“I feel guilty sometimes for feeling guilty and the space this takes up in my head when I could be more focused on the girls instead.” Avril Tierney is a Dub living in Laois with her husband and two little girls, and she has not one but two jobs –
If you’re reading this, and you have children, do you work fewer hours per day or days per week than your partner? And if so, do you do that because you want to, or because you feel you’ve been forced to? I’m reading an article in the Independent this morning,
Would you consider working just to cover the cost of childcare? According to a recently released EU-wide study, that’s exactly what huge numbers of Irish women are doing. The researchers used a “Participation Tax Rate” (PTR) to see what percentage of earnings are lost through tax, loss of social welfare benefits, and childcare
So after four months of night-time working and day-time mammying, last week everything changed. For the first time, all three kids are in school and preschool, and I can work in the mornings. It’s surreal to be at home when they’re not here, and it’s a little bit lonely to think they’re
“I do suffer with working mother’s guilt, but I wonder if this ‘guilt’ is something I am feeling based on what I believe others are thinking” The interview series returns after a summer break, featuring Kildare native Alma Jordan. After years in sales and marketing, the mother of one recently
“One of the key drivers for my moving job was that my previous role had very little flexibility and only allowed working from home in very special circumstances and on a temporary basis.” This week’s interview is with solicitor, blogger, and mother of three Sinéad Fox. She talks guilt and glass
“It may however be the case that even the most ambitious of women change their priorities when they have children and therefore they are happy to reside under the glass ceiling as it gives them the freedom to be home at 5.30pm.” This week I speak to Eimear Hutchinson, a
“Anyone reading this will hate me when they hear that childminder costs are highly subsidised and kindergarten is free. We only have to pay for the dinners. The level of care is very good too.” This week’s interview comes from further afield than usual. Fionnuala Zinnecker is a mother of
“We need to stop congratulating fathers whenever they pitch in. This perpetuates the belief that child rearing and housework are ‘women’s work’ and men are only helping out.” Thank you Deirdre for taking part in this interview series for Office Mum – could you tell me how many children you have
“I remember the first day Caitlin put her arms out to go to one of her crèche minders while still in my arms and I swear my heart broke a little.” This week I meet Martina Perry. She’s married to rugby obsessed New Zealander Grant, and mother to two small girls, Caitlin
“It can often be hard putting on my coat and heading out to work in the evening. Both from the point of view of missing story and bedtime and also after a long day it’s hard to ignore the sofa calling!” This week I meet Mary Holmes, a Dublin based
I’m writing this from my small boy’s bedroom floor, and when he finally goes to sleep, I’ll grab something to eat, probably standing at the counter, making a school lunch and checking e-mails at the same time. Then I’ll bake a cake for the school cake-sale. OK, there’s no cake-sale.
“We haven’t made it easy in this country for women or for young families. We say that we want everyone to be productive members of society, but then we haven’t put the supports in place for people with young children who want to go back to work. I think this
“Sometimes I think that the only way this would be properly addressed by society is if women announced they were not going to be involved in any further reproduction until the system was change to make life easier afterwards” This week’s interview is with Alison O’Connor, who is a columnist
“I sometimes look longingly at the mothers I can see from my office window, taking their kids for a walk to the park… sometimes I even tear up at my desk thinking about what I am missing out” This week’s interview comes from the other side of the world –
I remember the first time my Laser card was rejected. It was 2010, and I was just back at work after my second maternity leave. I was trying to buy some groceries, and couldn’t understand why my card wouldn’t go through. I checked my balance. Forty-three cents. Mid-way through the month. It
“I knew that our wages would not cover a second child in crèche so I saved enough money to pay the second child’s crèche fees, for the 9 months until my older daughter starts the free preschool year this September. I’m hoping by then the burden might ease off a
“I usually collapse in my pyjamas by 8.30pm… I flake out on front of the TV, watching soaps…taking off my make-up and putting Sudocrem on my spots.” This week’s interview is with Lucy Kennedy; TV presenter on The 7 o’ Clock Show and mother of two. She talks about childcare,
“It is usually women… who see the raised eyebrows when they actually have to leave their desks to go and pick up their children and can’t stay late, but who maybe then put in another few hours on the laptop when the children go to bed” Originally from west Clare
“My husband is the main carer for the children and always has been – as he left a job in the City of London to change career when I was pregnant with my first child” This week’s interview is with Tamara Whitney, a mother of two who works full-time, and