Last updated at 09:53, Thursday, 01 October 2009

TWO working mothers have been told they are breaking the law by caring for each other’s children.

The policewomen, who shared a child-care arrangement, have been told they face prosecution unless they trained and registered as child-minders.

I, like every working mother, will be incensed by this story. Most mothers I know are able to work with a combination of shift-working partners, professional childcare, every-ready grandparents and favours from friends. This is how we keep the economy going.

Now the policewomen have been forced to put their kids into nursery care, some of which is subsidised by the tax-payers.

Apparently the women were ‘shopped’ by a neighbour. Sorry, for a moment I thought we were back in Stalinist Russia. What sort of person snitches to the authorities about two mothers sharing the care of their kids? And what sort of country do you live in that this is seen as an actual criminal offence.

The policewomen were told they would be “put under surveillance” to ensure they didn’t help each other. Yes, you may need to read that last sentence again.

These are not women who are known to the authorities for neglecting or abusing their kids. They aren’t out stalking kids in playgrounds, or grooming youngsters in chat-rooms.

They are mothers with jobs trying to get by with as little stress to their children and their own lives as possible, and yet Ofsted feels the need to butt in and threatened court action.

This is a scandalous intrusion on a person’s private life.

Ofsted is there to ensure childcare organisations and professionals offer a safe and secure place for parents to leave their children.

It is not there to monitor the lives of decent women and their friends who are simply doing what mothers have done for generations, manage the very best way they can.

Since the majority of childcare is organised by women, this is simply another tactic used to make working mothers paranoid. It is an absolute disgrace and we shouldn’t tolerate it for a second.

The government’s Children’s Minister, Vernon Coaker, said he wanted his department to review the case although he insisted the Childcare Act 2006 was in place to “ensure the safety and well-being of all children’’.

We are continually told that the government wants to encourage women back into the workforce and yet these stories hardly inspire confidence in mothers, particularly single mothers already up to their eyes in guilt and stereotyping, to go looking for a job.

First published at 15:50, Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk