We are extremely lucky to have two healthy, happy and gorgeous Children. Ella is 4 and Ryan will be 7 next week. Andy has been a Councillor since before Ryan was born (I was 5 months into my pregnancy when I was Andy & Nigel's Westcotes agent in 2003) and I was selected to fight the seat of Westcotes when I was 8 & 1/2 months pregnant with Ella so our life with the kids has always been entwined with our lives as Councillors.
Some people find this very odd. It might be, but (and I feel a theme developing here) what is normal anyway! In my office at the Town Hall I have a box of activity books, toys and colouring pens under my table because sometimes they come with me to meetings. I also have a special bag of delights that we use if the kids want to come out leafleting or canvassing with us, bubbles to blow, boxes of raisins, scooters etc. I say want, we always ask them and arrange for them to stay with friends or their very supportive grandparents if they do not want to. They often do though, they are very sociable and like going out with big groups of people, I suppose for them it's like going into work with Mummy & Daddy, it stops what we do being alien or scary to them.
It's not all plain sailing though and I worry regularly (don't all parents) about if we're doing the right thing. My concerns are exacerbated by them at times. When Ella was about 18 months old we were having huge problems in the ward with people parking on the pavements and in one of my less guarded moments had said that they were idiots to do this. Unfortunately for the next year every time she saw a car on the pavement she would declare, from her pushchair, very loudly and clearly 'look Mummy - there's an IDIOT over there'! A bit scary when the occupant is a 6ft man built like a brick wall and clearly thinks I've just described him as such.
Ryan has raised some concerns of his own, for quite a while he had the impression that when he grew up he'd have to become a Councillor and had (a very funny) conversation with me one day where he explained patiently that he didn't think it would be for him as he'd set his sights on being a recycling man!
There are days when I think I would like a 9 - 5 type life and that this would be much better for our kids, but these happen less frequently now than they used to. The phone calls from constituents whilst the kids are trying to tell me about their day at school are balanced now by being able to work from home during the summer holidays and by knowing that the work we do to make the area better (safer pavements, new school fruit trees, better play equipment, less wheelie bins) for everyone makes it a better place for our kids to grow up.
For anyone thinking that being a Councillor with young children will be too hard (and in my experience it is only Women who think this for some reason) then I wouldn't entirely disagree, other than to say what job isn't hard with young children! It takes a lot of juggling and it isn't always possible to keep every ball in the air. For me this means my house isn't always as tidy as I'd like nor is my office (sorry Rory) but my kids and my constituents both get the attention they need and deserve - hopefully!
It's not quite perfect though, they've gotten smarter! Shopping for new school shoes in town this week the kids asked if we could go to Waterstones. I said yes after we'd done the shoes. A whispered conversation later and they declared that there had been a vote and it was 2 -1 for going to Waterstones first and that I'd said in a democracy the most votes wins...... How could I argue with that!
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