Why Women Can't Have It All

I was brought up to believe that as a woman, I could have it all. A fabulous career, a rich social life, and adorable children. Though this was something I heard on an almost daily basis, I have always been a little unsure of it as a fact.

Thanks to Sylvia Pankhurst and her suffragettes, women began to change the typical male ideology that females belonged in the home rather than in the male world of work and politics.

Today, however, we can see how the suffragette movement has change the way men think about women, and indeed, how women think about themselves. We have women CEOs and female self made millionaires; We have female political leaders and writers (the list is endless, but I think you get my point)!

It was only when I gave birth to my own daughter that I realised this modern ideological 'have it all' life was difficult to attain. As I sat with my new baby in my arms I discovered that I could never go back to work and leave my newborn in the care of a daycare centre with total strangers.

Thinking back to my ex-boss Emma, I remember how her life was as a working mum. I imaging she would have had to get out of bed at silly o'clock just to arrive at work by 7am and often her work would not see her leave the office until a staggering twelve hours later, even then, she would be on call. At the time she had a toddler and was finding it really difficult to balance handling her flourishing career and having a life outside the realms of work.

The two fundamental reasons why women cannot have it all lies with time and, more importantly, guilt.

I know from experience, that if you are working, you feel guilty because you feel you should be spending more time with the children, and alternatively, if you are with the children, you feel as though you should be working.

To be fair, I know there are some women out there who have managed to do both, but I think it always has to be with a certain amount of sacrifice, either to themselves or their children, as the focus on career always seems to take precedence.

Now, I'm not saying here that all mums should be at home with the kids, I am well aware that some mums simply have to work, but I do think that children would be better off being looked after by one parent to offer consistency and guidance.

As you may already know, I am a work at home mum and I find trying to get the balance right very very difficult. I actually don't think there can ever be a happy medium in which you can work and be a productive parent for your child. I have no 'me' time and no social life what so ever, simply because I am constantly being torn in two between what I need to do, and what I think I should be doing.

If you have found the happy balance between being a working mum and career woman, please let me know how you managed it, and if it has come at any cost to you of the family unit as a whole.

Lockerbie Bomber Release

I am starting this post in the hope that you, my readers, will participate in the debate.

Just four days ago Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was freed from prison after serving just eight years of his twenty seven year prison sentence due to compassionate grounds.

Apparently suffering from terminal cancer, Megrahi was convicted of bombing Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, killing all 270 people on board. If you have seen the footage of this convicted murderer on his return home, I am sure you would agree that Megrahi did not look like a man who was 'extremely ill', he was not frail, fragile, or excessively underweight; which is what I was expecting the dying man to look like.

My main gripe is that prisoners can actually be release due to 'compassionate grounds' at all. This has only served to weaken my belief in the justice system, and personally, I don't think there is room for compassion when we are talking about convicted terrorists and murderers. What about compassion for the people who died?

It was not just the people on that aeroplane who died that day, but a piece of every victims family also died, and has had to cope and live on without their loved one.

I am not an expert in law or on this case, but many do say that Megrahi was not the man who did the deed, and I believe that there is some 'startling' and 'confusing' evidence in existence that can perhaps prove Megrahi innocent.

Now I would like to know what you think; Was Megrahi the Lockerbie bomber? Should he have been released? Is there room in the system for early prison releases due to compassionate grounds?

Roadside Safety

So...here is something that you may find interesting.

Many of the roads around my area are partly closed because the highways agency and the local council are installing some new roadside guardrails . This prompted me to think about these guardrails and find out if they are actually a good enough safety device for our roads and highways.

As always, I did a search and found some stats on guardrails which drew me to conclude that they are in fact the most cost effective way of saving lives on the road. Guardrails are there to protect drivers from natural and man made hazard such as ditches and trees, sign posts and utility poles etc, but also as an effective safety barrier between lanes on the busy highways.

Skimming over some photos of cars that had been impaled on these rails, I found out all sorts of interesting details about guardrails from manufacturers websites. One company in particular has an interesting history. Mid-Park inc is a manufacturer of all manner of roadside safety rails and was started up in a barn in West Hardin County, Kentucky back in 1971. Given that they have been in business for more than 35 years, I tend to believe that these guys know what they are talking about.

Anyway, Mid-Park have a really impressive website, and if you take a look you can see how complex it actually is to produce such a standard (and if I may say, ugly) looking piece of roadside safety equipment that we all just take for granted.

So the next time you are out and about in your car, take note of these roadside guardrails and remember that they do have a purpose, and one day they could save your life.