Monday, November 23, 2009

reduction of work hours for women

Hello dears, sorry am late today. You will not believe it....... I have been trying to upload my blog for a long time now and it was difficult for me to do. I felt like a local girl, please dont laugh at me.......and shhhhhhhhhhhhh! dont tell anyone its our little secret. How can someone start a blog herself and have a problem uploading her messages. funny isnt it? Anyways i am okay and everything is under control..........
Today i' ll like to write about a topic that has a very special place in my heart. 'the almighty work hours of women'. Long 'Work hours' is now in vogue as the french will say it : 'C'est a la mode'. You can imagine women staying leaving their offices very late. I don't want to sound old fashioned or like a grandma...... Mind you: Am not saying am against women working but i am not comfortable with the work hours. for instance a friend of mine has been considering quitting her job. when asked why? she gave me her daily routine. this is it: 'every morning she leaves her house as early as 5a.m or 5.30a.m to get to work, this she does because of the ALmighty traffic in Lagos........ guess what? she has to little kids. NOW her status: she is a mother, a wife and a career woman. okay back to her story. let' s give her a name. what name should we call her? am thinking Mabel. I hope you like it. okay so Mabel leaves the house with her kids,because she has to drop the off at school /creche... whao! you can imagine what time she gets up from bed, probably 3a.m or some crazy time. okay she drops them off at the creche and then goes to work. work starts at 8a.m both she has to be at work before the 'official opening hours( in other to be seen as a hard working staff). official closing hours in 5p.m but Mabel leaves the office every time at 7pm ,cos there is always stuff to do after work. she rushes to the creche in other to pick her kids, cos by 7.30pm the clock starts ticking for her in the creche and the bills start going up. With that solved she then heads home. Mabel doesn't get home immediately, she encounters her friend who never leaves her alone: ' Lagos Traffic'...which has wosen with the road construction..... after all the hasle she finally gets home by 10.30pm or sometimes 11pm......fagged out, frustrated, and nobody to help.... not even a maid.... ( why? she had become fagged out with all their problems so she sent them all away). That late she may have to fix dinner even if it's 'take away'get the kids tucked in bed and pretends to be interested in whatever husband is saying who surprisingly isnt tired........you know what i mean......Mabel finally goes to bed a minute before 12am. but her sleep is short lived, morning draws near and the hasle begins......
After Mabel's narration of her day i felt so sorry for her.... she doesnt have a life of her own. she doesnt have family time and she doesnt have what i call husband and wife time. All these things she lacks, will at the long run damage her marriage, her life and her family.
I ask myself every day what should she do? do you think she should resign? she is fortunate she can even consider that option, at least her husband has a stable job and doesn't have a problem taking care of her needs. But what about the ones that don't have an option, what will they do? How will they keep their home and their sanity? is life unfair? or is it harsh? does it choose who to disturb or who to cuddle?
I will leave you my dears with these questions, to assimilate and ponder.
But before note this: as someone once said once there is life there is hope'.
Take care ' lilies', will talk about this some more tomorrow.
Goodnight.