Of the right of family, mothers, and babies

Before the great financial crisis took centerstage on most of the world's government's agenda, Australia has the rights of mothers to maternity leave and pay as one of its agenda.

Women in the workforce currently have the right to be on a year of maternity leave following the delivery or adoption of a baby. It would be illegal to fire a person while on parental leave. And upon return to work, the person should be working for the same position or at least of a position equivalent to the one she left - basically, a person can't be demoted. Some established companies also offers a few weeks of pay while on maternity leave.

I thought having a 1 year off was fantastic before I had Clarisse as compared to a 6 weeks(?) maternity leave offered in the Philippines. But I thought wrong. And these are the reasons why I think so.

The first two years are very crucial in child development. Children up to age 2 thrives and functions on 1 on 1 care. They recognise the people who feed them, who care for them, who looks after their interest. It's called attachment in the babyworld. Of course anyone can feed them, change them, and do all sorts of things for them. But they thrive if it's someone they learned to trust. During this time, babies also have limited way of communicating. It takes a person sometime to be with a baby to understand what a baby wanted (hungry, wet, bored, etc). In countries such as Australia, 1 on 1 care is extremely expensive.

Children under 2 have more needs and are still very dependent on a carer. I remembered when I went back to work just before Clarisse turned 1. It was a struggle coming home to do everything before bedtime (8pm). Now that she's older and can do some things by herself, coming home from work is not as stressful as the first year I came back to work. And since she doesn't need as much sleep as when she was younger, a 9pm bedtime works better for me.

A lot of physical development also happens from 1 to 2. Learning to walk and to talk is one of those. Some start at toilet training at this stage. Clarisse started hers after she turned 2. A few bumpy months and 4 months after her 2nd birthday, she totally refuses to wear her nappies. (I know! She's a girl and hence easier to teach).

After age 2, her needs for attention, for care, for sleep lessens. Her communication skills are better, her understanding of the world around her has broaden (there are other people than mommy who can help her!), and her need for independence and self-discovery greater.

If only we could extend the maternity leave to 18 months, and a gradual return to work maybe for 6-12 months. Then it would work out better for the child. Of course, I haven't touch on the topic of maternity pay yet which is another dimension to this discussion.

Books

I'm hooked to a dynasty series spanning from the War of the Roses to World War II. There are 32 books written so far, of which currently ends in WWI. I am currently in the 11th book, which is about the rising of Napoleon Buenaparte in the world. The book is mainly about a family set in English history background. It's like reading about British history but not really reading about it. The author sets the political and social situations of that period into the lives of the family so it's like reading a saga about the family and about history at the same time. What is so interesting about it all is reading up on how people live in those times and why they lived like that.

Why the occupations of (gentle)women in those times are just to sew and play music - because they don't have shops that sells thousands of clothes but they need to make or mend their clothes, their men's clothes, the saddles or things used for transport, things use for home; and that they don't have TV after dinner so they need to entertain one another with music.

How horseracing became such a grand event (I was so surprised that there is even a public holiday in Melbourne for horseracing, and people attended these events with specific attires for it, and betting for the horses is the norm) - Started from horsebreeder(s) who organised a racing day for fun. Initially it was anyone in the village with a four legged creature resembling a horse can join, then there'd be prizes of course for the winner. Betting seems to be a national pasttime so naturally betting became part of it. People attended the event in their normal clothes. The day is supposed to be fun so food and drinks were consumed as a picnic fare and people can walk around and enjoy. Then as horsebreeders became more sophisticated in their field, so were the rules on the types of horses to be permitted to the race. The day became an event itself and as couture became more sophisticated, so did the clothes for the event.