Howard!:devil6:

Now it seems they don't want women to even take a year off to give thier child a good foundation and time to bond with their new family member.

I am a stay at home Mum, after looking into returning to work decided financially we actually are worse off if return to the 2 days i used to work, we would only earn more money if i went back full time, this is rediculous, and is forcing mums back into full time work just to make ends meet.

Financially we struggle everyday, and plan to until our kids are at school because what is the point of being a parent when your not doing the parenting. My kids need me, and a solid foundation to start their lives and strong bonds to their care givers, the people who love and care for them the most in the world!

I am sorry if i have offended anyone, we all have a right to express our oppinions and i respect everyones decisions, whether it be a stay at home mum, or a working mum.

Don't hesitate to conact me further Tony if you wish, as you can see i too am passionate about keeping Motherhood alive!

[ZubDub]

Most pregnant women and new mums just want to think nice thoughts, and serious issues are not welcome. If this is you, do not read on.

That is just such an offensive opener that I am going to decline to help you out.

[mrsd]

I am a stay at home Mum, after looking into returning to work decided financially we actually are worse off if return to the 2 days i used to work, we would only earn more money if i went back full time, this is rediculous, and is forcing mums back into full time work just to make ends meet.

Financially we struggle everyday, and plan to until our kids are at school because what is the point of being a parent when your not doing the parenting. My kids need me, and a solid foundation to start their lives and strong bonds to their care givers, the people who love and care for them the most in the world!



I don't know if you've got all the information you need, Tony but this is an area I feel strongly about, to.

Maternity leave is vital for my family as I am the sole breadwinner.

Like mamma_jessy, we're a single income family who have struggled financially because we feel that the best people to bring up children are their own parents. We know that this is not possible for everyone but our kids have demonstrated in their general manners and academic achievement that they have benefited from this.

To be fair to the Howard Govt, though, it has been the increase in financial assistance to stay-at-home parents from this Govt. which has made our financial situation much less onerous.

Paid or half-pay maternity leave has meant that there is still some income coming into the family when I have to take time off (regularly) to have children. As it is, I come back straight after this runs out (6 weeks full pay before the EDD and 6 weeks half-pay afterwards from NSW Dept Ed.).

I would still like to see changes to this. For example, as my babies are always close to the DD I would like to take less time before hand (say 2 weeks) and more time afterwards with the baby. I would also like the option of having it all half-pay. We have just had an increase in our allocated maternity leave provisions but I don't know the details as my last baby was born just as they were working them out.

I feel that in a feminised profession such as mine (teaching), there needs to be good long-term maternity leave available in order to retain experienced teachers. Most of us put in effort well above what is required, often working 60 hr weeks and some weekends with excursions, fetes, preformances etc. Giving us some extra leeway with family time would be an adequate repayment.

Incidentally, the paternity leave provisions (which may also have improved this year) were pathetic in our award (1 week). When there is more than one child in a family, there is often a need for extended paternity leave, too. I think men who may consider a primary child-rearing role should be able to access the year without pay provisions accorded to women.

Feel free to message me, too.

[shed]

To be honest, the whole maternity leave/childcare thing just got too damn hard for us so I have stopped work and will get another job in a couple of years.

Luckily I have some contract work lined up so we will muddle through somehow, no thanks to the government.

My skills are probably a loss to the workforce, well I like to think so, but if its all or nothing, then its nothing from me.

[Mummy Williams]

It all seems a bit of a mind field out there regarding child care. Its an issue I am very interested in. I am a "professional" who really wants to get back into work at when Bub Williams is 12 months. However finding somewhere who will guarantee me a place is proving difficult especially in the CBD of Sydney as most seem attached to the large banks/corporations. I am willing to pay for a guaranteed place but it doesnt seem to make any difference. It makes it difficult to give my employers a date when I will return from leave as I really need to make sure I can place Bub Williams somewhere safe and that will of course guarantee a place for him. Any suggestions - Mummy Williams :idea:

[jojojonsey]

Most pregnant women and new mums just want to think nice thoughts, and serious issues are not welcome. If this is you, do not read on.

Firstly, your opening paragraph is an insult and a disgrace! How dare you generalise as to what "pregnant women and new mums" thoughts are! You'd be surprised at the serious issues that we have to contemplate at this time of our lives and I can tell you it isn't all roses and sunshine! Not off to a good start.


Sadly, certain investors see children as a source of profit, and maternity leave as an incumbrance to accessing profits. In other words, there is a lobby at work in Australia that wants to end maternity leave and so force mums back to work and their babies into child care.
Sounds like a bit of a conspiracy theory here, Tony. We know that there are certain publicly listed companies that aim to make top profit for their investors but lobbying to remove Maternity Leave? Where is your proof? If anything my extensive analysis of the media leads me to believe, if anything, that there is more of a push to increase this leave or at least make it more flexible. Your use of the term "force mums back to work" is quite emotive. How do you propose mothers will be "forced" to do anything even without 12 months maternity leave.


I have been asked to write an article about this threat to maternity leave, and to the replacing of quality care and childminding, with profit and expansion as priority criteria. I would not bother you mums and mums-to-be, if it were not for the fact that time to protect motherhood is fast running out.

While I agree that there is an issue about profiteering by child care companies how is motherhood in danger? Oh and while we are at it can we please protect "parenthood" as I'm sure fathers want a say in raising their children as well. Also, in some cases, the expansion of the childcare industry is a good thing. It would mean better access and therefore better choice. I know many mums who are afraid to take their kids out of certain centres because they can't guarantee they will find somewhere else that can take them! The best thing we can do to control the situation is to ensure that we keep pressure on the goverment regarding regulation of the industry.


The newspaper I am writing for is new and will be published nationwide. It represents concerned Australians of all walks of life and the values it subscribes to are simply those of the vast majority of Australians.

If you are able to help with information on this vital subject of motherhood and influences which appear to work against it, please contact me on tonyryan28@gmail.com or on this forum.

I am concerned that you haven't even been clear as to the type of information that you want or the way that information will be used. Do you want stay at home mums to tell you how they don't wan't to go back to work and want more time. Do you want working mums to tell you the difficulties that they get finding good care - or the issues they face from society because they might actually enjoy working and feel confident about the care their children receive during the day?


If it helps that you know a little about me: I am a grandfather with experience in education, child protection, community development and social research. I was married to a midwife for 25 years and was one of the first dads to insist on being present at the birth of his children. Thanks for listening. Tony Ryan.

Tony - While your stats are interesting I'd be more interested your religious and/or political affiliations, the way that you will use the information provided and the basic agenda on not only your article but the media inwhich it will be published.

[our little treasures]

Tony, i am a big beleiver in maternity leave and beleive that this government is obviously not supporting the Mums that want to step up and bring up their own children, they want child care workers to do it!

Unfortunately their plan is working and even if a Mum wanted to stay at home it is just not possible financially. Thanx again Mr Howard!:devil6:

Now it seems they don't want women to even take a year off to give thier child a good foundation and time to bond with their new family member.

I am a stay at home Mum, after looking into returning to work decided financially we actually are worse off if return to the 2 days i used to work, we would only earn more money if i went back full time, this is rediculous, and is forcing mums back into full time work just to make ends meet.

Financially we struggle everyday, and plan to until our kids are at school because what is the point of being a parent when your not doing the parenting. My kids need me, and a solid foundation to start their lives and strong bonds to their care givers, the people who love and care for them the most in the world!

I am sorry if i have offended anyone, we all have a right to express our oppinions and i respect everyones decisions, whether it be a stay at home mum, or a working mum.

Don't hesitate to conact me further Tony if you wish, as you can see i too am passionate about keeping Motherhood alive!

Sounds like ourfamily

[rynosmum]

Since this thread was started almost a year ago and the OP has never been back online, I think this thread should be closed.