Keeping Mum or being Mum?
Having heard on the news this week that the “Human Rights” pressure groups are pushing for Fathers to have paid Paternity leave from work – I nearly fainted!
How can it be that for hundreds of years, certainly since the Industrial Revolution in this Country, it has been OK for a man to go to work, whilst his wife had his children & stayed home to care for them? What has changed between now & then that now means that a man has to have an equal amount of time off work to care for his children?
I am not sexist & I truly believe that a man can care for children as effectively as a woman & I am not for one moment suggesting that it should always be the role of a woman to be the child carer – it’s just that in the vast majority of cases, most couples end up with this arrangement because in general terms it works!
I am a self employed tradesman & my position may be somewhat different from those that are employed, but when my wife & I decided to start a family, I was actually employed in the retail industry & we sat down & discussed just how we were going to manage when our baby arrived – we worked out how much money we needed, how we would manage it & for how long my wife would stay away from work raising the children. As it turned out, my wife wanted to give up work to care for my boys & she would not have let me do it, even if I had wanted to. When my first son was born I was given 2 days off from work, so that I could spend time with my wife at the hospital & when Mum & Baby were home, I returned to work as normal.
What is wrong with that?
In these days of financial hardship, with companies struggling to keep their heads above water, who thought it to be a good & sound idea to have Paternal leave? Just how are companies expected to foot the bill for Paternity leave anyway? Not only have they got to pay an absent member of staff but they also have to find the resources to cover their absence in the meantime, which inevitably means more costs & the loss of essential skills which cannot simply be replaced overnight. I sometimes wonder who thinks these hare-brained schemes up?
I for one, will never support such a policy, it’s so destructive to a business. Most bosses will tell you that it’s hard enough granting Maternity leave but we essentially realise that people have a right to have children & also to work, but meeting that need for both parents is frankly ludicrous.
If such a right was introduced along the lines that are being discussed, you can bet your boots that employers are going to be very shy of employing anyone involved in a serious relationship because they know that sooner or later they are going to lose that member of staff & have to pay out twice to replace them – what kind of business can survive that?
Why has our society begun to follow this “hand out” policy? If you are planning to have a family, plan your budget – if you can’t afford it, either don’t have children or get a better paid job – that’s how its been done for years…stop expecting society to meet your wants & not your needs!
