Sleepless Nights

Author: Veronica

  • My views on welfare reforms for teenage mothers

    Teenage mothers are going to be running the gauntlet in trying to keep food on the table, with the government announcing new welfare reforms for young parents. Once their child is 6 months old, they will be expected to attend Centrelink interviews once a week and will be forced into compulsory education or work training after their child turns one.

    “It’s not a question of punishment, it’s a question of providing opportunity.” says Wayne Swan, Treasurer.

    And with that comment, my blood pressure starts to rise and I’m not sure if I should yell about things, or cry at the stupidity.

    I had Amy when I was 17, so I have a vested interest in teenage mothers and the help provided for them. I also know how hard parenting is, regardless of age and I’m not sure a policy that seeks to make life harder for a minority of parents is, in any way, a helpful thing.

    Centrelink interviews are time consuming. You sit in a waiting room for an hour, waiting to be seen by someone who only knows you as a case file number. Add in a 6 month old child, who may or may not be an “easy” baby and a stressed mother, who may or may not have had any sleep and it feels like a recipe for disaster. I couldn’t find the time to shower and eat when Amy was a baby, let alone lug everything into the city and spend half a day waiting to have my name ticked off, so that money would continue to trickle in. And believe me, Centrelink is a trickle, it’s not a flood of cash, or an easy life.

    I’m curious as to why, you can leave school at 16, but now, if you have a baby as a teenager, once your child is one, you will be forced back into schooling, or certificate level training.

    Sure, it all looks great on paper, but who is looking after the toddler while Mummy is forced out of the house?

    I see that 100% of the childcare costs will be covered by the federal government. Do they really feel that is it better to force young mothers to give the care of their child over to “professionals” while they “better themselves”? We’ll leave aside the issues of finding decent childcare to begin with.

    And I’m sorry, but at any age, parenting is IMPORTANT. Kids need parents who are around. Childcare workers, while lovely, are not the same as Mummy and Daddy.

    I know you’re going to argue with me that “These kids having kids, they need help and prospects” and I’ll agree there. They DO need help and they DO need support.

    BUT – this is not the way to do it.

    It feels like punishment for young women daring to fall pregnant.

    You know what we need? Sex education in schools. Free contraception. Discussion and advice.

    We do not need to make mothers feel like second class citizens, no matter their age.

    This is hearkening back to the 70’s, when unwed teenage mothers were put in homes until their baby was born. Then the mother was forced to give her baby up for adoption and life went on as normal for everyone else.

    I am angry, I am so so angry. Beating teenage mothers with a stick is not the answer to the problem.

    Did anyone in the government think to speak to a teenage mother and find out what hardships she is facing and how it could be made easier for her? No?

    How about I put my hand up.

    Dear Labor Government: I would be more than happy to meet with you and discuss the real issues facing teenage mothers, so that you can have an insight into Real Life and not life as it’s written on paper.

    Bedhair

     

  • On not working for peanuts

    I read a post a few months ago about online magazine owners not paying their writers. I was interested, but didn’t think it was an issue for me.

    However, I was pitched this week about joining the writing staff of a soon to launch webzine, with a section for parenting and opinion. Whilst initially interested, I skimmed the email looking for what I would get out of it. Exposure? Payment? I wasn’t sure.

    I had to look a fairly long way into the email and there it was: Payment by ad revenue sharing, with the writer to get 70% of the ad revenue. We’ll ignore the issues I already have with Ad.Sense and look at it objectively.

    I know that sidebar advertising makes very little money for most bloggers and webzines. If you calculate how much 70% revenue from one post is, I’d say we’re looking at miniscule money and I’m sorry, but I don’t work for peanuts.

    Even if the exposure was likely to be huge, I was turned off by the list the length of my arm of what I could and couldn’t do, what they did and didn’t want (no self-deprecating humour? REALLY?) and how many posts I would be required to write every month.

    Okay look, I get strict guidelines for writers. I GET it, that they want their webzine to be exactly what they want and how they want it – that’s their prerogative.

    But seriously, if I’m going to put that much energy into posts, I’m going to do it on my own website, or on something I truly believe in. Not a webzine who form lettered me, asking me to apply.

    BECAUSE YES. Oh wait, what’s that at the end? If I want to write for them, I need to apply first. Even though they approached me.

    It’s a bit crappy.

    Look, if a friend approached me and asked me to write for their website, because they felt that I had something to share, I absolutely would. I’ve contributed to the Mummy Blogger Blog before and I will again, because I believe in it, and what Louisa has done with it.

    You know what would have been more effective? Spending the $50 to advertise on Problogger’s Jobs Board, because that way, you wouldn’t have offended me with the work for peanuts mentality. I would have just ignored the ad as not for me, and moved on.

    I’m not a fan of working my arse off for someone else’s project, unless I adore that person, or think that the benefits for me personally will outweigh the work. I’ve done it a few times now and it hasn’t worked out for me. I’ve had to take a step back and say selfishly – what does this do for me? Do I get any recognition for doing what I’ve done? Am I being paid? Is my own profile being raised? Well then, no thank you, but I don’t want to do this for you anymore.

    So for me, I’m not going there again.

    If you want me to write for your webzine, it has to benefit me personally, in some way. Or, I have to love what you’re doing and want to be part of it.

    Otherwise, thanks, but no thanks.

    This blogger doesn’t write for nothing.

    ***

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  • Evolutionary Sheep

    I have sheep in the paddock next to me and they are learning to fly.

    Oh, I know that you think that this is pure hyperbole, but it’s true. They’ve evolved and they’re desperately trying to be birds instead of sheep.

    I was lucky to get these photos, because shortly after, they spotted me watching, jumped off their perches and ran away, trying to cheep instead of bleat.

    This one is Harrold.

  • If I see one more mouse skitter through my kitchen, sohelpmegod!

    With my recent posts on Asylum Seekers and my silence on the drama that continues to annoy me, you would be forgiven for thinking that I’m all ‘Live and Let Live!’.

    I am not.

    Especially not when it comes to roosters that are attacking my hens, drakes that are looking large enough to fit nicely in a roasting tray and mice.

    I normally have a “don’t kill anything you’re not going to eat” policy. I can maintain this policy in the face of everything, except mice.

    We have a mouse problem. Our mouse problem is so bad that I’ve schwacked two personally in the last week, making my mouse death count higher than the cats, although the second death is maybe only 50% mine, because I did require a cat to finish it off. Hiding under the oven gets you NO MERCY.

    For the record, a good schwacker is one that is covered in plastic, so that you can wipe it clean of mouse eyeballs afterwards. You’re welcome.

    ***

    We were moving the furniture around, rearranging couches and assorted piles of junk when Nathan shouts “MOUSE!”

    Of course, I came running, from where I was avoiding heavy lifting by messing around on twitter and talking to my mother on the phone.

    Tucking the phone between my shoulder and ear, I spotted the mouse immediately (with a little help from Nathan). Nat was holding one end of a couch in the air and the mouse was attempting to run away. Round and round we went, me chasing and the mouse skittering, with Nathan swearing at me to ‘just fucking kill it already, what ARE YOU DOING?’

    Our brilliant teamwork paid off, as I walked to the back of the couch and went ‘Huh, where’d it go?’ only to lean down and find it, clinging to the back of the couch at eye level with me. I’m not sure who was more startled, but I certainly jumped less.

    The mouse found a hiding spot and I picked up a schwacker that was lying around. Sometimes there are benefits to messy bedrooms.

    “You drop the couch and I’ll schwack it” I said to Nathan.

    He rolled his eyes at me, knowing how well my schwacking has gone in the past and did as he was told.

    The mouse took one look at me, sitting in front of it, holding a photo album as a schwacker and then did the most sensible thing possible.

    It ran towards me, like a suicide mouse.

    So I sensibly schwacked it on the head, killing it. I still had the phone tucked between my ear and my shoulder, giving running commentary to my mother the whole time.

    I dusted myself off, and left Nathan to clean up the squashed mouse, while I finished my conversation and wiped down the photoalbum with anti bacterial stuff.

    ***

    Mice – 2543 Veronica – 2 .

    I am very proud of my two kills.

    Today there is a new mouse skittering around underneath my grill. I’m hoping to avoid having to bash it to death personally – you’d never guess it but I’m really not a fan of killing things – and have instead set a trap. I’d like to kill it before I have to scrub everything with antibacterial soap again.

    Hell, I’d even like to be all zen about having mice in the house, but OMFG I JUST SAW ONE, RUNNING ACROSS MY CHOPPING BOARD. Again.

    They’re lucky I’m not a farmers wife.

  • Social Media Chat

    Last night, I was having a conversation with Naomi about subscribing and subscribers and slowly, our conversation grew and morphed to include Kelley and Clairey, and we covered everything from subscribing and the state of our Google Readers to PR companies and reviews.

    We tweeted so much that we sent Naomi to twitter jail and likely cluttered up the streams for nearly everyone we know (sorry guys).

    But it was a lot of fun and from what people had to say, it seems it’s something that people are interested in, especially newer bloggers.

    Louisa came in during the conversation and we’ve since discussed it and tonight, we’re going to trial doing the same thing, on Facebook, and invite everyone over to the Mummy Bloggers Blog facebook page to participate.

    The idea is to share information on social media and how to get the best out of it, what we do personally and why.You can ask questions and we’ll endeavour to answer them, as best we can and I’ll probably be asking questions about the why’s and whyfor’s of some things.

    So, meet us over on the Facebook page tonight (Wed) at 9pm AEST and we’ll hopefully be chatting up a storm.

    I will tweet and remind you too.

    ***

    A few answers to questions I know you’re going to ask:

    This is only in Beta stages – we’re looking at chat room technology, or other various ways of doing the same thing easily, if there is enough interest.

    We elected for Facebook, to prevent cluttering up the twitter streams – until twitter develops a mute button that allows you to filter out some people, or some hashtags, I’d prefer not to clutter it. I know how frustrating it can be to be not interested in a “twitter party” or similar thing happening and have that be all that’s in your feed.

    Also facebook, we wanted the information to stick around, so that people can use it and refer to it later. Twitter is relatively transient and tweets get pushed down easily and you can miss replies and half the conversation.

    If you’ve got ideas about how this could work, suggestions, or questions, please let me know in the comments and we’ll see what we can do!

    And remember, 9pm AEST tonight on the Mummy Bloggers Blog Facebook page.