Lovin that Mummy Culture

 A little letter from an exasperated Bear to The Wentworth Courier.....

 A number of years ago I used to go out cycling early in the morning, often leaving home at 5.30. I would pass a young women dressed smartly in an Australian army uniform. Holding her hand was a little girl, also neatly turned out complete with pink back pack. One was on her way to work, the other to be dropped off somewhere possibly a relative. I used to wonder about that woman's life. I supposed she was a single mum doing the best for her beloved little person. She had long hours and experienced that anxiety as she rushed to pick her up at the end of the day scared she might be late. Then the meals, the bedtime and next day it starts all over again. It's a scene repeated all over Sydney where people, often with two jobs, push out into the dark with their kids in tow. 

They rely on network of friends relatives and occasional day care. Not too much because it is hideously expensive. I thought of them as I saw your story on page three about Libby Gore and her new book on being a mum. “Oooh such an exciting experience, I'll write a book about it and get my bonce in a newspaper that circulates in the most privileged, pampered and self entitled area of Australia.

“We are just all so important having children that everyone has to read about it”. I can read it and find out North Bondi has a great mummy culture which just means little coffee klatches of self indulgent, self entitlement. A place for $1500 strollers, massive four wheel drive chariots and kids in their designer nappies. It's sickening. Most of us just got on with being the best parents we could be. A lot of us did it much easier than others, like the Army mum, who work their bums off and at night fall exhausted into bed . They don't have time to write books. It's a pity Gore did .