Lifestyle Choices

Full-time or part-time shop assistant: Hard on the feet but can be more interesting than office work if you like meeting people. Part-time work is often easier on Saturdays.

Stocking shelves in supermarkets, to prepare for the next day, is one example of evening preparation work. Ask the manager of your local supermarket if there’s anything going.

Welfare workers are largely women. Child care officers are needed (training from one to three years necessary) so are youth club workers, youth employment officers, young people’s advisers (being married is a qualification and it’s possible to do as little as thirteen hours a week work).

Babysitting, emergency child care (such as when a mother has to go into hospital) and child-minding.

Primary school helpers and school care work: The main qualification here is that of a good, tactful, sensible parent. For details write to the education officer of your local education authority.

Teaching • Minimum qualifications of five 0 Levels or three 0 Levels and an A Level, but you can take a Special Entry Test if you lack these qualifications but nevertheless strongly feel that you could teach.A teacher training course takes three years to complete although mature students are sometimes allowed to take a two-year course. The thirtyfive-week college year is similar to that of a school.

Working in kindergarten and nursery schools: Mothers have obviously had experience of working with children. Kindergarten and nursery schools are short of staff. Qualifications are not essential, but some previous experience is useful. Get details from the local chief education officer.

Running a playgroup: If you want to run a playgroup you must comply with the standard conditions laid down by the Department of Health and register with the local health authority and town !planning committee. Your local health officer will advise you on the necessary requirements, which are mainly such obvious ones as an outdoor play area, safety catches on windows, adequate light, heat and ventilation, sufficient lavatories (one to every eight children).

WARNING! Make sure your initial charges are adequate; play equipment can cost more than you think. Make sure you won’t mind noisy activities.

Starting Your Own Business

If you’re thinking of starting your own business . . . the queen of the financial writers, Sheila Black of The Times, agrees with me that the most practical way to go about it is simply to start doing it.

Most of the home employment offered to housewives is naked exploitation. Avoid like the plague any

sort of piece work or commission- based schemes (envelope-typing, telephone-selling) because you will have to work like a slave, the work may be disheartening, and you may very possibly make very little money or even end up out of pocket.

If you have a special skill, typing, translating, accountancy — advertise it in places where the people who might employ you will see your ad. A skilled qualified home worker gets the best deal from employers, so stick to an area you know. If you were trained as a secretary, you might start a home typing agency.

Buy an electric typewriter on HP as soon as you can afford it. Make sure you are efficient, neat, professional and reliable. No jam stains on translations or letters unposted because your husband put them in his pocket and forgot them. No home life intrusions of any sort.

You might start a home industry in your bedroom. Sew cushion covers, do knitting, with or without a machine, or crochet work. Or invisible mending for the dry-cleaners. Or, if you have a hairdryer, set hair. You’re not the only woman who can’t afford to go to a hairdresser and can’t see the back of her own head in order to set it. Printing personal book plates, making dolls or, like Laura Ashley, printing tea towels on the kitchen table, are other possibilities.

Whatever you decide to do, keep a dated record of everything you pay out and everything you send out in two duplicate books; tick items off when you are paid. In order to avoid confusion with your personal life, open a new bank account.

You will soon find out whether your business is going to pay or not. After six months stop and review the situation. If you want to continue you will want to consider regulations concerning tax, planning permission, registering your company and employing other people. At this point you may need to get a lawyer and an accountant. (The accountant will find your two duplicate books provide him with a simple record of what has happened to date.)

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