by J A Wright

Created on: September 26, 2009

Somewhere in the moments between conception and birth a mother will usually develop a huge emotional connection , the desire to create the best opportunities in life for their child. The cost to make a child happy, healthy, stimulated and educated may not be substantial for those who endeavour to ensure it but there is some cost regardless. There has never been a better time to achieve a balance between motherhood and pursuing a career than now. We are given more choices enabling us to work than any time before but achieving the right balance for you and your family is a personal choice.

Figures show that women can expect to lose around 30% of their lifetime income by taking time out of work to bring up their children. A figure which does not appear in any significant amount or men. Historically women would be responsible for childcare in the home, later women would work until they married and then bring up the children. Now, with financial pressure, politics and the way of our economy women are more likely to work, taking a career break or only maternity leave and returning to work, sometimes unhappy and unfulfilled, Now prioritising family over work.

So, with the provision of government regulated wraparound childcare, tax free childcare vouchers through employers and financial assistance with childcare, we are positively encouraged to return to work, to pay our way and our taxes and to put the care of our children over to others.
For some the solution is ideal, needing a greater income or simply the stimulation of work. For others the desire to parent fully personally is overwhelming and the offer of childcare is rejected.

One form of assistance to better create balance is the family and working tax credits,a government provision which ensures low income households will meet a basic level of financial stability in each year, working just 16 hours a week gives access to the lowest benefit stream, reducing the need for childcare and yet opening the access to childcare finance assistance.

Legislation assists in determining the work / parent balance, each company is obliged to consider flexible working hours for anyone who asks. It isn't guaranteed that flexible working is possible and certainly in the current economic crisis many companies are struggling but it is possible to find a workable solution.

For some the change is welcome, an opportunity to seek new work and new challenges or even to retrain, possibly beginning on the path to an entirely different future. Those changes may not be limited to the obvious, this is a time you could indulge in creative options. You can take the children with you if you run a toddler group or if you work in a creche, eliminating the need for childcare and enabling you to work and parent all at once. Perhaps an option would be to work once the children are in bed or when your partner returns from work, it's a great time to begin a cottage industry or research a burning ambition.

The time we have with our children, before they are swallowed up by the education system, is fleeting. We have opportunities to make the most of those years, buffered, without too large a loss, enabling us to create a good balance with no regrets.

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