‘I’m so much more myself now, coming back to work’ - working class mothers, paid work and childcare.

I’ve got used to being a housewife. I’ve, like, been married for five years
now. I mean, I know sometimes it is - it’s good because when you go out
with work and everything it sort of refreshes your mind and you’re kind of,
sort of, fresh. But the reason is that at the moment, I just can’t even think
about it because it’s kind of impossible for me, because I’m, like, I have to
manage this whole house as well, and it’s kind of hard. If I was to work then
nothing would be done, the cooking and all that. (Zeenat, two children, Asian
Indian, married, at home)

But as Zeenat’s extract above indicates and Asma’s below reinforces, employment
outside the home is not ruled out and seen as attractive because of its potential to
provide a parallel identity outside of motherhood:

I would like to go out, to make friends and working. You like to do something
in your.. .your life, actually. I don’t want just to do cooking and sit down in
the house looking after kids. (Asma, two children, Asian Indian, married, at
home)

Staying at home wasn’t construed as all negative of course, being with your children,
caring for them, protecting them and guiding them, as well as witnessing them grow
up and develop every step of the way was emphasised as crucial by the stay-at-home
mothers we interviewed, regardless of their ethnicity:

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