She Called Me a What?!

What a great result – I’ve found another reason to feel guilty about working and employing a nanny. I don’t know about you – but I thought that I’d done a really good job of creating a long list of reasons to use in the way we mums like best – to tell ourselves that we are not good enough.
 
However, a recent article in the Times by Janice Turner alerted me to another reason for guilt, which I will add to my list. Amongst all the debate currently raging about tax breaks for working parents, the Times has identified why the furore – apparently, if I employ a nanny other people will think of me as a “bitch.” A “hard-faced, entitled, unnatural ice queen” to be precise. Therefore we are less deserving of any type of tax break, according to some.
 
There I was, minding my own business, thinking that employing a professional, qualified, nanny that I had thoroughly vetted and whose tax and national insurance I paid, meant that I was probably a few things: hard-working, a provider of employment – but not an out and out nasty, cold – well I won’t repeat the word anymore – b****.
 
So, what did I think I was up to all those years?
 
I am that word because I provide employment to my childcarers, and in my work I produce some good stuff that other mums and families can benefit from.
 
I am an unnatural ice queen because I participate in a PAYE scheme, by working as a full-time employee and support the recovery of the UK economy and our public services in my own small way.
 
I am a selfish mother because I thought it was a good thing for children to see two parents at work and enjoying it.
 
If, like me, you employ a nanny or any other sort of home childcarer, a lot of people think that you are a cold, unfeeling woman. Frankly, Cruella de Vil would get a better press than any of us. We wouldn’t just steal all those Dalmatian puppies – worse, we’d then get a pet sitter to look after them while we were at work.
 
So tomorrow ladies, as we commute into our offices, as we go to our meetings and carry out our work, as we pay salaries plus taxes (out of our taxed income) to nannies, babysitters, au pairs and other sorts of carers – can we just say to ourselves with a proud smile – we’re all b****es!