Read the Times 2 section yesterday and became totally incensed by an article by someone caled Leslie Bennett in which she advised women "don't give up the day job" and then went on at some length (she's actually written a book on the subject) about how women don't know the financial cost of giving up work and the difficulties of getting back to it years later and Him Indoors might drop dead or lose his job at any moment and then where would you be, girls?
Well to be honest, if you haven't discussed it with your partner beforehand and agreed what needs to be done in ensuring that he has enough insurance to cover you in the case of his death or his redundancy or his critical illness, then you're a bloody idiot. As is he if he doesn't ensure that your life is covered in the event that you kick the bucket and he has to carry on without you. REALLY! Don't people talk to each other any more?
As to the financial consequences of giving up work, well...duh. Of course you suffer financially. Of course you can't stroll back in ten years later as if nothing had happened - if you could, how entitled to yell would those loyal souls be who had continued to work all that time? It's a decision that you need to make as a couple, and it has its costs and its benefits much like any other maor decision you're going to make in the course of a lifetime. Frankly, to suggest that it will be taken by women without basic consideration of the ramifications is insulting to my gender. And his actually.
How can she spin this guff into a whole book? I'm almost, but not quite, curious enough to read it and see.
Luckily I can read this stuff and become irritated but never will anyone succeed in convincing me, or my partner, that we made the wrong choice. It's right for us. Doesn't mean it's right for everyone, but it's right for us.
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