Being a mother is a career in itself - the hours are long, the pay is lousy, there's hardly any vacation time and the job is high-pressure and demanding. Although I understand that the perks can be pretty good too.
My point is that, while I have a demanding career of my own in a job I thoroughly enjoy, there are other jobs - astronaut, pilot, air traffic controller - which I'd also love to do.
But there's no way I could commit to two such jobs at the same time. Like anyone, I have to make a choice. If I want to be an astronaut, it would be ridiculous of me to believe I could remain committed to my current job. The two are simply incompatible owing to the resources and effort that each requires. Therefore I have to stop kidding myself and make a choice - one or the other - and live with my decision.
People seem to think that parenthood is somehow "different" and exempt from this rule. It's not - and all the saccharine
PR comments
about how cute your daughter is, Ms Starmer, and how much she loves her mummy don't change a damn thing.
Parenthood is, in reality, just another form of high-pressure career - and not something which people ought to have some God-given right to pursue without sacrifice.
Any woman wanting to follow a demanding career has my full backing. But you have no 'right' to be both parent and pilot any more than I have a 'right' to be both astronaut and air traffic controller.
Like a lot of choices in life it comes down to deciding what you want more, and living with the fact that you can't have it all.
