Q.2: Work and family balance
Work and family balance over the life cycle
- Can you relate to Matt and Lisa’s story?
- Do you feel supported to balance work and family responsibilities?
- Are the issues different for men and women?
- Do men want to get family-friendly working arrangements? Do they find it harder to access them? Why?
- What one thing would make the biggest practical difference to this area of your life?
- In a perfect world – where money isn’t an issue – what work and family arrangements would you have?
Kate Said,
November 26, 2007 @ 11:19 am
We would love it if my husband could also work flexibly to care for our son. I work three days per week in the office; the other two I’m contactable but at home caring for our 1 year old.
My husband is a relatively junior member of the management team at his company and while he is keen to change his days, he says that no other male at his level or above works flexibly. A lack of role models means he is not so confident about approaching HR or his own manager to talk about the issue.
It’s awkward for both men and women, because the time of your life when you’re having kids is also the time when you’re trying to build your career and profile. Then again, you’ve got forty years to work and your kids are only little for a fraction of that! Having role models - who tell the warts and all story - makes a big difference.
Steven Said,
November 27, 2007 @ 12:16 am
When we stop being an economy and return to being a society, then we have a chance at recovering our lives.
At the moment, far too many people are doing the work of 1.5 people on 1.0 pay. 45-60 hours per week on 38 hours pay. And they’re the ‘lucky’ ones. Far too many are on casual contracts where only our ‘productivity’ is valued.
For an economy with a supposed shortage of workers, workers have very little real power/capacity to control their own lives. This is true of so-called ‘knowledge workers’ as well as unskilled.
The sooner we stop allowing advertisers to ‘define’ social groups, and step back from worrying about what corporations ‘need/want’ (they’re fictional entities for people’s convenience, not the other way around!) and focus more on what constitutes decent quality of life for actual people, the sooner we’ll have something passing for lives to balance.
Too many people live in financial stress for too long for any of us to have healthy lives.
Anonymous Said,
November 27, 2007 @ 10:41 am
Although I think work and family balance is important I think a strong focus on this issue can further reinforce the idea that women are just mummies which then shifts the focus from the rights of women as workers and as citizens. I concede that women undertake the majority of unpaid caring work and we need to recognise this, but a focus on policies such as paid maternity leave can give the impression that issues such as pay inequity and sexual harassment are not important. There are barriers other than family that prevent women from participating fully in the workforce. The evidence here is the number of women without children who struggle to get ahead in the workplace. The issue here is plain and simple - the inherent sexism that exists in the workplace - not just towards mothers but towards women in general.
Helen Said,
November 29, 2007 @ 4:41 pm
I think Anonymous has missed the point. There are two other areas that deal with this. This is about men and women trying to bring up children.
I had no plan to have children and that did make my working life a lot easier. Now I am ten weeks pregnant and everything is very differant and I find the world a scary place. I realise I will be likely to have to go back to work before I am ready to for financial reasons. My partner realised he will only have limited time off work to help me adjust to this new role. He will be working 40-50 hour weeks whilst I will be at home caring for a new baby and running the household - there is no balance or equity for either of us. I’m finding that my personal decisions for the next twenty years will be based on my familys needs rather than my own, and I don’t resent this but am aware that suddenly my choices are really limited because other things need to come first - there is a cost both personally and professionally. I am finding that my function biologically which I have no choice over really effects my status, how I am treated, my opportunities, my financial situation and so much more. It is by nature inequitable. I will need support and assistance because my primary role will be as a caregiver to someone who can not care for themselves and need me. I don’t doubt my abiity to do this but I do not feel there is support for me, or for my partner to be part of this too.
Jane Said,
December 5, 2007 @ 10:58 am
I waited to have children till I had 10 years experience in the workforce and had reached manager level because I wanted to have more than one year at home with my baby and I wanted to have more than one baby. My children came first with me and I felt that with enough seniority I could resign with confidence and walk back into the workforce when I was ready and when my children were ready. My partner had a good job and I also felt that I was contributing by supporting him to gain seniority at his job.
How totally naive! Since the birth of my eldest (10 years ago)I have only ever seemed to have had the option of short term contract work or full-on full-time jobs, so I have done countless contracts (for the sake of flexibility) and had a lot of unemployment and job-hunting in between. During that time, my partner’s job was made redundant and he had a long period of unemployment too. In all that time, I have never achieved my wish to find permanent part-time work. If I had my time over I would not have missed the time with my children but I have grieved for the loss of my career potential as I put the hard yards in the early stages of my career and then missed out for ever after on meaningful part-time roles.
I had a complete misunderstanding of how the world of work would view the time I spent out of the workforce with my children and I was silly enough to have built up my experience in partnership organisations which are notoriously ruthless and have the attitude of “if you leave you’re not welcome back”. Now at ages 10 and 8 I feel I can leave my children for longer whilst I work at a full time job but after 6 months of applications I can’t seem to convince an employer that I am capable.
If I was Lisa, I would hang onto that 2 day per week job for grim death, paying for child care whatever the cost, in the hope that the part time job would continue indefinitely.
Nella Said,
December 5, 2007 @ 1:58 pm
Most of the comments I hear about are for married couples, and while it is tough for them, it is much tougher for sole parents, especially those who have no immediate family around for support. My mother actually lived about 5 hours travel away from us, so it was very difficult, and because I was an older mother, she was an older grandmother, and sometimes found the children too lively. However, what she did do for us was wonderful. She had a special relationship with my older son, that I am sure he will always remember, even though he was only 12 when she died.
I really feel sole parents need that extra bit of consideration at work, similar to the same type of scheme which was used to help women advance in their careers (Affirmative Action). I feel that treating sole parents the same way as two-parent families (with up to twice the income) discriminates against them. For instance, in addition to being transferred to a location 70 km from where I lived, I was told that I could be rostered on any time between 8 am and 10 pm. I had to use public transport, and finishing work at 10 pm, I would not have been able to get home before 1 am, and by that time my children would have been alone for 10 hours, and without any meal. As it was, they were sometimes alone for 5 hours. I was always afraid that somebody would contact DOCS and say I was neglecting them, when I was trying to provide for them. The whole thing was a nightmare and I still have feelings of guilt and regret.
Janet Said,
December 6, 2007 @ 2:39 pm
I am concerned that one consistently hears the stories of two parent families ‘juggling’ the work/family balance. Many of us, through a number of reasons, are sole parents. Let me assure those that do have two parent households, that one parent working, raising children face a very challenging time. I would like this issue to be far more fully explored.
Julio Said,
December 6, 2007 @ 7:33 pm
I am a father and work in a hospital. I have accumulated 500 hours of leave and 1 month of long service leave in order to care for my child which I have fully explained to my manager. To my surprise,, my leave was not approved and I was told that we are not here for that, which means that your baby is not our problem. For goodness sake, we weren’t born managers, we were babies first.
Helen Said,
December 11, 2007 @ 12:16 pm
I’m pregnant and do not live with my partner and am trying to decide if he should move in. All these resentful comments from single parents to those with two - welll then why am I financially better off and more supported by the government for being a single parent than being in a dual child raising situation! I’m sure a lot of couples must wonder if it is worth it and why not just seperate and live seperately and receive more benefits! I think the thing is it should be equitable for ALL parents, regardless of whether there is one, two or even more involved! It is hard work either way.
anonymous Said,
December 18, 2007 @ 10:23 am
What a dilemma we face, our children need our presence,supervision and support for quite a number of years and our bank account needs our wages! Whilst there has been an increase in childcare places in childcare institutions, is this really the answer? Where does the parents’ personal touch and understanding of their child’s individual and personal development and emotional needs fit in? Our children need us more but how do we overcome the problems. How do we involve the organisations we work for? We need the whole of life to be considered in the workplace. Some organisations are becoming more aware of the health of their staff, can we advance to becoming more aware of the committments staff have to family? Would childcare centres at the workplace be helpful with regular access by parents, obviously some difficulties with this. Would greater financial assistance from the government whilst mothers are at home be better than building more childcare centres? Can there be a recognition of the value of parenting and the skills that parenting brings which add to the value of an employee. We are all made up of “whole of life” experiences but segregate them at work. Can organisations be assisted to break jobs into part time parcels for parents who choose to stay at home with their children? How can women choose to stay at home and not lose recognition of their value in the workplace?
EJ Said,
January 21, 2008 @ 4:58 pm
There are a clearly a number of issues that ultimately relate to some form of discrimination that fall under this second theme and many are raised by the example given. There are three that I a would like to highlight that I am all too conscious of being five months pregnant at the moment.
Firstly, the lack of legislated paid maternity leave means that women simply have to accept that they will be financially disadvantaged in the period following the birth of their child. This creates a huge dilemma in determining ongoing working arrangements assuming that there is an element of choice. I am fortunate enough to be in full-time work now with the option of returning part-time after six months unpaid leave however I recognise that not all expectant mothers have this kind of choice (how long to take of, what working arrangements to select when you return). I am particularly concious of the situation for women in casual work.
Secondly, the lack of available and affordable childcare further limits decision-making around returning to work and consequently financial independence. I have been informed that the waiting lists for child care in my inner-city suburb are up to two years which will make it difficult to negotiate a workable arrangement for my return to work later in the year.
Thirdly, the lack of legislated paternity leave sems to unfairly exclude men from participating in the early stages of raising children. It is certainly going to negatively impact on my partner who is keen to have a very active involvement in raising our child. His workplace provides only one week unpaid paternity leave as he will not be the primary carer. This hardly provides him with an option to be involved to the level he would desire. It also limits our options in sharing the working/child raising responsibilites. I earn significantly more but will be unable to pursue a shared parenting arrangement to allow me to consider all options for returning to work.
I hope this tour leads to some kind of reform in maternity/paternity leave arrangements in Australia and even better childcare reform as well. Good luck
Lainey Said,
January 25, 2008 @ 1:47 pm
All these comments are examples of how backward we treat the role of ‘parenting’. How could we possible evolve as a society if we cannot parent children properly/responsibly? Why is business always based on profits and inflexibility?
Although I believe this tour will really eventuate in no changes at a government level… I can only hope that SOMETHING happens!
EH & KH Said,
January 29, 2008 @ 5:54 pm
My partner and I have an 8 month old baby. We are both women. Our plan was that we would both work 3 days per week so that we could share the care of our daughter and both still continue our careers. It hasn’t been that simple - there is a dearth of meaningful part time work available. We’re having to re-assess our plan so that one of us works full time and the other doesn’t work because it’s hard to find part time work for both of us that is appropriate for our current stages in our careers. Ultimately one of us is going to lose ground in our career progression. And if it is hard for men, it is just as hard, maybe harder, for a non-birth mum lesbian to have her family needs recognised by her workplace. Unless you have a very progressive workplace it is hard to be recognised as a “real” parent, even though you have taken on all the real responsibilities of parenting.
Paul Said,
February 1, 2008 @ 12:58 pm
As a full-time single father of two I am happy with the arrangements I presently have. Like so many fathers I cherish the opportunity of looking after my children and don’t for a moment consider it to be equivalent to real work, and especially don’t consider it “unpaid work” as some like to lament, although the caring/organizational needs of the family are unrelenting and at times stressful. My children love me and Iove them, and that is not a relationship I can ever have with a real employer. Such love and family belonging is priceless, and is a ‘pay packet’ in itself that many fathers long for. Of course I also work part-time to pay the bills whilst kids are at school.
My main concern is that other fathers who, as mentioned by several mums-to-be above, dearly wish to be involved in their children’s lives but cannot because of social prejudices, and so I’d firstly suggest there needs to be introduced a gender equalitarian approach to leave-taking when a baby is born. On such a basis the term ‘maternity leave’ needs to be balanced with the equal term “paternity leave” so that we stop conceptualizing only women as nurturers and carers. Alternatively a gender neutral term such as ‘parental leave’ badly needs to be introduced. Working only with the term ‘maternity leave’ is as outmoded (ie. sexist) as calling both genders by the collective male term ‘mankind’.
Equal consideration in the workplace for both male and female parents to take parental leave, and for part-time work opportunities is paramount in the contemporary environment, and fathers too need (and wish!) to be fully included in this opportunity.
Vicky Said,
February 3, 2008 @ 1:07 pm
I am 5 months pregnant with my second child and in the middle of negotiations for a more flexible working arrangement after I come back. I am slowly succumbing to despair. I feel very much like an endangered species because I am a female software engineer. I work for a multinational company, my role is highly technical, and there aren’t many other females doing what I do. As a result, I am the lone voice asking for flexible working arrangements for returning mothers in Engineering - which would be me, as there are no other female engineers in my office. Sure, there are women working part-time in HR and Finance, but I am unable to access that kind of flexible working arrangement because of ‘the nature of my work’. This is rubbish - I think it’s more that female engineers are such a small sample (and women tend to dominate HR and Finance) that everybody is just hoping I will go away. As further proof of the hypocrisy, we can accommodate all sorts of challenging working arrangements in our global organization - my manager was based in Canada for 6 months (timezone differences) and continues to report to the chain of command in the US while the rest of us were based in Sydney, and it’s OK for my colleague to work 2 days a week for a month to run for election in the recent federal election (I kid you not) but it’s not OK for me to work from home 2 days a week (5 suburbs, vs several continents away), or work part-time (and I am not hoping for a parliamentary berth at its end)? This in a company where the FLEXIBILITY IS THERE - a number of senior engineers are based at home, and on the odd occasion it is possible to work from home if awaiting tradespeople/going to appointments. I suppose I could just make up an appointment every week but why should I deal with the burden of deceit? I am not proposing to develop software with a child hanging off my hip, I have a separate home office (for those times when I HAVE been waiting for tradespeople or needed to work longer hours after going home) and I have a dedicated carer for my children. And sure, I could go work elsewhere, but my job is a good one (software development jobs aren’t all equal), I am good at it, and why should I forfeit my long service leave (pushed out to 2011 at this rate)? I’m resigned to the fact that promotions will come slower, if at all. And I’m resigned to taking the financial hit of a year’s lost wages because I have no unpaid maternity leave. I am even somewhat resigned to the inequality in super when I finally call it a day. But why, oh why, does it have to be so hard to carve out a decent life?
Michelle Said,
February 7, 2008 @ 11:54 am
We can only hope that the current changes in the demographics of the workforce, with more working parents and older workers looking for flexible work arrangments - coupled with the growing labour and skills shortage - will mean that employers will start to be more flexible in how they offer work. The South Australian government is looking at resources for employers to support them to implement flexible work arrangements and trying to improve structural supports for employee’s to get information, bargain for changes and be protected against discrimination. There is a long way to go but this is an essential community debate to address how healthy our communities are and to improve workforce participation.
Joan Said,
February 7, 2008 @ 5:28 pm
Hello,
There are so many parallels in the stories above and I’m afraid that these messages speak for thousands of families. I have been researching into the social structuring of the family and have come across two important and relevant texts: the first is Love’s Labor, by Eva Kittay and the second The Autonomy Myth by Martha Fineman. The essential argument is that the state and the market are dependent on the family as a repository for care and dependency (infants, the infirm aged and the incapacitated). If there is to be real change policy and practice needs to be reformulated so as to accommodate the caring needs of families within the wider social system. We are continuing to operate as if the traditional and gendered family form were still the case, even though there have been huge changes in both the workplace and the education system. There is a significant need to reformulate family policy and practice across the board (government departments) recognising contemporary aspirations.
best,
Joan
Suzanne Said,
February 10, 2008 @ 4:39 pm
I was very pleased to see that the new Sex Discrimination Commissioner was undertaking a listening tour. I hope in unpacking some of the issues related to Work and Family Balance the Commissioner is able to reframe the debate… even if it’s only to begin by describing it as Family and Work Balance.
I am particularly keen to see some work done to investigate the impact of high quality, affordable, accessible child care has on women’s ability to return to work and later on the availability of high quality, affordable before and after school care. In my experience women often take the lions share of responsibility for sourcing these support services and for covering for them when they are not available due to curriculum days, sickness etc. An ability to access high quality support services can significantly impact on a women’s ability to return to work and additionally feeds into her ability to be promoted at the same rate as her colleagues whilst there. Government also has a role in the delivery and funding which allows these supports to flourish. The Commissioner may also wish to investigate whether the Australian Government’s current spend on childcare (almost the lowest in the OECD) is discriminating against women and children. (See OECD Starting Strong II Report).
I would also support the Commissioner in pushing the new government to increasing the maternity provisions both in length and in availability so that it meets OECD averages at a minimum.
Finally I would encourage the Commissioner to investigate whether the built environment (particularly lack of adequately designed public space and inadequate public transport services) in our cities and suburbs discriminates against families (and children) and discourages them from living happy, healthy, active lives.
Good luck
Anonymous Said,
February 10, 2008 @ 4:59 pm
The great frustration for me is the big mismatch between so much public policy relating to work and family. Consider education arrangements and industrial relations policies: eg. all state school students get 12 weeks’ leave each year (it’s more for students in private schools). But the mandatory leave provision for parents is only four weeks. This means the vast majority of working parents cannot cover the leave of their children, and this is a source of great anxiety when they are primary school age. The same with the working day - there is a great mismatch between school hours and working hours, and again this is the source of enormous stress. My family uses enormous ammounts of emotional resources just planning to ensure we are able to provide care for our children around work - before we even begin to look at whether we can have time off together as a family. This suggests IR arrangments are still written by men for men in the sense that they don’t address this mismatch and therefore assume the woman will either remain at home or take a ‘hobby’ job so she can provide care in the hours and weeks their children are on leave. The only other alternative is to pay for care, making child rearing even more expensive and stressful to both parents and children - yet our population policy suggests we need women / families to choose to have children and our health policy suggests families need down time together, and that children need to have deinsitutionalised time. Our public policy is not helping us - we have to negotiate everything in an environment which is sometimes hostile and often hamstrung or unwilling to be flexible. I’d like to see a minimum of six weeks’ annual leave for parents, and opportunites for primary care givers to work split shifts or additioanl hours at home as a first step toward genuine family friendly hours.
Liana Said,
February 18, 2008 @ 2:15 pm
As a parent of two primary school children I can totally understand the frustration of “Anonymous”. Not only do we as a family spend hours trying to work out alternative care for our children to cover holidays but we also then feel guilty about not spending that time with them. It is essential that employers become more aware of the needs of those employees who have to balance the needs of the family to those of their employer. It is becoming critical in today’s employment landscape that discussions take place between all parties to ensure that desired outcomes are achieved. It is also essential that public policy moves with the times to ensure that those employers and candidates who actually want to work together are not held back by antiquted policies.
Rad Dad Said,
March 4, 2008 @ 2:53 pm
We’re lucky that the grandparents can take our kid for a day a week, saving us a fair bit on childcare each year, as well as giving them more contact with the baby.
It does bother me that we’re sucking up their time and I guess it will get worse when he goes to school and we run out of holidays.
I can’t really see much else of a solution though - childcare is barely affordable as it is.
Affordability of childcare would be one aspect that would make things easier.
Anon Said,
March 7, 2008 @ 7:51 pm
I’m not really sure I understand the idea behind paid maternity leave. To me the way that it is now is completely unfair that government workers receive it whilst others don’t except for the small percentage in the private sector.
I think paid maternity leave for all would only result in more discrimination to females and working parents. I fully agree in the need to have more flexible working arrangements for all including parents, but that if you have a family I can’t see why employers/goverment should be financing it.
And in answer to the questions
* Can you relate to Matt and Lisa’s story?
In a way. When we had our first child I found out whilst I was in hospital after the birth I had been made redundant after management had negotiated and agreed to me coming back part time.
We didn’t find ourselves going that much further into debt as we had planned that our debt committments would not exceed what we could manage on one income, even before thinking about having children.
I was lucky/fortunate that I found work 2 days a week, and that when I was first pregnant I had put my baby’s name down at daycare centres so I had no problem with care once I found the work.
It wasn’t what we had in mind as my new workplace was now 1 1/2 hours away instead of 15 minutes.
I think Matt and Lisa were very fortunate to have such flexible employers and its a shame that they can’t live within their income so that they could live their ideal.
* Do you feel supported to balance work and family responsibilities?
I feel that if I had to balance work and family I could do it with my partner. I guess I’m not really sure what is meant by supported. in this question.
* Are the issues different for men and women?
Yes. Men and women no matter how hard we want them to be equal, are different.
* Do men want to get family-friendly working arrangements? Do they find it harder to access them? Why?
Yes they do or their partners want them to!
Really not sure on this to comment as partners working arrangement had some flexibility in the starting/ending hours of his day, but had no choice in the full time hours.
No body at his work had the flexibility of part time so it was not a gender issue. .
* What one thing would make the biggest practical difference to this area of your life?
Having more employment opportunities in our area. The unemployment rate in this area is much higher than the national. Having to commute for over an hour to access employment is the biggest barrier.
* In a perfect world – where money isn’t an issue – what work and family arrangements would you have?
I would love to be able to commit to one or two days a week work and have my partner work 3-4 days a week, allowing me time out to work and my partner a chance to enjoy and parent the kids without me.
I guess Lisa and Matt’s situation is what I would like to be able to have without their financial problems.
Juliet Said,
April 7, 2008 @ 5:15 pm
I can certainly relate to Lisa and Matt. My husband and I don’t have children yet but we are starting to think about it and when would be a good time. I’m starting to see that it is NEVER a good time. Waiting has the obvious health and chance problems attached - now means working out how to pay the mortgage and survive on one income. My parents tell us that it isn’t that hard and much better just to get started. But I am worried about getting my job security back - being a teacher, working parttime isn’t outwardly discouraged but the reality is that many can’t arrange it. I want to spend the first 2 years with my child but in order to keep my job that mightn’t be an option. It gets a bit much sometimes and I can understand why my friends with children have aged 10years and why those without are happy that way.
Stacey Said,
April 22, 2008 @ 9:28 am
I can relate to the story. I am a huge advocate for paid maternity leave. My situation is not unlike a lot of women’s in this country whereby it is now the norm for a mother to be working outside of the home helping to contribute to the household finances.
I would love to have another baby but cannot afford to take anymore than 3 months off to spend time with my baby, which I feel is not good enough. My income of $620 a week contributes significantly to the running of our home (my husband’s income pays for our ever increasing mortgage payments) leaving no money in order to save to self fund any sort of maternity leave.
Whilst I am grateful to the government for the assistance of $4,000 (soon to be $5,000) this is a huge shortfall in the amount of money our family would lose if I was to take 6-12 months off to care for my baby – a shortfall of $27,240 to be exact!
If the government does not want to dip in their pockets to help assist the modern family then there should be a change in legislation to help working women access their superannuation in order to help fund a period of maternity leave. This withdrawal should also be exempt from any taxation implications.
They allow you a withdrawal of funds if you can prove financial hardship, well as far as I am concerned having a baby puts huge financial stress on a working families and in our case would put us in financial hardship.
The government need to stop putting their heads in the sand on this issue. Bring on paid maternity leave!!!
John Stannard Said,
April 22, 2008 @ 3:50 pm
My partner and I can relate to the story of Matt and Lisa.
We are both tertiary qualified but junior workers, and when we decided to have a child, we also determined to do the parenting ourselves together.
This meant spending equal time with the new baby, (now twelve years), for the first two years, not placing him in daycare until he was of pre-school age, and never in after-school care once at school. We achieved the first goal, a little of the second, (long day care no more than 3 days a week) and so far all of the third.
Toward the end of his first year, my partner was told by her employer that she had to ‘return or be fired’. This was a State Govt organisation, and we were shocked.
So before the baby was even one, she was back at work, all maternity leave used up and no time without pay offered.
So I approached my work for a year without pay, they said I could either resign or stay on. There was no other option. Luckily we are a bit older and had less mortgage stress. My community job paid less, so we decided that I would resigned when my son was ten months old. That meant losing long-service etc, but she returned to work and retained her career.
I was full-time at home for 20 wonderful months. The best time and still valuable for the bond I have with my son.
Almost two years later, I found some three-day a week work which lasted three years. I still had to be paying off my HECS debt, while we juggled hours at home with no extended family.
I have had full-time work since, most years at lower rates than my partner. My super never recovered and is around 25% of my partner’s.
Work life balance remains an issue for my partner and me. She does four days work spread over five so she can be home after school hours. It means she leaves early and finishes in time to collect him from school or to be home before or not long after 3:00PM. I do the mornings with him and start late and finish late, which has its own workplace pressures. We juggle annual leave to cover all the school holidays, sometimes asking favours of friends. It puts a strain on our relationship as we see less of each other.
My partner’s employer still wont allow a choice of hours per week that falls between four days and full-time, and we have to plan six months ahead for any change we would like to make. So even though she earns more than I, she does four days and I work five. You end up with some hours worked for free.
Regards and thank you for listening.
JOhn
Deb Said,
May 20, 2008 @ 3:17 pm
In an ideal world where cost was an issue I would love to see 2 years paid parental leave, to allow one parent to remain at home and care for their child. When that parent returned rto the workforce I would hope that they were able to find universally available, free or low cost child care delivered by a university trained teacher (not just for 15 hours per week as is the government promise) and where staff: child ratios were a maximum of 1 adult for 3 children aged under 2 years, one adult for 5 children aged 2-3 years and one adult for 8 children aged 3-5 years. The parent returning to the work place would be welcomed back to their former position, with no career disadvantage. If the child got sick, either parent had flexible work arrangements that enabled them to take adequate time off to appropriately care for the child rather than what currently happens where parents dose the child up with medication and send them back to chhild care because the pressures on them in the work place are huge …. I can but dream … and I know it has massive costs to dream like this … but just imagine what it could be .. and how we could build a society that really cared for all .. from babies just born, to working parents, to respecting carers responsibilities. What could society really look like? And how many issues could be resolved if we increased public expenditure in this vital area.