“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 three, with a German husband, an ...
“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 and their ages? I have a boy, ...
Not on purpose, one day two weeks ago, I had a test run of what's ahead as a work-at-home freelancer self-employed type person. And it left me pretty worried. By 10.30am, I was phoning my husband to tell him it wasn't going to work, and that I needed to start talking to recruitment agencies again IMMEDIATELY. He talked ...
Are our families being damaged by the non-stop commuting lives we lead? Or are children with two employed parents doing OK after all? The media gives us conflicting answers to this - often on a daily basis. Most recently, there's are reports of a study that showing that children in families where two parents work are ...
"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 and Elise, as well as baby ...
It’s 8.30. The kids are finally in bed. Emmie will be down in a few minutes, to say her water glass isn’t full enough or she had a bad dream while she was awake, or her nose is itchy. I’ll kiss her again and in the same breath, I’ll ask her to promise to stay ...
“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 mother, and owner of Ruby Seven, ...
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. But you get the drift. ...
“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 should be top of the ...
“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 with The Irish Examiner. Her work ...