Who would hire a woman worker - Maternity pay to Treble !

mewbie_2

Cleaver wrote: »

I see what you mean, but on that logic anyone that is unable to have children for medical reasons may as well kill themselves due to their pointlessness of their life. Which seems a bit harsh.

Yes I agree, but if I'd had to qualify my comments my post would have been a couple of pages long.

ninky_2

melorablack wrote: »

If everyone stopped having kids because of the impact on the planet then what would be the point of the planet. Who would live on it?

I don't think Sapphire was suggesting that everyone should stop having children but rather that the option to not have them should be more positively presented. I don't think having children is our only purpose in this life - how about devoting some of our life to improving the lot of other fellow beings around us. Or fostering / adopting some of the neglected children that have already been brought into the world?

The passing on of our own DNA is not really necessary, particularly if we have genetically transmittable medical conditions etc. And what if your child grows into a murderer? Hitler's mother, for example, might have done better to have stayed childless.

olly300

leveller2911 wrote: »

I wondered how long it would be before you joined in,lol good evening olly......

My only comment is "Health and safety legislation" says it all.For centuries women have had babies and gone back to work within a day or so,

And the mortality rate for both mother and baby was higher. Have a look at the mortality rates in the developing world where this practise still goes on.

leveller2911 wrote: »

I dont have a problem with women having time off, take as long as they need.I don't think the taxpayer or employer should pay them for it.

It may seem an odd thing for you to realise but we are a society with give and take from everyone.

Yes some people take the p*** mainly due to how successive governments have decided to enforce the laws they have put in place.

Infact I was horrified to learn that according to some of my Scandivian friends Britian is really as soft touch when it becomes to particular social benefits due to the implementation of them.

leveller2911 wrote: »

Oh and just because its LAW doesn't make it right, so many "laws" are wrong.Why is that nonsense?

So it's nonsense to force a woman who does a job where she regularly gets bitten, kicked and punched by disturbed teenagers some of whom are foot taller than her to take time off work when she is pregnant? It's also nonsense not to pay her so they avoid recruitment problems?

They use to allow children to work down coal mines and send them up to clean chimmneys. Strangely a few people realised this caused a lot of children to be killed and maimed so campaigned to ensure these practises where made illegal.

baileysbattlebus

Sapphire wrote: »

I disagree (well, for me and others around me). I think having children can actually prevent humans (especially women) from achieving their potential. I know if I had children I would not be able to focus properly on either them or the other productive things I do in life – but then I am an 'all or nothing person'.

And I definitely don't think you should have them if you don't have an inclination to do so, just because pressure is put on you to follow the herd. I would hope some of us have evolved enough to utilize our brain, rather than to merely follow instinct. I do really worry about the state of the planet, and think it is debatable whether one should bring children into this world when the human population is already so huge. Thinking as I do, it would be very selfish of me to procreate.

Having children does not mean someone does not "achieve their potential" what ever that means. Do you mean "career potential", "financial potential" "spiritual potential", "physical potenial". For me, life is a balance of the important areas of our lives and the achievement of positive potential in each of them.

I was of the same opinion as you many years ago, I came from a family of 4 children and we were quite poor and I vowed I would never have children.
I would concentrate on my career and other things I wanted to do, children never entered the equation. I didn't want my 2.4, as it was then. I didn't want to bring children into an overcrowded, polluted planet and under what seemed like constant threat from the USSR.

And believe me, if you think there is pressure now to have children, go back 35 years and it was classed as virtually unatural.

I met and married a like minded man, who also didn't want children and wanted to concentrate on career and life.

Things went along like this for a number of years, we were very happy together with our careers and childless state. We had a very comfortable life, and were not envious of our friends and siblings who had families - I wouldn't have known what to do with a baby if you gave me one - and I didn't want to know.

Then one day I suppose what they call a "biological urge" kicked in - out of no where. I suddenly had the most overwhelming urge to have a child - I don't know why or where it came from, but it came.

Very much against OH's wishes I got pregnant, left work with the birth of our first child- we had 3 children in 2.5 years, friends and family were gobsmacked. I didn't work for 9 years, I stayed at home with the children. I did go back to work and enjoyed it, but I had a different set of priorities and work was no longer number one.

Have I ever regretted the decision, no. Our lives would have been different iwthout the children, having them has made me a more tolerant and patient and a less selfish person than I was. It hasn't made me a better person. But it has changed me.

So never say never. In most western societies, we are fortunate that having children is a personal choice and no one has to justify having or not having children.

And should women have maternity rights - yes, I think they should - the children of today are the future of tomorrow. We are a first world country not a third (well not yet anyway).

SingleSue

I was similar to you baileysbattlebus...I was completely career minded, no hint of wanting a baby (the mere thought sent a cold shiver down my spine) and was loving my life.

Then I got told that I could not have children and bang! I wanted one right there and then.

As you know, I now have 3 of the little (ok not quite so little now) darlings...yes it has impacted on what I may have been or where I may have reached but would I ever want to go back in time and change what we did? Not on your life!

baileysbattlebus

SingleSue wrote: »

I was similar to you baileysbattlebus...I was completely career minded, no hint of wanting a baby (the mere thought sent a cold shiver down my spine) and was loving my life.

Then I got told that I could not have children and bang! I wanted one right there and then.

As you know, I now have 3 of the little (ok not quite so little now) darlings...yes it has impacted on what I may have been or where I may have reached but would I ever want to go back in time and change what we did? Not on your life!

It's interesting our reasons for having children, mine was just a sudden need to have one - I don't know why - it just happened. It wasn't just an "I gotta get me one of these" moments. I just had to have a baby and I knew they weren't just for Christmas, but it made no difference. And it was contrary to everything I thought I wanted and believed at the time.

I know you have 3 and manage your life, yourself and your children really well. I can't imagine how difficult things must have been, and are for you.

But you come across as one of life's survivors, you don't seem to let what life has thrown at you beat you. And I'm sure you will achieve what you want in the end for you and your children.

When I read some of your posts I reaslise just how very lucky we have been.

I'm like you, life could have been different, and probably very fulfilling but in a different way, would I change anything? No.

We have brought up 3 useful members of society, there are times when I could have killed them all, usually individually not collectively. But I have learned fortitude and restrained myself!

leveller2911

olly300 wrote: »

And the mortality rate for both mother and baby was higher. Have a look at the mortality rates in the developing world where this practise still goes on.



It may seem an odd thing for you to realise but we are a society with give and take from everyone.

Yes some people take the p*** mainly due to how successive governments have decided to enforce the laws they have put in place.

Infact I was horrified to learn that according to some of my Scandivian friends Britian is really as soft touch when it becomes to particular social benefits due to the implementation of them.




So it's nonsense to force a woman who does a job where she regularly gets bitten, kicked and punched by disturbed teenagers some of whom are foot taller than her to take time off work when she is pregnant? It's also nonsense not to pay her so they avoid recruitment problems?

They use to allow children to work down coal mines and send them up to clean chimmneys. Strangely a few people realised this caused a lot of children to be killed and maimed so campaigned to ensure these practises where made illegal.

What percentage of women who have children work with "disturbed teenagers"? , you accuse me of "nonsense" :rolleyes: .Your actually saying that because 0.0000000000001% of women work with disturbed kids everyone should get "PAID" maternity..Sorry I don't think your right.I believe maternity leave is RIGHT and JUST ,I just think the money could be better spent.
You should go into politics, your very good at twisting things , or are you already in politics:D

MrFonzerelli

mewbie wrote: »

Maybe. Without kids I believe life is utterly pointless, meaningless. Our purpose, if indeed we have a purpose, is to procreate - and the sense of wholeness and fulfilment from that most basic function brings meaning to life.

Here endeth todays lesson.

I believe the purpose of life is to be happy. Whether that be by procreation, composing a musical masterpiece, inventing clean energy or complaining about the economy on internet forums. I will take the hippy hat off now.

lostinrates

Cleaver wrote: »

I see what you mean, but on that logic anyone that is unable to have children for medical reasons may as well kill themselves due to their pointlessness of their life. Which seems a bit harsh.

Thanks Cleaver...because thats exactly how I feel sometimes. As someone 'suffering' aching broodiness and apparently unable to produce I have options available to me. In fact when I became ill the doctors were , IMHO, over concerned with my fertility and future child bearing. My feeling very much is that I wouldn't breed from me if I were an animal and so if I need artificial means to have biological children then perhaps, for me-again very personal and not a judgment on others- then nature is yelling and I need to listen. I kind of resent the implication that my not pursuing any means available suggest a lack of concern for children's welfare, because there is nothing I'd love more than my husband's child. But, in line with our beliefs we have ruled it out, something I stand by, not because of lack of care, but because perhaps I care too much.:o

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Who would hire a woman ???, I would, if she was good looking and wore a short skirt.:D*











*please note this is a joke, well perhaps.;)