I couldn't stop laughing when I read this on yahoo news. Cherie Blair was quite firm with her statement. She spoke at the fortune magazine most powerful women event.
She said and I quote “Women
who give up their career when they have children are unambitious and their
decision impacts their kids negatively”
To the women who give up their careers to look after their amazing
kids, making sure they support them in their early year development stage,
which only happens once in a life time, they provide them with love, affection,
security and so many other valuable life lessons and as most mums know, nobody
can take care of your own child as much as you. A survey by Netmums
confirmed 7 out of 10 mums would love to stay at home if they can make it work
financially.
She also said every woman should be self-sufficient which I completely
agree with. Whatever her view are as we all know are hers and she has every
right to express them and so do I.
Here are mine.
Regarding her opinion on women giving up their career to take care of
their kids full time, well that’s up to them and for all I know most of these
women never really give up their careers anyway; especially with the new breed
of Mumprenuers, mummy bloggers, interpreneurs etc. like myself. The fact
that we were not sitting in the audience at the fortune magazine most powerful
women event now doesn’t mean we haven’t got a career and that we’re just at
home chilling and we won’t be sitting there in months or years to come.
Take JK Rowling for example she became an unemployed stay at home mum
not by choice and later tapped into her writing skills. She is now one of
the best-selling authors of this generation who would have probably
been invited to the event, so Mrs. Blair I suppose you’re talking to her too.
Please understand that I admire and respect working and stay at home
mums alike. I just strongly believe everyone’s situation is different and we
need to respect that and not judge or generalise.
A woman and her husband/partner may decide he or she
stays at home with the kids because it would be financially smarter than going
to work especially in the current economic climate. Another like me through
staying at home during maternity leave, may have discovered her entrepreneurial spirit by finding a niche in the children's on-line market
and tapping into it or another woman who may have to work to financially
maintain the survival of her family and the list goes on.
I would call myself many things: stay at home working mum,
entrepreneur, interprenuer, mumprenuer, mumblogger etc. but unambitious! I
doubt that very much.
As for my son he is 21months and I would say he is intellectually and
socially more developed than most children his age I know. He learnt over
forty words before he was one, he interacts with people easily, he learnt his
alphabets using phonetics, he can count to ten, he adores reading, loves puzzles, numbers and
he learnt all these before he started nursery.
Mrs Bliar this wasn’t down to any teacher or nanny it was all mummy’s
job well done. You know the stay at home one you mentioned.
This is to all good mums; working or stay at homes, trying to raise
the best model citizens that will probably be the next prime minister, greatest
artist, footballers, lawyers, marketer, doctors, accountants, nurses etc. Here’s
to the sleepless nights, rushing for the early train after work to catch them
before bedtime, supporting them with their homework, endless music/dance
classes, football practice and so on. Keep being the best mum you can be, do
what you love to do best and never give up your passion because it will be one
day appreciated just like in the P&G advert.
By the way I love the advert, view yahoo article
here and P&G Video below to inspire you.
So Visitors, parents, mums leave your thoughts in the comment box
below on Mrs. Blair’s statement
