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Today's kids have costly career aspirations
28 Oct 2009
According to new research from The Children's Mutual, parents could be faced with bills of between £75,000 and £130,000 in 12 years time if their young children pursue their top career aspirations of teacher, doctor or vet.
The Childrens Mutual Reports Dads Worth Additional £17,000 to Families
28 Oct 2009
According to recent research by the leading Child Trust Fund (CTF) provider, The Children's Mutual, today's dads undertake a wide variety of tasks in and around the home, such as cooking, assembling toys, acting as the children's taxi service, doing the school run, organising family finances and doing DIY.
Over Two Thirds of Parents Allow Children To Swear
28 Oct 2009
Research by the company behind engine starter “Start Ya Bastard” has found that over two-thirds of parents allow their children to swear without punishment, effectively accepting the practice. 4 in 5 parents swear in front of their children.
Big Words Spell Out Big Fears of UK’s 13-17 Year Olds
28 Oct 2009
16 September 2009
Findings from the Realtime Generation Survey 2009 are published today, revealing the education and career choices, expectations and concerns, of 13-17 year olds from across the UK.
Does Motherhood Cost Too Much?
17 Sep 2009
Women's rights group The Fawcett Society says that being a mum has a devastating impact on earnings. The title of the report, Not having it all: how motherhood reduces women’s pay and employment prospects pretty much gives the lie to what it says – that motherhood is a disproportionately expensive business in terms of reduced earning potential compared to fatherhood.
£32,000 a year is the Value of a Mum
16 Sep 2009
Legal and General's recent 'Value of a Mum' survey, which was conducted between 23 and 29 January 2009, showed that the average value of a Mum is over £32,000 a year, but only 53% of Mums questioned have life insurance, which is shocking.
Mums to Be, Babies and Toddlers Most at Risk from Swine Flu
03 Sep 2009
Under-fives and pregnant women are emerging as key swine flu risk groups, according to hospital figures and the age profiles of those who have already died.
UK kids demand more from Prime Minister to cut crime and keep them safe
20 May 2009
A new report publlshed today by Intuitive Media, provider of safe online learning communities for children, reveals clear demands on the Prime Minister to do more to listen to children; keep children safe; stop bullying; cut down gun and knife crime and ban drugs, alcohol and smoking.
Signs Give Babies a Helping Hand!
20 May 2009
American scientists prove that gestures help early speech.
New research from Meredith L. Rowe and Susan Goldin-Meadow, of the University of Chicago, published in ‘Science’ Journal, has established that babies who use gestures to communicate, at an early age, have large spoken vocabularies compared to their non-gesturing peers by the time they reach school age.
‘Career Currency’ of Vocational Qualifications Boosted
18 Mar 2009
Forget letters after their name, British parents are rooting for vocational qualifications to recession-proof their kids’ employment chances.
What to give Mum on Mothering Sunday this year? A break!
18 Mar 2009
With 1 in 10 women (=1.3 million female workers) working more than 45 hours a week, and almost 30% of adults in the UK having dependent children*,(*Mintel's Balancing Work and Leisure report Sept 2008), it's hardly any wonder the best thing you could give a mother on Mothering Sunday this year is a break.
Mums Neglect Themselves in Favour of Family
05 Mar 2009
Three quarters (76.6%) of mums feel that they neglect themselves in favour of putting their families first with 60% of mums spending less than 30 minutes on themselves per day and a quarter of mums having a mere 15 minutes or less to themselves daily.
Students Go Online When Making College Decisions
05 Mar 2009
Academic strengths are still the most important factor for students to consider when making college decisions. However, a new survey has found that the YouTube generation need more information on colleges and want to get it through online video.
Phone Credit is the New Pocket Money
05 Mar 2009
Is this the death of pocket money? A leading Pay As You Go service has seen a huge rise in the number of parents assigning 'pocket-money' to their children in the form of phone credit, prompting research that has concluded that British parents are now more likely to pre-pay for their child's phone credit than give them an allowance.
UK Children’s Pocket Money Cut by £1 Million
17 Feb 2009
New research has revealed that the Tooth Fairy is likely to become known as a miser this year as the amounts she leaves under pillows are slashed.
Parents Blamed for Damaging Childhood
16 Feb 2009
The finger of blame has been firmly pointed at their parents in The Childhood Enquiry published on 5th February 2009. The report was commissioned by The Children's Society and launched in September 2006 as the UK's first independent national inquiry into childhood.
Family - Family News Archive
Today's kids have costly career aspirations
28 Oct 2009
According to new research from The Children's Mutual, parents could be faced with bills of between £75,000 and £130,000 in 12 years time if their young children pursue their top career aspirations of teacher, doctor or vet.
The Childrens Mutual Reports Dads Worth Additional £17,000 to Families
28 Oct 2009
According to recent research by the leading Child Trust Fund (CTF) provider, The Children's Mutual, today's dads undertake a wide variety of tasks in and around the home, such as cooking, assembling toys, acting as the children's taxi service, doing the school run, organising family finances and doing DIY.
Over Two Thirds of Parents Allow Children To Swear
28 Oct 2009
Research by the company behind engine starter “Start Ya Bastard” has found that over two-thirds of parents allow their children to swear without punishment, effectively accepting the practice. 4 in 5 parents swear in front of their children.
Big Words Spell Out Big Fears of UK’s 13-17 Year Olds
28 Oct 2009
16 September 2009
Findings from the Realtime Generation Survey 2009 are published today, revealing the education and career choices, expectations and concerns, of 13-17 year olds from across the UK.
Does Motherhood Cost Too Much?
17 Sep 2009
Women's rights group The Fawcett Society says that being a mum has a devastating impact on earnings. The title of the report, Not having it all: how motherhood reduces women’s pay and employment prospects pretty much gives the lie to what it says – that motherhood is a disproportionately expensive business in terms of reduced earning potential compared to fatherhood.
£32,000 a year is the Value of a Mum
16 Sep 2009
Legal and General's recent 'Value of a Mum' survey, which was conducted between 23 and 29 January 2009, showed that the average value of a Mum is over £32,000 a year, but only 53% of Mums questioned have life insurance, which is shocking.
Mums to Be, Babies and Toddlers Most at Risk from Swine Flu
03 Sep 2009
Under-fives and pregnant women are emerging as key swine flu risk groups, according to hospital figures and the age profiles of those who have already died.
UK kids demand more from Prime Minister to cut crime and keep them safe
20 May 2009
A new report publlshed today by Intuitive Media, provider of safe online learning communities for children, reveals clear demands on the Prime Minister to do more to listen to children; keep children safe; stop bullying; cut down gun and knife crime and ban drugs, alcohol and smoking.
Signs Give Babies a Helping Hand!
20 May 2009
American scientists prove that gestures help early speech.
New research from Meredith L. Rowe and Susan Goldin-Meadow, of the University of Chicago, published in ‘Science’ Journal, has established that babies who use gestures to communicate, at an early age, have large spoken vocabularies compared to their non-gesturing peers by the time they reach school age.
‘Career Currency’ of Vocational Qualifications Boosted
18 Mar 2009
Forget letters after their name, British parents are rooting for vocational qualifications to recession-proof their kids’ employment chances.
What to give Mum on Mothering Sunday this year? A break!
18 Mar 2009
With 1 in 10 women (=1.3 million female workers) working more than 45 hours a week, and almost 30% of adults in the UK having dependent children*,(*Mintel's Balancing Work and Leisure report Sept 2008), it's hardly any wonder the best thing you could give a mother on Mothering Sunday this year is a break.
Mums Neglect Themselves in Favour of Family
05 Mar 2009
Three quarters (76.6%) of mums feel that they neglect themselves in favour of putting their families first with 60% of mums spending less than 30 minutes on themselves per day and a quarter of mums having a mere 15 minutes or less to themselves daily.
Students Go Online When Making College Decisions
05 Mar 2009
Academic strengths are still the most important factor for students to consider when making college decisions. However, a new survey has found that the YouTube generation need more information on colleges and want to get it through online video.
Phone Credit is the New Pocket Money
05 Mar 2009
Is this the death of pocket money? A leading Pay As You Go service has seen a huge rise in the number of parents assigning 'pocket-money' to their children in the form of phone credit, prompting research that has concluded that British parents are now more likely to pre-pay for their child's phone credit than give them an allowance.
UK Children’s Pocket Money Cut by £1 Million
17 Feb 2009
New research has revealed that the Tooth Fairy is likely to become known as a miser this year as the amounts she leaves under pillows are slashed.
Parents Blamed for Damaging Childhood
16 Feb 2009
The finger of blame has been firmly pointed at their parents in The Childhood Enquiry published on 5th February 2009. The report was commissioned by The Children's Society and launched in September 2006 as the UK's first independent national inquiry into childhood.
Does Motherhood Cost Too Much?
17 Sep 2009
Before they become parents, the report finds that both men and women are pretty much equally likely to be employed, but that childbirth, in its words, marks the beginning of a ‘great divide’ with 57% of mothers with kids under five are in paid work compared to 90% of fathers.And even mums who do work full time experience a pay penalty, earning 21.6% less than men on average, whereas the pay gap for non-mothers is ‘only’ 9%. Taken together those two findings add up to a pretty substantial opportunity cost, as the economists say.
The report also suggests that women still bear the lion’s share of the burden of childcare, especially over school holidays when mothers are a whopping nine times more likely to take time off to look after kids than fathers.Their recommendations to address the discrepancies calls for new policy responses to reduce the impact of motherhood on a woman’s earnings. Four priority areas emerge from the report:
1. Provide mothers with the support they need to return to jobs at their previous skills levels
2. Enforce and extend the law to protect pregnant women and women on maternity leave
3. Create substantially more part-time work in higher paid occupations
4. Tackle the low pay that exists in sectors primarily employing women.
The implication here of course is that mothers and fathers should be able to inhabit the world of work on a more equal footing, but why no reference to self employment or home businesses? Seems nuts to us, since this the best way we know to increase a mother's, and therefore her family's, income and emotional wellbeing.
Working at home allows the children to be raised by a hands on parent, usually although not always the mother (we are immensely chuffed at the rise in Work At Home Dads by the way!) and also means that there is no gap in work experience or skills shortfall. Working for yourself also removes the threat of sudden redundancy. Because let's face it, who is secure in today's climate if you work for someone else? It's a case of don't put your eggs in one basket and, as the report's findings show, even if you continue to work fulltime for someone else after you have kids it's highly likely, even with the recent shifts towards family friendly working in the Uk, that you will end up earning less than if you were a man doing the same job. AND miss out on raissing your kids and all those important moments that no money can ever buy.
We believe that a desirable work life balance is achievable, and that we have found that key. Obviously choices do have to be made, but at the end of the day, when don't they? The idea that people of either sex can ‘have it all’ and that there is no downside to the choices we make – whether as parents or otherwise – is unhelpful and unrealistic, but working at home around your children is the solution that gets as close as you possibly can!
For more information on work life balance see our articles:
For advice on starting your own home business see our Funky Business Section.
For advice on making sure you have the admin and legal requirements, not to mention your home office, sorted properly, see our Funky Office Section.
And if you would like to start your own home business or are in the midst of it and could do with some support to get started or move to the next stage, with marketing or PR for your business, or with simply balancing work and home, then Claire, our founder and home working expert, professional writer and marketeer can help you - see the Business Midwife section for more information and case studies.