Family Wellness Mama

Knowing I’ll have to work for at least 14 days before I take home a penny is making me bitter. Having to leave my baby in the care of strangers just so I can return to work -working with other people's children, hark the irony! - is a sobering thought, and paying them three-quarters of my salary in the process doesn’t make it any easier. I, like many other parents, welcomed this week’s revelations by the Family and Childcare Trust. Its childcare survey  has shown that British families are spending, on average, a quarter of their income on childcare. That’s more on childcare than a mortgage in some cases. Surely something must be done? I’ve spoken to parents who, when asked if they’re going to have more children, simply reply “we can’t afford anymore,” and they’re not kidding. It would cost an annual average of £16,000 to have two young children in a full-time nursery in the UK. That’s more than some people earn in a year. Which is why I’m unsurprised when many mums - q...

Yes that's right, having reached the end of my tether I have decided to smash up all of the clocks in the land. How else can I fit in the one hundred and fifty two million things on my to do list? seriously how! I have worked out that as a full time working parent I spend 16 hours awake. 16 hours seems like a lot of hours right? Wrong, lets see what happens when you break down the average day for this modern parent: Morning Rush 1hour - The mad morning rush, spent shooing my son around the house whilst simultaneously feeding, dressing and bathing him before sprinting off to the car for... The school/work commute 2 hours -   Two hours of my day spent whizzing to and from school or work in rush hour traffic. Must all schools open at the same time? Work 9 hours - Although I'm only paid for seven of them, for my lunch hour I'm trapped within the confines of my workplace and the other hour accounts for the stuff I inevitably take home ...