Working Mums Survey

Here is a small snapshot of a new survey of over 1,600 women by Working Mums which reveals some interesting facts... for the full survey click here

Why do mums go back to work?

As reflected in other questions, the overriding reason mums seem to return to work is that they need the money (93%). However, emotional factors seem to play a part – 72% want to work to boost their self esteem, 63% want adult company and 54% want to get out of the house. Career factors also play a part – 53% want to continue on their set career path, and 83% enjoy their job.

Working full time 79% say that homeworking for some of the time would encourage them to work full time. Other factors which would encourage mums to return to full time work include;

-Flexible working hours - 74%
-Finding a job close to home - 68%
-Job Satisfaction - 58%
-Working term time only - 55%
-Understanding employer - 48%
-Cheaper childcare - 46%
-Compressed Hours - 43%

Family friendly policies and flexible working rights Offering flexible hours for full time jobs, and allowing some regular work at home both came out top in terms of what our parents think makes for a family friendly employer (85% and 82%).

Other factors and their ratings; Offering part time jobs - 76%, allowing short notice holidays to be taken (for sickness cover for example) - 76%, offering more flexibility during school holidays - 74%, helping with childcare - 67%. Only 31% thought extending the maternity pay period makes for a family friendly company. 68% of our audience were aware of the extension of the flexible working rights for parents, or had some idea about it.

What is hard about going back to work?

Overall our mums thought most aspects of being a working mum were on the difficult side – 68% said arranging childcare/after school care was very difficult, or difficult. 72% thought leaving the children was difficult, 59% said that getting everyone ready to leave on a working day was hard, 42% think fitting in all work related tasks is difficult, 67% say fitting in all home related tasks is hard. And 27% agree that dealing with comments and/or a strained atmosphere from co workers was hard.

Why should employers employ working mums?

We asked our working mums why they thought employers should employ working mums. Here is a selection of their responses;

“On a per hours basis they are more productive than other employees as they have to multi task.”

“Experience, commitment, focus - why not?”

“Commitment - most working mums put in double the effort for a flexible post that allows them to work around their children.”

“Contrary to the beliefs of some, mums often choose to go back to work because they want to be there for personal fulfilment.”

“we get more done in less time - better value for money!!”

“They are just as conscientious regarding their work as any other employee with no children.”

When I Was a Kid offers flexible agent roles that allow you to work around the family, have a look at our website

Traditional Sweets are back!

Nostalgia and sweets go hand-in-hand and at the moment “retro sweets” are a food marketing phenomenon. Look at the carnival poster typography of M&S’s new range, or the “tuck shop favourites” in a new line that Waitrose has decided, for reasons best known to itself, to call “Monty Bojangles”. Billy Bunter is back — and supermarkets such as M&S are relaunching Pick’n’Mix stalls to please him.

Marks & Spencer confirms that sales of retro sweets such as foam shrimps, cola cubes and rhubarb and custards at its shops are up 70 per cent on a year ago: it believes the phenomenon is recession-related. Encouraged, M&S has taken retro into other lines — relaunching roly-poly pudding, apple strudel and Battenberg cake; later in the autumn it promises a range of “retro sandwiches”, which may or may not include corned beef and Dairylea.

When I Was a Kid has just launched it's own range of Traditional Sweets including Anglo Bubble Gum and Spearmint Chews that somehow transport you back to your childhood on flavour alone!

Another old-fashioned aspect of the boom is that jobs are actually coming back to Britain, where there is still knowledge of how to hand make traditional sweets. Tangerine is closing down production in Eastern Europe and hiring staff in York, where it currently employs 250 people.

How far can the nostalgia sweet go, I ask? Tony Wade has been looking at the original recipe books that the factory used in the 19th century: before long he may, once again, be producing the Victorian bestsellers: mint imperials, sugared almonds and sugar mice. With, you hope, real string for their tails.

The Top 20 Sweets

(according to an M&S poll of 4,000 adults in September 2009 )

1. Fizzy cola bottles

2. Cola bottles

3. Rhubarbs and custards

4. Wine gums

5. Black jacks

6. Jelly babies

7. Bon bons

8. Chocolate raisins

9. Chocolate éclairs

10. Turkish delight

11. Sherbet lemons

12. Flying saucers

13. Aniseed balls

14. Pear drops

15. Fruit salads

16. Chocolate limes

17. Chocolate coins

18. Percy Pigs

19. Liquorice allsorts

20. Apple and custards

Least liked sweets: Dolly watches came in as the least popular sweet in the poll, followed by spaghetti gum and dolly beads.

10 things to do in September

1) Avoid lost property - label school uniforms in a couple of minutes with iron-on name labels, £9 for 50, Cash's.
2) Throw a Last Night Of The Proms party on 12 September - hang flag bunting, £19.50, Notonthehighstreet.com
3) Co-ordinate the family's schedules with a magnetic wipe-clean calendar, £40, Great Little Trading Co.
4) Treat yourself to a new lamp so you'll feel cosy as the evenings get darker. Homebase has a great range.
5) Pick your own blackberries and make delicious jam from scratch - or cheat with Tefal's electric jam maker, £88.
6) Celebrate British Food Fortnight by choosing local produce - find out more at britishfoodfortnight.co.uk.
7) Wash and tumble-dry lightweight summer duvets and store in a Vac Pac Jumbo bag, £14.67, JML.
8) Go for a woodland walk to see the leaves changing colour. Find a nearby wood at woodlandtrust.org.uk.
9) Plant early-flowering daffodils such as Narcissus ‘Fortune' so you'll have a lovely display for Christmas.
10) Stay in and host an at-home shopping party for your friends - you'll get great discounts.
Visit jaimeathome.com for an evening of cookery demos, pamperedchef.com for new recipes and ways to save time in the kitchen or Virginvieathome.com for an evening of styling tips and advice on how to enhance your home or visit www.wheniwasakid.co.uk for some wonderful traditional toy and gift ideas for Christmas that you can sell.

Traditional Toys making a playground comeback!

A great story from the Shropshire Star gives us an insight into how children can be infuenced by the behaviour of other children. On child buys a wooden diablo and learns a few tricks, then it's a craze. Practice makes perfect. With nothing more technological than two wooden sticks joined by a length of string, 14-year-old Deborah Lilico tosses her DayGlo diabolo some 15 feet into the air.
For what seems like an eternity, it hangs in the blue sky before Sir Isaac Newton’s law of gravity kicks in and it’s down to Deborah to catch it on the string.

“Yesss!” says Deborah with delight. “I’m good at throwing it at other people – not so good at tricks.
“My brother can do ‘magic knots’ where you do a spider’s web thing with the string then launch the diabolo.
“And he can do ‘suicides’ where the diabolo is on the string and you let go of one stick and it spins round the stick. That’s really impressive.”

Deborah and her friends from Adcote School in Little Ness are part of a new craze for old toys, with youngsters across the country turning to games favoured by our forebears.
Fads come and go, but here is proof positive that the old ones are the best.
It is break time at Adcote on a day shortly before the school summer break, and as well as the diabolo – a double cone-shaped object that spins on the string between two sticks – the playground throngs to the sound of skipping games to nursery rhymes, children showing off their yo-yo skills and youngsters wiggling their hips to keep their hula hoops spinning.
Hopscotch – a game that requires only chalk, imagination and co-ordination – is in full flow in the corner of the school yard. And it’s only because it’s a girls’ school that card-swapping activities aren’t on show.