Children – the best and worst thing I ever did

This wasn’t the blog I was expecting to write, being in the middle of new research on economic productivity of older workers (see here). And I rather expect to be following the proverbial lemming over the cliff given the controversial position of the issues involved. But here goes: Children – the best and worst thing I ever did.

Why this topic now?

I took a 15 minute break this morning and caught the broadcast of a Helen Simpson short story, ‘Café Society’ (see here); a biting commentary on the impact of motherhood on the careers of women. And it brought me back to the idea of how many 50-something women are still at home after giving up work to care for a family, too distant from the job market to return. Or have made the return to work but in the process down-skilled and/or gone part-time.

This represents productive potential lost – to individuals, households and to the economy. Why can we not find efficient methods of harnessing this lost potential? Ways to provide effective training, retraining, skills refreshment, confidence re-building and career re-launch are long overdue.

Does this group deserve attention?

Part-time working is common for the over 50s, accounting for one third of all employees. Three quarters of this group are women. And there are over 3 million people aged 50 to 64 who are economically inactive – not working and not actively seeking work.  Most are retired or prevented from working by health issues, but one in six do not work due to caring responsibilities. The majority of family carers are women (see here).

Post Brexit we will need all the productive potential we can harness. If we help this group, the strategies developed can help others in later life who represent lost potential too; the long-term unemployed, those who realise they retired too soon or other long-term economically inactive – outside the job market and not looking for work as they cannot find anything that suits their responsibilities eg caring or specific needs eg due to a health condition.

And if we create the well-designed jobs such people are able and will want to do, other generations will surely come knocking, and find that what is good for one may well be good for all (see here). Perhaps we will start on the journey to a new workplace? (More here).

What of those ageing without children?

The topic is controversial because it puts those who have had children centre-stage. This is a common vision in society. But now government has started to depend in public policy on the care that children can provide for their aged parents. So what of the men and women ageing without children, including one in six older but economically active people aged 50 to 64? Everyone needs to be cared for in old age.

Families – like mine where there were two childless aunts – can step in to care beyond the nuclear family, as can friends and community. But is this a fair way to leave those without children – dependent on the goodwill of those they are unlikely to feel comfortable talking it through with? We need proper structures of social care, whether state provided or not, that create dependable and known parameters which allow people to plan and not just hope.

The children/no children dilemma

Sadly, the position is that both sides can lose out in the children/no children dilemma. And of course for many the situation, on either side, may not be voluntary. On one side, people may lose out in career terms from having children, especially women and those who find paid childcare difficult to afford, ending up with smaller savings and pension pots. On the other side, those who have not had children face the unknown risk of their final years spent without the family support the system assumes they will have.

And if we add in the impact of the figures I saw today on the increase in later life divorce – another destroyer of financial security – the true impact of our family settings on well-being in later life starts to emerge (Guardian article on ‘silver splitters’ here).

Public policy needs to look further at these issues and come up with some urgently needed solutions.

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