See, I can't stand cooking or cleaning and have never been a fan of small children so I always figured that if I was going to have kids it would be great to have a husband who was willing and able to be the one to chase around after them. Except for the whole breastfeeding thing and me figuring that I could stand to stay at home with the baby at least a little bit (keeps the kid healthier and helps me burn off those pregnancy calories, right?) -- and another grudge I have with the setup in this country came when I learned that the 12 weeks mandatory unpaid maternity leave we were only given by the grace of Clinton really sucks compared to the full year unpaid offered in Australia or the six months paid (and optional six months unpaid extension) in the UK. One of my coworkers came back from her maternity leave last month -- my office cleverly convinces a lot of the female employees to voluntarily exchange 12 weeks unpaid for 8 weeks paid leave, which basically gave her barely enough time to recover from her C-section.
But, yeah. A former coworker explained to me that he worked nights because he and his wife had moved to Dallas from Oklahoma and all their family was back there and they didn't know anyone here they'd trust to babysit so they deliberately worked different shifts so there'd be someone at home with their daughter at all times. And only got to see much of each other on the weekends. I was damned lucky that Mom's parents A) lived close by and B) retired while I was in kindergarten or first grade, thereby buying me summers and afternoons at their place rather than at a daycare. (Until age almost-seven I was deemed old enough to be a latchkey kid -- though my younger sister remained in daycare.)
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-02-24 04:48 pm (UTC)But, yeah. A former coworker explained to me that he worked nights because he and his wife had moved to Dallas from Oklahoma and all their family was back there and they didn't know anyone here they'd trust to babysit so they deliberately worked different shifts so there'd be someone at home with their daughter at all times. And only got to see much of each other on the weekends. I was damned lucky that Mom's parents A) lived close by and B) retired while I was in kindergarten or first grade, thereby buying me summers and afternoons at their place rather than at a daycare. (Until age almost-seven I was deemed old enough to be a latchkey kid -- though my younger sister remained in daycare.)