THANK you Jill Parkin (TES, March 2) for putting into words exactly my view. I have sometimes felt I was wasting my Cambridge degree by “only” doing part-time jobs as my children grew up; but I still feel it is right as well as sociable to be there for them, to make them feel wanted and not a burden to be dumped in a convenient place.
There have been recent improvements in part-time work conditions (eg holiday pay, pensions), but much remains to be done in terms of status. As for pying parents to stay at home, it would be a wonderful start to pay parents of toddlers, with perhaps a gradually reducing scale for older children.
It is said that 11-year-olds in the first year of secondary school need their mums more than ever, and 16-year-olds seem to be the ones out and about unsupervised and causing trouble. There’s a lot to think about by those “joined-up government” people.
Jane Mott
24 Denton Road
Burton on Trent
Staffordshire
