A cross-party review confirmed that MPs should not be allowed to bring babies into the House of Commons during debates.
I mean, did we really need a review to tell us?
This came after Stella Creasy, Labor MP, was reprimanded in November 2021 for bringing her three-month-old son Pip into the House of Commons while leading a debate. She asked for urgent explanation, adding that she hopes to ‘make parenting and politics possible to mix’.
Now, before I start, as a working mother-of-two, I completely understand how difficult it is to mix any career with children.
I had my one-year-old son peeled off by me by nursery workers and ran to my train in tears, still hearing his sobs ringing in my ears. His key worker had me on speed dial to reassure me the moment he settled down.
I had to leave work early because he had a temperature, and my parents-in-law called to drive for an hour and a half to see him when he was still ill the next day – just so I could go to the office.
Being torn between wanting to be there for my weak baby, and not letting my team down threatened to tear me in half – more than once.
Believe me, I understand that. I fancy anything that makes any working parent’s life easier. Work from home? Absolutely. More flexible hours? Definitely.
However, the answer is not to bring children into a workplace. Of course it is not.
For a start, it’s just not fair to anyone in that situation. This is not fair to the parents. This is not fair to colleagues. And most importantly, it is certainly not fair to the child.
Stella described her boy as ‘well-behaved’ and other MPs said he was as ‘good as gold’. The photos indeed show him against his mom, sleeping peacefully and looking beautiful.
However, a three-month-old child cannot be ‘well-behaved’. In the same way, they cannot be ‘badly behaved’. They are just a baby and the fact that he was quiet while he was with her at work was nothing more than mere happiness.
He could have just as easily screamed all the time – and it would not have been his fault, or Stella’s fault. It would have been just him who was a baby.
Kim Kardashian recently interviewed Jimmy Fallon and her two children, Saint, six, and Psalm, three, interrupted filming while sitting in the audience with a family friend.
Kim had to tell them to stop, that they were with her ‘at work’ and they had to behave. They had to be removed from the studio later.
The whole family has faced a setback of criticism, with people saying the children have no manners and are brats, and others have said Kim should have more control over them.
For me, it provides nothing but children and the workplace does not mix.
Children, especially babies, are unpredictable and cannot be relied upon to act appropriately at all times. Of course they can not, they are just children.
Says the review has decided that babies should be allowed in the House of Commons. Would that have opened the door for other parents outside Parliament to argue that they should also be allowed to bring their babies into their workplace?
And if babies are allowed – at what age are they not? Imagine the devastation it would cause.
This ruling allows parents to focus fully on their work while they are at work, and to fully focus on their children when they are with them. There is no other way to do it.
The situation is broken, it goes without saying.
Any working parent will tell you this. With house prices and the rental rates as they are, it generally takes two wages to maintain a household and therefore the vast majority of parents face frequent problems regarding childcare – even those who have formal arrangements in place.
Everyone does their best to get around it – do alternate shifts, hire family members to help and make up for any lost hours when the kids are asleep.
The tension is relentless.
And MPs have different issues. They do not have traditional maternity and paternity cover (Creasy threatened legal action after being told she could not rent a locum to cover her maternity leave after the birth of her second child) and therefore to take time off. ‘ having a baby means their constituency is not represented if they do not attend debates. It is clear that this needs to be addressed.
But taking your baby to work will not relieve that pressure. It will only double it.
I can not imagine that in any meeting, let alone a parliamentary debate, I can concentrate with my baby strapped to me – constantly wondering when they will wake up, in what mood they will be, and whether they have a big poop
Anyone who has tried to work from home during the various constraints with children knows that you simply cannot juggle both at the same time.
Emergencies happen, and childcare provision falls through at the last minute, which means children may have to join the workplace – but this should be the exception, not the rule.
When I had Theo, I dropped out of work after a week of four days so I could spend an extra day with him and so far I have not returned. Now, I love having an extra day with my two kids, four and two years old (just slightly more than I adore having a full paycheck).
Every Friday, without fail, I take them both out of the house so that my husband Tom – who works from home – can fully concentrate on work.
On very cold or rainy days when they stay at home and rather play with their toys, it has always failed miserably in the end. Theo inevitably wants to show his dad a dinosaur he just discovered under his bed. Immy wants to draw a picture for him and then give it to him, all while he works.
It’s just natural. Of course they want to see their dad who they know is just in the next room.
And that’s good, eleven. But when it’s the sixth, seventh, or eighth time, it’s a distraction. Or when Tom’s in a meeting, it’s just not appropriate. It is unprofessional and unproductive.
Our children will spend enough time at work when they are adults, so please leave them at home while they are babies. Or at least, at the nursery – it’s to the benefit and productivity of us all.
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