Find that job: Lesson 95. Pay mums to look after the children!
The British government has introduced a number of financial incentives to encourage young mothers to go back to work. It has also pumped L21 billion into subsidising childcare and toddler education. However, Professor Jay Belsky, the director of the Institute for the Study of Children and Families, who was commissioned by the government to assess its costly family centre schemes, says that the government has got it all wrong. Here's why:
The professor's findings are quite embarrassing for the government. According to him, toddlers who spend long hours in nurseries or with childminders suffer disconcerting effects. These include difficult relationships with their mothers and aggressive and disobedient behaviour when they start school. Those who spend time in centre-based care from a very young age are particularly at risk.
According to childcare research, tax policies should therefore reduce - rather than increase - the pressure on mothers to go back to work. Mothers should get tax breaks to help them bring up their children at home. These findings are a big blow to Labour, which has been pressing mothers to go back to work by giving out large sums through the tax credit system. Now, according to its own expert, the government has got it all wrong.
But it looks like British men have got it wrong too! A recent study has revealed that most of them pay only lip service to 21st century notions of sexual equality. More than 80 per cent reject as old-fashioned the idea that women should stay at home, but just 23 per cent of couples split domestic chores such as laundry evenly between them. So, a century after the heyday of the suffragette movement, it seems women really can have it all. They can have a job and a family - and do the cooking, cleaning and laundry too.
a SłOWNICZEK
to pay - płacić
mum - mama
to look after - opiekować się
to introduce - wprowadzić
to encourage - zachęcić
to pump - tu: wpompować, inwestować
childcare - system opieki nad dziećmi
toddler - dziecko, które uczy się albo dopiero co nauczyło się chodzić
to commission - zlecić, zamówić
government - rząd
to assess - ocenić
to get it all wrong - wszystko pokręcić, źle zrobić, nic nie rozumieć
findings - wyniki, rezultaty, konkluzje
embarrassing - żenujący
nursery - żłobek
childminder - opiekun/ka do dziecka
disconcerting - niepokojący
relationship - więź, stosunek, relacja
disobedient - nieposłuszny
behaviour - zachowanie
centre-based care - tu: ośrodki opieki nad dziećmi
to be at risk - być narażonym na ryzyko
research - badania
tax politcies - polityka podatkowa
to reduce - zmniejszyć, obniżyć
to increase - zwiększyć, podwyższyć
tax break - ulga podatkowa
to bring up - wychowywać
blow - tu: cios
to press - zmuszać, wywierać presję
tax credit system - system kredytów podatkowych
to pay lip service - składać gołosłowne deklaracje
sexual equality - równość płci
old-fashioned - staromodny, przestarzały
to split - dzielić, podzielić się czymś
domestic chores - obowiązki domowe
laundry - pranie
heyday- okres rozkwitu
suffragette movement - ruch sufrażystek
to have it all - mieć wszystko (o czym dusza zamarzy)
job - praca
cooking - gotowanie
cleaning - sprzątanie
jeadeithe