"Spoilt Rotten" BBC Panorama

[Doc Alan]

in bygone days, wages were infinitesimally small by comparison - yet fewer married women with kids felt the need to go out to work - and there seemed to be more contentment all round.

How times have changed. My Mum was a doctor, graduating during World War II. There were far fewer female medical students then (and the exams were no easier just because there was a war). She did her first year as a junior doctor living in hospital for no salary . Now over half of all medical graduates are female. Luckily, for various reasons, my Mum didn't have to work full time until my brother and I were teenagers, and it would have been a waste of her training and talent if she hadn't been able to do that. But as kids we were glad to have her around home .

[joebloggs]

How times have changed. My Mum was a doctor, graduating during World War II. There were far fewer female medical students then (and the exams were no easier just because there was a war). She did her first year as a junior doctor living in hospital for no salary . Now over half of all medical graduates are female. Luckily, for various reasons, my Mum didn't have to work full time until my brother and I were teenagers, and it would have been a waste of her training and talent if she hadn't been able to do that. But as kids we were glad to have her around home .

funny this being mentioned now, my misses after 2 months of applying for any SHO job, out of the blue, she got a call today from a hospital 50 miles away and after a chat, shes got a interview on Tuesday, its only for 3 months, but its a start..

now after more than 10yrs at uni, and tens of £1,000s spent, which one of you wants to tell her she should stay at home and look after the kids

my misses has made many sacrifices to get this far. its taken all our savings and wages, we don't have a plasma tv, never-mind a 50" one, we've not been back to the phils for 5yrs, nearest thing we've had to a holiday was half a day in blackpool last sat ..

[aromulus]

we've not been back to the phils for 5yrs, nearest thing we've had to a holiday was half a day in blackpool last sat ..

Pity we don't own a caravan in Rhyl, otherwise you could have it for a few weeks....

[joebloggs]

Pity we don't own a caravan in Rhyl, otherwise you could have it for a few weeks....

but where would your Baltic lodgers go dom

pitty you've not got a caravan near lancaster general dom

[Arthur Little]

now after more than 10yrs at uni, and tens of £1,000s spent, which one of you wants to tell her she should stay at home and look after the kids

my misses has made many sacrifices to get this far. its taken all our savings and wages, we don't have a plasma tv, never-mind a 50" one, we've not been back to the phils for 5yrs, nearest thing we've had to a holiday was half a day in blackpool last sat ..

I take your point, Joe. For starters, it SHOULDN'T be necessary for a qualified, already-practising and fully competent doctor from the Phils ... or any other country, for that matter ... to undergo all that amount of further study and/or re-training when he or she emigrates abroad. Sadly, it seems to be a factor common to most - if not all professions - as I'm only too well aware with my wife being a schoolteacher.

It goes without saying, that YOUR missus will be keen to fulfill her potential and reap the rewards of all her hard work and financial sacrifice [as will YOU] and far be it from me to disagree with what is, after all, perfectly logical as well as understandable. At the same time, MY conclusions are admittedly drawn from [my own] childhood experiences of my mother always BEING there for her two children. Equally, I suppose I'm influenced by the fact that, in recent times, my daughter gave up a satisfying (and extremely lucrative) career as a Speech & Language Therapist with Grampian Healthcare in order to devote herself to full-time motherhood at the age of 37.

I would like to finish off by wishing your missus all the very best for her interview at Lancaster Royal Infirmary, next Tuesday.

[Doc Alan]

I would like to finish off by wishing your missus all the very best for her interview at Lancaster Royal Infirmary, next Tuesday.

...same from me and, I'm sure, all your friends on the forum
I realise that the thread started on a different theme, but reading the replies has reminded me how lucky I was .

[Arthur Little]

... as kids we were glad to have her around home .

Absolutely, Alan; ... to my mind, it's vital for a mother to be at home for her offspring ... during their formative years in particular!

[Arthur Little]

How times have changed My Mum was a doctor, graduating during World War II. There were far fewer female medical students then (and the exams were no easier just because there was a war). She did her first year as a junior doctor living in hospital for no salary . Now over half of all medical graduates are female. Luckily, for various reasons, my Mum didn't have to work full time until my brother and I were teenagers, and it would have been a waste of her training and talent if she hadn't been able to do that. But as kids we were glad to have her around home .

Interesting to learn your mother had been a doctor too, Alan. And you're right ... "how times HAVE changed!". I knew that there was a much smaller intake of female entrants to the Medical Profession back in those days. But I hadn't realised that the few that there were had been unsalaried during their first year as junior doctors. Can you imagine the outcry there'd be if that were the case nowadays?

I salute your mum for putting her career on hold until her boys reached adolescence. As you say, it WOULD, indeed, have been a waste of her training and talent had she been prevented from utilising her skills by that point.