La bonne mamam – motherhood in France
It’s a tall order to feed, clean, cloth, entertain and instil values in another human being, and those just cover the basics. Of course fathers should and do play a role but the bulk of the job is still usually left to the mother.
The Irish constitution preaches the virtue of a woman’s place in the home with her children but the state doesn’t provide much to make that practical.
If you want as much as a semi-sane balance of a career, family and any sort of down time there are worse places to do it than in France, which has the second highest birth rate in Europe, after Ireland. While being a stay-at-home mum is entirely possible here in Ireland, many women in France choose to continue work for a whole plethora of reasons.
Here are just some of the state support systems that French mothers, both stay at-home and working, can rely on;
