What a recommendation for "stand by your man" if you don't you will be poor.

Moni, if you are going to make accusations, at least get your facts right. The maternity payment is $4000. It will be until 1/7/2008, when it will rise to $5000. This is the last scheduled rise. Since its introduction, it has risen by $1000 every 2 years. It is available to both working mothers and stay at home mums, as well as those on benefits. The idea is to ease some of the burdens of having children, for all women (and men, seeing as they have to provide less:) ). Personally, although I am a professional, I wouldnt have been able to afford children without it. My husband is too hard-hit by the drought for us to be able to afford the basics (even though a lot was second hand). The allowance allowed me to stop work for 3 months and get to know my baby. Currently I would love to have another, but cant afford to risk having to stop work whilst pregnant (if something goes wrong). I kept working against doctors orders last time, even on the day that I went into hospital I had meetings in the morning (was scheduled for an induction due to preeclampsia, so at least I knew the timing). If there are 2 lives and 4 livlihoods at risk, well thats just too much for me to shoulder.

Moni

"The government are making womens lives so hard! Half way into last year they have made mums who have a child above the age of 7 look for part time work!I mean, how stupid is the government?"

Correction, it is the choices women make that influence their lives, choosing whether to have a baby outside a relationship or choosing to end a relationship and then relying on welfare and child support for income.

Melaine Phillips 'Saying the unsayable"
http://www.melaniephillips.com/articles-new/?p=471

A study showed that around 48% of women would lie about birth control in order to get pregnant.

Research also shows that married men earn more than single men. However whilst married women may enjoy the extra income and the advantages that it brings, some, also resent the hours of work that their husbands put in to earn that income.

That is not to say that there are not mothers out there who do manage to combine raising children and having a succesful career or business.

If and it is a big 'if' there had not been the demographic change in society over the last, let's say 30 years, then child care would not be the issue it is today.

And if Pru Goward and the HREOC had not opposed the presumption of shared custody following separation and divorce. Then child care for many separated/divorced mothers would not have been as big an issue. As fathers would have had more responsibilty for child care, thereby allowing mothers more time for employment.

Uhm, stop giving does not equal taking away. Illogical.

What the govt gives it must first take away (from those of us who feed the trough).

And, what it takes away it must first give (to those eating at the trough).

Drop the entitlement attitude, get off the govt nipple and stop feeding at the public trough.

jamesH. There are those of us that earn more than the men in our lives. My disposable income would go up if I were a single mother (even without any child support payments from my husband), simply because I pay all the household bills and rarely recieve a cent from my husband to help do so. Without him the grocery bill and power bill would at least drop. Dont assume that women just enjoy the ride. Likewise, my mother earned more than my father, and my grandmother earned more than my grandfather.

Country Gal, my disposable income would skyrocket if I had never gotten married or fathered children.

Getting married and fathering children was the worse 'financial' decision I ever made.

I have two very beautiful and loving children and Yes it does make life hard.