The World On A Stick, Please

Meet Jessica Smith, who can be summed up in three words:

Me, me, me.

When I resigned, many people asked me why, and I gave a very sensible, well-thought-through, and slightly sad answer. I enjoyed the job immensely, I was very proud to have been part of one of the only job shares at team-leader level that I knew of, I loved my team and felt enormous satisfaction from helping them, protecting them from crap, and seeing them do well and I felt I was good at it. But it wasn't enough. The hard work and long hours, the getting home for the nanny, the interrupted night's sleep, the running the household – all of it together was tough, and when we realised that as a family we could afford for me to stay at home – well, it was a no-brainer.

So, another intelligent 30-something woman bit the dust. Another woman lost to a world of children and household matters. That is until about two weeks ago, when part of my brain imprisoned inside a world of grocery shopping, cleaning and school-runs suddenly shouted "enough".

All at once I was angry and frustrated, bored with my routine – bored of cooking sausages, putting on laundry and brushing children's hair, bored of picking up toys, stacking the dishwasher and reading The Gruffalo, and bored of being in my house for so many hours in one day. My brain was craving true intellectual stimulation. My husband started coming home to a "mum-on-strike" kind of situation. The house was a state, the children were understimulated and grumpy, and a highly emotional wife was trying to discuss politics and the meaning of life.

Now, let's get this straight. She had a good job but wanted children. She therefore had children but could afford a nanny so carried on with the job. That became too difficult so she gave up the job because she could afford to. Then she got 'bored' with being a mum ... and is angry that she can't do both.

Eh?

Perhaps she would like the world on a stick and a unicorn for Christmas, too.

Meanwhile, in the real world, couples juggle two jobs and a family without recourse to a nanny. Favours are called in, grandparents utilised extensively, diaries re-jigged on an almost daily basis, just to pay their everyday bills.

In the real world, many many mums go to sleep every night dreaming of being able to spend more time at home with their kids and in their home, rather than manning a till or working in a call centre.

In the real world, real mums turn down real opportunities to go out for an evening because they can't afford a babysitter, or the price of a romantic meal with their partner.

Jessica Smith enjoys choices that a vast swathe of the population can only dream of, but is complaining about it.

And she is writing this for a newspaper which is generally considered as socialist?

Good grief.