Monday, February 08, 2010

Working Mums




There's been a bit in the papers recently about the disgruntlement of co-workers with regard to the 'perks' people with children get in the workplace. As a freelancer for 30 years it's all a mystery to me. I don't even know HOW people manage to get out the door, drop kids, deal with work and keep a handle on family things whilst working a full time job in an office; even assuming your co-workers didn't loathe you for dashing off to take an asthmatic child to hospital because school just frankly refuses to have him there dying in the classroom. One of us working fantastical hours in our household was hard enough. Mercifully, with adult children, we are past that hideous juggle and the guilt that goes with it. I have lost the will or the ability to work in an office now, being the mistress of my own precarious financial destiny, but here is a poem I wrote a few years ago for Next magazine when the kids were still at school and I thought a steady job would be far better than waiting for clients to pay up...

 

Priorities


I want a real job
A nine to fiver day
With holidays and sick leave
And direct credit paye.

I want a real job
With biros free as perks
And bosses who drive Audis,
Beamers, Saabs and Mercs.

I want a real job
Where I have to travel lots
On buses, trains and my two feet
‘Cos there are no parking spots.

I want a real job
And always get home late
Then cook dinner for the family
And fall asleep at eight.

I want a real job
A career to fulfil
So how on earth does that work out
When the kids get ill?

And who will go to sports days
Help with class trips to the zoo?
Someone with a real job
I pay my wages to?




2 comments:

Maggie May said...

lalala! charming.:)

maggie@at-the-bay.com said...

Fifi - I used to be one of those dreadful recruiters who rolled their eyes when you asked for school holidays and a 9.00 am to 3.00 pm job... actually, when I started my own recruitment company many years ago, I used to advertise jobs and say "phone after 9.00 am" - I gave it a go for a while, but it's hard to contain something like that - so well done you as a multi-talented free-lancer enjoying your life/work balance.