Oh dear!

Last night I had a stark reminder of just how much of a wally I can be - do other people do this kind of thing?

I called my Dad for an update on my Grandad (who is ill in hospital right now) and somehow managed to get onto to subject of Maternity Rights for Women who Work. Big mistake. While I can see my Dad (and apparenly Alan Sugar) had a point - it must be a pain paying two people for one job, and irritating when you don't know if people are coming back full or part time and even worse when they come back from maternity leave already pregnant with a second child, I don't really see the alternative.

My Dad is not a sexist man - he made a point of bringing up three daughters to believe they could do whatever they wanted to do - surely he would agree that women should be able to work if they want to? He works in a career heavily dominated by women, and the type of work which is easily compatible with a family, so surely paying women for a couple of years out of the 30 or so they will work in their life is a small price to pay? It's the babies who suffer most otherwise.

A (male) friend of mine moved to a new job a few years ago, heading up HR for a Housing Association. He did an audit on maternity leave and discovered that many of the hourly (ie. low) paid staff were returning to work as little as six weeks after giving birth - some after c-sections! - because they couldn't even afford to lose the 10% drop in pay that Statutory Maternity Pay allows. Of course, most of these staff were also the ones doing menial work such as cleaning so lugging around vacuum cleaners, buckets of water etc.

Anyway, I was ranting thus to my father, who was reciprocating - we are both rather good at pontificating - when my husband noticed steam coming out of my ears and said 'Don't forget to ask your Dad about xyz....' which closed the subject.

Ten minutes later I hung up the phone and said to my husband 'You would not believe what he was saying...' blah blah rant... a few minutes later my husband's mobile rang in his pocket. 'Erm, tell Jo she hasn't hung up properly and I can hear every word she is saying...'

In the words of my daughter 'Oh Dear...'

A quick update on my list:

1. Jogging. Have resolved things with the ebay cock so can fix wheels on pushchair. R has agreed to buy me trainers for Valentine's Day (although I'm hoping he'll forget about the Valentine's Day bit and just buy them for me). You won't see me for dust soon.

2. Weight. Still the same, although my lunch was rather meagre. I can't claim any virtue for that since it's only because I still haven't gone to the supermarket.

3. Flat. R and I did some amazing work on the flat yesterday. The living room, kitchen and hallway look fab. Just the bedrooms now.

4. Housework. Kind of linked to above, haven't done anything today though. Haven't seen husband to nag either.

5. Finances. Nothing to report.

6. Career. As above.

7. Friends. Should've met friends for lunch today, but couldn't get hold of them in time to let them know my plans, so missed out. Must be more organised and persistent when people don't return my messages (turned out they hadn't got them :().

Don't want to finish on a bad note though. Things are going well today! Blogging is great fun.