How will your family be affected? We’ve gathered the detail on the major family and pregnancy-related changes, and have the details for you below. Let us know what you think of Treasurer Wayne Swan’s new budget in the comments section.

Paid Maternity Leave
As announced on Mother’s Day, Paid parental leave will be introduced from January 1, 2011, at the federal minimum wage, currently $543.78 a week, for up to 18 weeks.

Parents who receive this payment will not be eligible for the Baby Bonus, except in cases of multiple births where parents will not receive the Baby Bonus for only the first child.

Parental leave payments will be taxable and will have an impact on the parents’ entitlement to family assistance payments, but will not be deemed income for income support payments.

Parents who choose not to receive the paid parental leave or who do not qualify will still receive the Baby Bonus and other family payments.

Primary carers will be eligible for paid parental leave if they earn less than $150,000 in the full financial year prior to the birth or adoption of a child, have worked at least 330 hours over the 10 months preceding the birth or adoption of a child and have worked continuously with one or more employers for at least 10 of the 13 months before the expected date of birth or adoption.

In some cases, the paid parental leave will be able to be transferred to another caregiver if the primary carer returns to work early.

Families Minister Jenny Macklin has attempted to justify the fact that a high-income woman with a poor partner would miss out on the payment, while a poorer woman with a billionaire husband would receive it.

“Paid parental leave is a workforce entitlement, so eligibility is connected with the individual worker,” she said.

Child care
In a move welcomed by working women, the rumours of the Child Care Rebate becoming means-tested were untrue (or perhaps intense lobbying made a difference!) It will remain at a 50% rebate on fees capped at $7200 per child, per year.

Baby bonus and Family tax benefits
The top income limit for family payments will be frozen at $150,000 combined income until 2012.

The payments themselves will continue to be indexed, though the government will bring Family Tax Benefit A into line with the other payments by linking it to the consumer price index rather than the couple pension rate.

Medicare safety net for IVF and private obstetrician fees
Although cuts to the Medicare Safety Net were widely predicted, the cuts have gone far beyond what was expected.

The Government will introduce a cap on Medicare benefits payable under the Extended Medicare Safety Net for a range of items with excessive fees including all obstetric items and some ultrasound items related to pregnancy.

From January 1, 2010, once a patient reaches the safety net threshold of $1111.60 in out-of-pocket medical fees, or $555.70 for those on low incomes, safety net payments will be capped at: – $200 for the planning and management of a pregnancy, including being booked into a hospital for delivery. – $30 for a pregnancy consultation, including blood, urine and weight checks. – $550 for the planning and management of an IVF pregnancy.

Keeping in mind that one IVF cycle can cost $6000, and many obstetrician’s pregnancy management fee sits around the $4000-$6000 mark, a few hundred dollars rebate will make these options largely unaffordable for most Australian women. “It’s going to mean that IVF for some people is only going to be available for the rich,” Access Australia chief executive Sandra Dill said.

Private health insurance

High-income earners have also been slugged with reduced rebates on PHI rebates, coupled with an increase in the Medicare Levy.

The rebate will be means tested once an individual earns more than $75,001 and a couple earns more than $150,001, and will decrease on a sliding scale, until $120,001 for singles and $240,001 for couples, at which point it cuts out completely.

In a double-whammy, the Medicare Levy Surcharge aimed at those people who do not take out private health insurance will climb from 1 per cent to 1.25 or 1.5 per cent depending on a person’s income.
Midwifery services

The budget has seen a surprise win for midwifery services. The Government will provide $120.5 million over four years for the introduction of Medicare‑supported midwifery services to provide greater choice for women during pregnancy, birthing and postnatal maternity care.

The new arrangements will allow midwives to work as private practitioners, provide services subsidised by the Medical Benefits Schedule and prescribe medications subsidised under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Schedule. The Government will also provide subsidised medical indemnity for eligible midwives working in collaborative arrangements in hospitals and healthcare settings (but not homebirths.)

A new 24‑hour, seven‑days‑a‑week helpline will also be established to provide antenatal, birthing and postnatal maternity advice and information to women, partners and families during the ante‑natal period and up to 12 months following the birth of a child.

Women in rural and remote areas will be assisted by an expansion in the Medical Specialist Outreach Assistance Program to provide integrated outreach maternity service teams for women in under serviced areas. The expanded teams will include midwives, obstetricians, general practitioners and other health professionals, such as paediatricians and Aboriginal health workers. Additionally, funding will be provided for the professional development of midwives and for general practitioners to undertake additional training to become GP obstetricians or GP anaesthetists.

Carers

In welcome news, the Government finally says it recognises the “vital role” that carers play in the community.

Those who receive a carer payment will receive the pension increases of $32.49 a week for singles on the full pension rate.

As well, a permanent carer supplement of $600 a year will be introduced for carer payment recipients and an extra $600 a year for carer allowance recipients for each person in their care. The supplement will replace the Government’s one-off bonuses and the first payment to carers will be made at the end of June.

Tax cuts

Proposed tax cuts for the new financial year, announced at the last budget, have not changed. From 1 July 2009:

• The 30 per cent threshold will increase from $34,001 to $35,001;
• The low income tax offset will increase from $1,200 to $1,350, meaning the effective tax free threshold for people earning $30,000 or less will increase to $15,000; and
• The 40 per cent tax rate will be reduced to 38 per cent

First home buyers

First-home buyers rushing to sign contracts before July can breathe a sigh of relief with news the first-home owner’s boost will be extended in full for three months.

First-home owners entering contracts between July 1 and September 30 will get a total of $14,000 when they buy established homes and $21,000 for new homes.

The boost will halve for those entering into new contracts from October 1 until December 31, with those buying established homes receiving $10,500 and the latter will receive $14,000.

Sole parents

While the budget gave a well-deserved increase to aged pensioners, the pension for single parents remains unchanged, as do benefits for young people and the unemployed.

Some of the world’s biggest economies are in recession, including the U.S, the U.K Japan, parts of Europe and our own Pacific neighbour, New Zealand.

Australia is not faring much better. While the Federal Government still hopes to stave off a recession, any growth in our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is predicted to be close to zero.

So what happened? And what can we do as families to make sure we weather the storm OK? This guide will try to help answer those questions.

What caused the Global Economic Crisis?

Following a period of worldwide economic boom, the bubble finally burst.

A big contributor was the collapse of the US sub-prime mortgage crisis. Subprime is the practice of extending credit to people who would otherwise not have access to the credit market. When these people started defaulting on their mortgages in large numbers, the banks and lenders had to file for bankruptcy.

However, the nature of the global economy meant that the debt on these loans was tied up in investment programs and securities around the globe, thanks to tricky hedge funds and other unregulated financial products. So when the subprime mortgages went under, so did the investments.

As a result, ordinary businesses across the world with no direct connection whatsoever to US sub-prime suddenly started facing difficulties or even folding if they couldn’t get a bank loan. The whole system started to fail.

In Australia, higher interest rates, falling consumer confidence, stockmarket turmoil and higher oil prices forced (and are forcing) consumers to cut their spending. Business profits started to slump.

Next thing you know, the big ‘R’ was looming.

Want to know more about sub prime? Watch this stick figure animation.

What is a recession?

Technically, an economy is in recession if it experiences two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

The word also has a wider meaning — it generally refers to a downturn across a broad range of economic indicators like spending and business investment.

A prolonged and worsening period of economic stagnation generally stops being referred to as a recession and becomes a depression.

Some say recessions are an important part of the economic cycle and don’t always have a huge negative effect. Paul Keating famously called the 1991-2 economic downturn “the recession we had to have” following huge inflationary growth during the 1980s.

But a boom doesn’t have to be followed by a bust – the government hopes to have a soft landing this time by providing stimulus to keep people spending and money changing hands.

During a recession unemployment rises dramatically and businesses cut staff to save costs. The Australian unemployment rate is predicted to rise to at least 7% by June 2010 – that’s 800,000 people who could lose their jobs.

What is the Government doing about it?

Last year the Rudd government announced the first of its economic stimulus packages , throwing lump sum payments at pensioners, carers, families and first-home-buyers.

Spending was strong over the Christmas period, but the outlook is still grim. This week, the government announced a new $42 billion stimulus package which is currently under Senate inquiry. In addition to cash handouts, the government will spend big on infrastructure projects like improving schools and insulating homes, which will create job growth.

In addition, the Reserve Bank of Australia (an independent body), has been dropping interest rates to encourage investment and home ownership.

Will it work?

No-one knows. The Federal Opposition is refusing to support Rudd’s plan, concerned the “excessive” spending will plunge Australia into hundreds of billions of dollars debt that will burden future generations.

Other economists believe bold spending is the only way to avoid a deep recession.

How can I recession proof my family?

While we all might have to tighten our belts for a while, no-one is predicting a second Great Depression just yet. There is no need to buy a shotgun and hoard food – for now.

Some things that might help keep the family afloat include:

- Paying off debts. Sure, the government wants us to spend, but you’ll have less to spend if you’re throwing away cash on interest payments each month.

- Buying local. Support your community and keep money in the country by buying Australian goods and services where possible. Now is a good time for that renovation project!

- Having a back up plan. If your family is living on one wage, think about what the stay at home parent can do as a “side hustle” to add to the household income. Consider small business ideas or part time work. Alternatively, if you have been out of the workforce for a while, it might be time to enrol in a course and brush up on skills.

- Insuring your home and lifestyle. If you can afford it, house, medical car and even income insurance will ensure that if the worst happens, you’ll have a safety net.

- Making yourself indespensible. If your workplace is retrenching staff, try to ensure you’re one of the least replaceable. Now is not the time for an experimental career change.

- Becoming thrifty. Sewing, gardening and home crafts are taking off as people rediscover the lost skills of their grandparent’s generation. Start small – learn how to darn a sock or grow your own tomatoes.

Instead of buying new summer clothes… buy new summer clothes, six weeks later.

Maybe your family can’t make it to December without a new swimsuit or two, but if you can hold out on the bulk of your shopping, you can catch the best sales of the year: right after Christmas. If you’re okay with used duds, thrift shops and eBay (add the word "lot" to your search to find bulk wardrobe auctions) are your friends.

Instead of paper towels… use actual towels.

Once we get accustomed to using disposable products, it’s easy to take them for granted. Look around the house and figure out what you can swap out for reusables: paper cups, napkins, lunch bags…

Instead of regular light bulbs, use compact fluorescent light bulbs.

You already do this, right? Moving on.

Instead of subscribing to regular Foxtel or IQ, watch your favourite programs on your computer.

ABC iView lets you watch your favourite ABC shows, at your own convenience.

Instead of beef, cook with beans.

Vegetarian ingredients cost less, so meat-eaters should try swapping proteins at least once a week: kidney or black beans instead of beef in Mexican dishes, cannellini beans in Italian dishes, chickpeas instead of chicken in curries. Canned beans require no prep besides rinsing, while dried beans require cooking (but are so cheap, you can eat for pennies a serving). Hit Taste for new recipe ideas.

Instead of your local discount store, try Freecycle.

This service is set up to facilitate bartering between users: you post when you’ve got an Exersaucer to give away, and you respond when someone else in your geographic area is letting go of a toddler bed. Cracker, Gumtree and your local Vinnies are other online options for getting gently used swag.

Instead of buying new books, try inter-library loan.

We know, the library is great, but they never have everything you’re looking for. Or do they? If your local library’s budget hasn’t been slashed too terribly by the powers-that-be, talk to the librarians about getting missing books from one of the district’s many other libraries through a fantastic little system called ILL. You may have to wait a couple weeks, but you’ll still save the cost of a brand-new hardcover. If you’d rather own your reading material, check out Abe Books for used book deals.

Instead of drinking bottled water, get a water bottle.

Any beverage in the corner-store cooler is significantly cheaper if you make it at home. Filtered water? Cleaner than bottle water anyhow, if those new studies are to be believed. Iced tea or coffee? Brew it strong with hot water, let it cool to room temperature, transfer to the fridge. Vitamin Water? The vitamins are negligible, so test the theory that it tastes exactly like watered-down juice. Soft drinks? Ah. That one’s trickier, but if your family doesn’t pledge strict allegiance to Coke or Pepsi, those soda machines from Soda Stream may just do the trick.

Instead of buying premium cereal, mix it up.

If you’re a sucker for overpriced cereals with names like Natural Blueberry Walnut Morning Harvest, consider assembling the same thing yourself: chop up your favorite dried fruits and nuts, then mix with generic wheat cereal. If your favourite cereal can’t be duplicated, try mixing it half-and-half with a cheaper brand, or swap it out twice a week for old-fashioned oatmeal.

Instead of holiday clothes, buy holiday accessories.

It’s tempting to splurge on snowman onesies and velvet-trimmed dresses, but kids will be just as happy with Santa hats and glittery scarves.

Instead of exercise classes, try exercise DVDs or videogames.

This only works for the super-self-motivated, but if you’re serious about saving money, try swapping out your Pilates classes for a Pilates DVD. Crunch and Ten-Minute Solutions offer some solid workout routines. Get-off-your-butt videogames like Wii Fit and Dance Dance Revolution cost a few more bucks initially, but may be more fun, and therefore easier to stick with, in the long term.

Instead of taking your family to a movie, have a movie night at home.

Make some popcorn, get out a stack of blankets, and introduce your kids to Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Laurel and Hardy, or Preston Sturges — or, you know, watch Ratatouille again. You’ll save so much, in no time you’ll be able to afford a sitter to go see Quantum of Solace.

Instead of take-out, buy prepared or frozen meals.

Prepared food costs more than making meals from scratch, but less than ordering it in from the local Thai place. Fight the temptation to dial in dinner by stocking up on one or two no-prep meals a week. As for lunch — we don’t have to tell you it’s cheaper to pack your own. Bribe yourself by getting a fun lunchbox that will make your leftovers seem fresh, like the bento box from Laptop Lunches.

Instead of the supermarket, visit the farmer’s market.

Embrace the paradox: farmer’s markets and have infinitely better produce than your local superstore yet it’s usually less expensive, since you’ve cut out the middleman and are purchasing directly from the grower. For a seasonable veggie subscription, go to Food Connect and find a Community-Shared Agriculture program near you.

Instead of getting gifts from the mall, get them from Etsy.

Most merchants at this online craft marketplace take requests for custom goods, in addition to the mind-boggling array of vintage and handmade gifts that are ready for the buying. One thing: popular Etsy sellers tend to be swamped this time of year, so if you’re planning on asking for a custom order, shop early.

I got started in the strangest way — in fact it still surprises me to tell it. I can’t say it was easy, because I would be lying to you, but simply, I started working on my home-based business with a PC, an internet connection, a little bit of luck, and a willingness to learn along the way.

Of course I had always been interested in design and the web, but never really thought that I could make a living with it. When I first started university, the web was just this awesome new thing, the home of usenet trolls, Trekkies and other “no-life” folks. There were no guarantees of its success (ha!), and it makes me laugh today, to think that a Multimedia degree was somehow higher risk than a Politics degree. Yes, it’s hilarious and I am highly embarrassed. Feel free to mock me.

I got my degree, tried a few contract jobs, had my first child, went back to uni for Post Grad studies, tried a few more contract positions in the public service, and finally settled into a government policy position. It was nothing at all like I had aspired to, quite literally showing up to work on a project that had been stalled. It really wasn’t the life of political adventure that I had envisaged. I never really fit, was never very happy with just “turning up” — and pretty quickly, I had figured out that the words “family friendly” were just that: words. The Department had a work-from-home policy, but you had to jump through hoops to get it. They had Flexi time, where if you took it, it was frowned upon. I was not happy with this existence.

Then, I fell pregnant with my son. It was a complicated pregnancy, and I was hospitalised several times before his delivery. I had to resign from my job, and stay on bed rest for 3 months. Hello, internet.

I had been a fan of singer Lisa Loeb for many years, and had spent a long time around the fan community, and spent a fair amount of time writing out guitar tablature for the fans. I had set up a website for these, and used this (as well as my own personal pages that were a blog before the word blog became cool) as opportunities to learn web design. When Lisa’s forum admin went AWOL and I received a cease-and-desist from Lisa’s management about the guitar tabs (I told you it was bizarre!), it somehow ended in me being in charge of the site, and in forging one of the most valuable friendships I could have made. I gradually built up a client base from that little bit of luck and friendship, working for a lot less than market value, and built up a portfolio of solid work.

Before I knew it, the opportunity to go back to work came and went, I was offered several excellent policy positions, and then, in late 2006, I realised that I had inadvertently built a business as a freelance designer. And the weird part is, in early 2007, I turned down what would have been my dream job three years before. Yes, it was at that moment I realised that I was living the dream — finding work as a designer, finding balance between work and family life, and yes, getting paid to play with Photoshop all day.

As we approach the end of 2008, I am running a business that makes me a healthy living and producing high quality work for other small businesses. Of course, in those four years I have made many, many mistakes — some of them abysmal. And I often think that if I had put more thought into the actual businessy stuff, that everything would be easier now. But at the same time, it is an adventure, and anything can be achieved with the right mindset.

So if you are sitting at home, baby in arms, or a toddler running amok, wondering if you can possibly consider opening a home-based business — of course you can! All it takes is for you to jump in feet first, find your passion, and go from there. You’ll never know where you’re going to end up.

Don’t worry, I’ll guide you along the way, and help you avoid some of the mistakes I made (and sometimes continue to make…) The next article will help you take that first leap, and give you some resources to inspire you to create a business that suits you.

Have a question? Email work2.0@babblebaby.com.au

If you subscribe to my Twitter, you would be pretty correct in thinking that on a daily basis, I have several nervous breakdowns, a number of hissyfits and very-occasional moments of zen-like happiness. Anyone who doesn’t know me would do well to assume that I am, in fact, crazy. But to those that know me, or those who also have their own small business, they know that every single day is filled with massive highs, massive lows, and everything in between. It just so happens that I make those highs and lows public — but it highlights an important, unsaid thing about going into business for yourself: it won’t be anywhere near as easy as you think.

If you are thinking about setting up a home-based business, there are plenty of resources to help you, from freelancing to e-commerce to SEO to government-sponsored forums. What I have found is that many of them are generic “small business” resources, that don’t deal with the specific challenges of being a parent and working from home. They also seem to have the idea that, because it is home-based, that anyone can do it. I mean, we all have a home, right? So why can’t all of us put a computer and a desk in a room and start a business? Well, not all of us can, and it goes some way to explain why so many businesses fail in the first year.
So what I hope to do is arm you with some real accounts, warts and all, of what it is like to run a business from home.

If you have decided to start a business, there will eventually be a discussion amongst workmates, friends or family about what it means to work from home. Even some of these “expert” resources will try and glamourise it, referring to the old “working in your PJs & slippers”, not having to commute, working your own hours, and all of those other lovely, warm and fuzzy things that we fantasise about when we are sitting in our cubicle.

For sure, that is part of it (although I can’t remember the last time I worked my own hours!), but there are other aspects to the business that can make or break you. I recently wrote on my own blog, about things I have learned about the web design business. A lot of those issues apply to other businesses as well… and I still learn something new from every single client. And I’ll be sharing that journey with you.

I wish I could tell you that I came to my business in a traditional, conscious way; and give you some lovely, methodical advice about planning to go freelance, saving up enough money to last you six months, and setting up a space where you work set hours. I would also like to tell you, as an “expert”, that I am together and composed and organised, and that nothing ever fazes me now that I have entered my fourth year of business. And that working in my PJs is luxurious compared to the nine-to-five grind.

But, the reality is, my business happened almost by accident. It was formed with literally no money and a computer. I didn’t even have formal qualifications in the field I am now successful in. Granted, I didn’t go in completely blind and have had a degree of luck along the way, but it has been hard work. It was really only when I had been in business for two years that I even considered myself “in business”!

So, I hope to take you on my journey and give you some insight into my days as a self-employed web designer with two children and one on the way. Balancing school runs, a shift-working husband, client calls, accounts, and what my business actually does, which is making websites. I will try and help you to avoid the pitfalls that I had, and most importantly, I would like you to read it, laugh, and ask questions which I will do my very best to answer.

Join me this Friday for my first topic: How I started my own business. If you have any questions, send them to me at work2.0@babblebaby.com.au.

Some are grateful to earn double what their parents once did. But that’s little help when homes can cost ten times what our parents paid for theirs. With tuition, it’s more than just the colossal cost of schooling. It’s immediate things, like fat bills for preschool. What we once called “nursery school” was optional a generation ago. Today, even kids with a stay-at-home parent often begin preschool by age three. Nicole Shinski, mother of twin three-year-old boys and a one-year-old girl, says she wanted to enrol her sons in preschool last year, but couldn’t afford two years of preschool for both boys.

Parents say prices for food and clothing haven’t risen much in recent years. But day-to-day expenses (paying the mortgage, filling the petrol tank) eat up nearly everything they earn.

That’s where the conversation gets strange. Rather than speaking of strategies to handle basic costs — how they’re finding ways to plan ahead and save and invest — parents speak of the great contradiction: how much they’re spending on things that are clearly unnecessary but that now feel all but mandatory. The optional has become the inescapable.

We’re talking $70 for mummy-and-me Mandarin classes and $7,000 for summer camp, mobile phones for fifth graders and iPods for eight-year-olds. And always, always, parents speak of buying truckloads of consumer goods — kid-friendly groceries, kid-centric versions of family staples like bath products, even furniture — much of it emblazoned with Elmo, Thomas, SpongeBob, Spider-Man and the rest of their intensely marketed brethren.

Call it crazy, insane, ridiculous; parents do. But no one calls it rare. Anyone who isn’t overspending knows plenty of people who are. Total Australian credit card debt grew at 9% in February, from $39.5 billion to $43.25 billion. Meanwhile, the national savings ratio plunged to 0.9 per cent in June this year, down from 7.5 per cent in 2004.

Add mortgages, car loans and other debt, and it gets uglier. Australia’s total household debt is currently approximately $650 billion – about $32,500 for every man, woman and child. But this is not necessarily money tied up in mortgages. Economist Ken Goldstein says, “the problem is that the people who have the assets aren’t necessarily the people who have the debt.” That’s where our generation comes in.

What’s oddest is that parents seem to know they’re being unwise with their money, but they’re doing it anyway. It’s high school redux: Everybody’s doing it . . . because everybody’s doing it. When it comes to parenting and purchasing, the definition of “necessity” has expanded to include just about everything.

But this isn’t simply a matter of well-paid Gen-Xers buying too many goodies. The details vary, but across the middle class and upper middle class spectrum the refrain is similar: “It sucks you in slowly but surely,” says Afsaneh Djabbari-Aslani, a mother of three. “Your friend is calling saying they’re signing up their daughter for nature centre, so can you sign up too, because their kid doesn’t want to do it if my kid doesn’t want to do it… Then, if your child is the only one not doing travel soccer, she’ll be left out. So you’re not paying $50 for rec soccer anymore. You’re paying $600 dollars for travel soccer… It just continues in that sense, that you keep thinking you don’t want to do it, and you end up doing it.”

Djabbari-Aslani isn’t a spendaholic. She finds it ridiculous that her tween daughter has friends who carry iPhones. She has no plans to buy one for anyone — including herself. But “I finally gave in and got a mobile phone for my thirteen-year-old,” she says, “because she was the only one without one.” If you’ve got two or three adolescent kids with their own phones, iPods and a basic video game setup, “the average spending per kid is probably hundreds of dollars a year,” says Rick King, a father of four. Those kids need computers for schoolwork and socialising, plus the games, movies and downloads that these suddenly vital gadgets require.

And there’s one aspect of this overspending trend nobody talks about, an aspect marketers hope no one brings up: For all the excess, nobody’s having spectacular fun. Worse, no one is confident that this crippling spending is cranking out a generation of well-adjusted, fabulously fit, sparklingly sociable little geniuses, either.

Parents all over the country recite strikingly similar lists of things that eat up money without delivering much more than the sense that obligations are being met. And they’re getting sick of it. The list is topped by the ridiculous birthday bashes we’ve witnessed for several years now. A slew of articles on the subject start off the same way: “Parent X spared no expense celebrating the birthday of their child. (Fill in name of costumed character) was there, and there was even a (fill in type of farm animal) on hand to celebrate little (fill in pretentious name)’s big day.” Next comes a quote from the parent, saying “I know it’s crazy, but it’s just so much fun!”

Lately, parents sound decidedly less amused. They say they did this stuff in their first child’s early years because they were so psyched to be parents. But it’s now a freight train they’d love to disembark. “I’ve spent over $500 at least once on a birthday party and felt sick about it afterwards,” says Scott Dauenhauer, a father of two. “I had the money, but what kind of example is that?” Dauenhauer, by the way, runs a wealth-management company.

Many parents sound as mildly hung over as Dauenhauer. Next time you attend one of these parties, look around — how many kids look significantly more jazzed to be there than they’d be if they were, say, playing pass the parcel? And how many parents look ready to stab themselves in the head with a plastic cake fork?

Parents speak, too, about sports. It begins younger and costs much more than a generation ago. Everybody’s playing organized sports, and many come home with trophies — sometimes just for showing up. Parents also mention wild money spent on “enrichment” activities, seeking that coveted edge for their kids. Tutoring begins in kindergarten and weekends are packed with classes. Yet, despite the expense, parents aren’t confident that kids are gaining much.

“It’s crazy,” says Georgette Pascale, a mother of two who runs her own PR firm. Spending, she says, “is almost becoming a competition.”

Parents sound most horrified by (and yet bound by) what should be the most expendable items on the list — the endless array of stuff plastered with the likenesses of Dora, Barbie, Superman and their omnipresent pals. This is the cheap crap that parents actually describe as cheap crap — stuff people are both amazed to be buying and apparently unable to avoid. On our watch, licensed characters have infiltrated nearly every aisle of the big-box stores and supermarkets. According to Susan Linn, author of “Consuming Kids: Protecting our Children from the Onslaught of Marketing & Advertising,” sales of brand licensed toys in 2006 hit $22.3 billion.

From Shrek cereal and Barbie waffles to “Cars”-themed wall paint and Spiderman lamps, piles of kid-centric stuff are sprouting in houses everywhere. Some are things kids have always had, like bikes and T-shirts and vitamins. But these characters now cause many parents to buy a slew of separate items for their kids — hand soap, towels, Band-Aids, even separate food — rather than having the kids use what they already buy for themselves. It may be just a few items per shopping trip, but multiplied out over fifty-two weeks it adds up to hundreds of dollars that could be growing in high interest savings account for university.

“When I tell my father how much we’re spending, he says, ‘You guys have to start saving,’” says Allyson Mazer, a mum of two. “But I’m like, where do you want to me to save? Where?”

Everyone lists things they shouldn’t be buying. Yet no one seems quite sure what possesses them to spend little pieces of the uni fund each weekend at Target. Part of the problem may be that our understanding of commerce was forged in front of the television, suckling on ads for Milo and Malibu Barbie. We were the first generation that had advertisers constantly whispering in our prepubescent ears that spending brings happiness. “Children’s television was deregulated in the mid-1980s,” says Linn, “and right after it was deregulated, ten of the best selling toys had links to media. In the mid-1980s, it became okay to create a program for the sole purpose of selling toys.”

Did all those sales pitches burrow so deep into our cerebral cortexes that the capacity to say no to a Spider-Man wristwatch never formed? “There was a lot of noise in the marketing community throughout the ’80s that more and more research said children recognized company logos even before they could read,” says Elizabeth Elam, associate professor of marketing at Western New England College. We grew up hearing that we really needed the Cabbage Patch Doll and the Transformers and the Happy Meal. Has all that marketing undermined the parental ability to figure out what we, and our kids, actually need?

Lines of credit function like the benevolent, deep-pocketed parents we had or wish we’d had. If we really, really want that new leather jacket, that new laptop, they give us the money. But in the heat of tearing open boxes from Amazon, it’s easy to forget that lenders aren’t giving us stuff simply because we make them proud. Those folks at VISA are gonna keep charging interest until we pay back every dollar or declare bankruptcy trying.

Maybe the hangover that people are beginning to speak about — the gnawing angst that can creep up on parents at night while the kids sleep in bedrooms brimming with toys — will be our saving grace. As discomfort over excess begins to outweigh minimal joy, maybe we’ll get it together. Many of today’s parents came to marriage later than our own parents did, and thus came to parenting later. Maybe we’ll eventually come around to saving later, too.

For those seeking to reverse course, though, there’s troubling news: Earning more may not be a remedy. The “Holy crap, I’m not saving any money” panic once associated with lower incomes is plaguing people earning serious cash. In two-income households, the costs of childcare and work-related expenses are constantly metastasizing. And more money begets larger levels of socially mandated spending. “My husband and I were just talking about this with friends. You can make $300,000 a year and you’re just getting by. You’re not saving anything,” says Mazer, all traces of enthusiasm draining from her voice. “You’re paying the bills, and it’s not like you’re living the highlife.”

The bulk discount that once came with multiple kids doesn’t help either. Tuition, childcare, sports, the birthday party circuit — you pay by the kid no matter how many you have. Even the sharing of hand-me-downs is impacted by the uneven and transitory quality of things some of us buy — bedroom furniture tied in with the latest animated movie and cheap plastic toys that won’t survive one toddlerhood to be carried into the next. There are also fresh must-have “learning” gadgets every year. What parents want to risk consigning their youngest to a minimum-wage job because he or she didn’t learn to spell early enough?

The obvious answer is to stop spending. But that’s something our culture, our economy — and our prime minister — literally beg us not to do. Widespread cutting of superfluous spending is the opposite of Rudd’s new stimulus package. And beyond economic and cultural pressure, it’s awfully hard to lower the bar of kids’ expectations once you’ve set it. “Every time someone comes over, you just get all this stuff,” says Pascale. “This is what they’re going to expect now.”

Ideally, we’d collectively adjust what’s deemed essential. But it’s not likely that we’ll all agree, as of next year, to keep our kid-related spending reasonable and restricted to special occasions, and to make sure our children’s lives are filled with unstructured weekends spent daydreaming cost-free at home.

Somehow, though, we’ve got to get smarter about our money. At this rate, some of us will literally arrive at retirement with no means of support.

Maybe as our frustration with the current picture grows, more parents will decide to prioritise savings. The line between essentials and luxuries may once again get adjusted — if not by choice, then by necessity.

Article photo: Alice Waudby

Yesterday they announced a $10.4 billion stimulus package, effective immediately, which sees pensioners, carers, families and first-home-buyers as the big winners.
So are you eligible for a slice of the pie? Let’s find out.

Low and middle income families
You’ll receive a one-off lump sum $1000 per child from December 8 for families. Only families who receive Family Tax Benefit A or those with dependent children receiving Youth Allowance, Abstudy or Veterans Education Scheme payments will be eligible. In general a family with two children will have to earn less than $111,082 to qualify, those with one child will have to have a family income under $100,801. Only children born before October 14 are eligible for the $1000 lump payment.

First home buyers and builders
The First Home Buyers Grant has doubled to $14000 for an existing home purchased between now and June 2009. The First Home Buyers Grant tripled has to $21,000 for a newly built home purchased between now and 2009.

To be eligible, you must buy your home between now and June 30, 2009. Only contracts signed on October 14 and up until June 30 2009 are eligible.

Likewise, newly built homes must have a signed contract to be built before June 30 2009.

Disability pensioners and carers
Those receiving the Carer Allowance will receive a one off lump sum payment worth $1000 for each eligible person they care for. They will receive a lump sum 1400 ($2000 for couples)plus the $1000 lump sum available to those on the
carers allowance. The disability pensioner they care for will also get a $1400 payment.

Everyone else
Old-age pensioners and veterans will also be receiving significant bonuses. In addition to the lump sum payments, 56,000 new training places are to be created. Spending on big building projects in health and hospitals, education, transport and communication are to be brought forward.

So what should you do with it? Well, it’s your money. The government would like you to spend it to boost spending over the Christmas period, or pay off your debts to alleviate the credit crisis.

Response

Immediately after Rudd’s announcement, the Australian dollar rose to 71 cents and the Australian share market made significant gains. But these were eroded this morning after another Wall St slump. Treasurer Wayne Swan has warned that the stimulus will take a while to kick in.

Nevertheless, the bailout package has been endorsed by both sides of government. Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull said, “”It will provide a stimulus to the economy, that’s for certain, but warned it might boost inflation and force the Reserve Bank to increase interest rates.

“But nonetheless we’re not going to argue with the composition of the package or quibble about it, it has our support,” he added.

Greens leader Bob Brown said, ‘Greed got us into this crisis, green will get us out of this crisis’ , arguing that Rudd was missing an opportunity to install solar hot-water heating in all homes, fix public transport and boost the alternative energy sector.

A poll conducted on The Australian website showed that the majority of respondents thought the stimulus package was just right (49%), while 19% thought it wasn’t enough and 33% thought it was too much.

Meanwhile Crikey correspondent Bernard Keane wonders what will come of the “future proofing” budget surplus and all the planned infrastructure projects.

We wonder how far down the list paid maternity leave will be next budget.

One thing everybody seems to agree on is that the future is still very, very uncertain.

Links
Confused about lump sum payments? Try the Centrelink website.
First home buyers: Select your state here to find out what you are eligible for.

Three Easy Things…

Stop buying lunches. While it may not seem much to buy a sandwich and coke for lunch at the local food court, buying lunches each day rather than brining your own to work or school starts to add up. Even a simple toasted sandwich and a juice ends up costing around $6.00. So multiply that by five and you have $30. That’s $120 a month, so around $1,440 a year. And that is just one person. If both parents work and are buying lunches, double that. Add on tuck-shop a few times a week for two kids, and that is over $3,000 in a year because you can’t find the ten minutes the night before to pack a lunch. If you need an added incentive, think of how healthy a home-made meal will be compared to your store bought lunch, and taking lunch to work and school starts to make a lot more sense.

Spend more time outdoors. Think about how your family spends their weekends and holidays. Do you take every opportunity to get out in the great outdoors or are you inevitably cooped up inside your house or at the local shopping mall? Modern Australian life means that time spent in the home usually results in heating or air-conditioning being utilised, and this costs. Spend your time outside the house and your air-conditioning doesn’t need to be on during the heat of the day. And while you are spending that time away from home, try to avoid recreational shopping or other pursuits that end up emptying your wallet. Take your kids to a national park. Visit the beach. Check out your town’s history trails or bike paths. Nothing in life is free, but there is usually a choice between a costly option and a cheaper one!

Check out freecycle. Most Australian cities now have freecycle groups. This is an online service where people will post things that they are giving away for free. You can also post asking for things you want, but the normal etiquette is that you shouldn’t be unreasonable in your requests, and some groups may expect you to start giving before you start asking. While it is probably not a practical way to get everything you need for you household, it can save a considerable amount when you find something you need. Items advertised on freecycle groups include furniture, computers, toys and clothes.

… and Three More Dramatic Options

Don’t buy things on credit. Or at the very least, think it through first. It seems simple, but in a world where we are used to buying what we think we need as soon as we want it, only buying things when you have the cash available can be quite a change, and a change that makes a huge difference family finances. If you don’t buy on credit, you don’t end up being slugged with credit card fees and of course, credit card interest. But it can have an even more radical effect — you start to think about the difference between needing things and wanting things. Often if something is really needed we will find the cash to pay for it if that is the only option. But think back to the last month’s worth of credit card purchases — how many of those things did you need right then, and how many could you have waited until you had the cash? How many things would you probably not have bought at all if you had just waited a bit longer? Often if you are willing to pay cash retailers can be induced to offer a bit of a discount, which means yet more savings. With many families gearing up for the orgy of spending that is Christmas, it is worth taking a moment to think about how we use and abuse our credit cards.

Become a one car household. Just like giving up the credit-habit, this is one that is much easier than you probably think it is going to be. If you were forced to rely on having just one car, you could probably do it, even if it involved using public transport. As someone who didn’t even have a driver’s licence five years ago, I can guarantee that you find ways around using a car when it is not an option, so having one car for your family is a relative luxury! As well as the cash gain you will make selling your second car, there are the savings on rego, fuel and servicing. Added incentive — you are definitely making a decision that is beneficial to the environment.

Cancel your trip away for the school holidays. We all look forward to a break, and many Australian families are probably excitedly looking forward to their trip away come end of year break. Yet how many times has your trip not measured up to expectations, and left you with a debt that you were paying off long after your holiday? No-one is saying you shouldn’t spend quality time having fun with your kids during the end of year break, but think before you book — are you spending all that money to fly to the Gold Coast and visit the theme parks for a week because that is the only way you and the kids are going to be happy, or could you perhaps have just as much exploring your local area?

The workplace is being re-defined as parents — particularly mothers — refuse to compete in the soul-zapping, inflexible merry-go-round of corporate life. They’re starting up businesses, working out of bedrooms and harnessing technology in the quest to achieve that Holy Grail of modern living, a work/life balance.

All the rage in corporate HR policies, work/life balance is supposedly about helping employees stay healthy and happy. But rarely do these policies supply anything more than free fruit in the office kitchen and subsidised yoga.

For marketing manager Katrina Flynn, it was at the point of having her second child and being struck down with an illness when she realised that she couldn’t keep up her high-stress job with a large media organisation for much longer. “I was at the point of exhaustion and couldn’t go on. I needed to look for something more flexible. “

In a stroke of “serendipity”, Flynn remembered an article she’d cut out of a newspaper years before about a company called Marketing Angels. Back then she’d vowed to work for them one day, and now she does just that, contracted as a consultant for the business.

Marketing Angels provides high-level marketing support and direction to small businesses who normally don’t have the budget to employ their own marketing directors. Instead, they call on one of the Marketing Angels — typically women like Flynn, some with children, who have stepped out of senior corporate roles in a quest for more autonomy and flexibility. Company founder Michelle Gamble has been there herself. She was out of a job after the joint venture she was working for was sold off during the dot.com bust seven years ago.

She saw a gap in the market, and together with a friend, who was also stepping down from a challenging corporate role, started the company in a spare bedroom at home.

She now has offices all over Australia and manages a network of over 20 Angels, who manage their own time and work as much or as little as they like. “I may not see some of my consultants for up to a month at a time, they can work from home, they can come into the office, they can work wherever they like,” says Gamble.

“It’s a bit like a real estate environment where everyone is the master of their own destiny.”

The concept of trusting staff to go about their jobs their own way is radical to most businesses. I ask Gamble how she ensures the quality of her consultant’s work.

“They’re all living and dying by their own swords so quality is not an issue”, she claims. “That’s never been a problem. It’s also about the calibre of staff you hire. Successful people are going to be successful regardless of business structure. It’s part of who they are as a person.”

It is an attitude slowly taking hold among employers, who can make great cost savings by allowing their workers to work remotely. The movement is being called “open work”.

Today nearly 19,000 employees of giant tech company Sun Microsystems (56% of the workforce) work from home or in a flexible office. The company has made huge savings on real estate, technology and energy consumption.

Open work is an issue web design firm owner and blogger Téa Brennan is passionate about. Her company Linkartist was built with “a PC, zero capital, and a little bit of luck.” She was inspired by Jeremy Rifkin’s The End Of Work, “written in 1995 before any of this online freelance stuff was a reality.”

“In many respects, I am at the forefront of a massive restructuring of the way people work,” says Brennan. She believes that in some ways, working from home is a feminist statement.

“I really do believe that in many respects, a new feminism is aided because we have actually opted out of the patriarchal work force.”

Perhaps women are giving the finger to employers who refuse to become family-friendly. At Brennan’s old job, in government policy, she was “getting in at 7:30, leaving at 3:30…. so doing my 8 hours, but because those that wandered in at 9:30 were resentful that I was leaving “early”, it just got too much for me.”

I put the question to Gamble — does big business discriminate against women with children? She is reluctant to say that companies to avoid hiring women “of childbearing age”, although acknowledges that it does go on. Instead, women often self-elect to not play the game. “I think it’s the nature of the environment,” she says. “In the corporate world there’s no flexibility, there’s an expectation you fit in with everyone else. You fit your family around work, not the other way around. I don’t think they’ve cracked how to work with the demands that women and their growing families have.”

Although Marketing Angels employ one male angel in Queensland, Gamble claims that the business model at the moment attracts more women than men. “Women are probably seeking more flexibility than men. Often because they have another partner bringing in income, they may not be the main breadwinner. But that being said we do have some angels who are the breadwinner.”

The benefits to a flexible work environment are plenty. “I used to spend 2 hours a day commuting! What waste of life,” says Flynn. “Working for a corporate you feel like you have to compete with other people… Here your clients appreciate you and you can work without having to deal with the politics. “

“That really reduces stress levels, I find that even though I’m working really hard, I’m less stressed because I don’t have to deal with that whole other swathe of stuff that comes with big corporates.”

Brennan agrees. “I get these awesome little distractions. Whilst I am working, I also get to explain to my son why the 10c piece he found isn’t chocolate inside. They frustrate me, but are at the heart of why I choose to work from home. I want to quit. Often. But when I think of the alternative, of commuting, daycare, and having to put up with other people, it’s hard.”

Of course, as Brennan has alluded to, it’s not all beer and skittles.

“I think there are a lot of people who idealise working from home as a way to
work in their PJs”, she laughs. “People go in with an unrealistic sense of the commitment that it involves, and it is also why so many of them quit early on. The same rules apply to a home business that apply to any other business — the first 5 years are
really, really tough.”

Then there’s the workload. “There’s the expectation you can work 3 days a week,” says Flynn. “[But] the price you pay for working for yourself, or not working corporate, is that it is almost 7 days a week, which is difficult because there is no mental day off.”

For parents who work from home, an added challenge is juggling the needs of the business with quality time with their children. Some work-at home parents have admitted to putting their kids in front of the TV for hours a day.

“The biggest challenge for any working mother is focusing on your child when you’re with them,” claims Flynn.

“I had this situation last week where I was having a fraught phone conversation with a client from home, at the same time I had my two children in the room, who ended up stripping naked. And of course they found the textas I had put away and they’re scribbling all over eachother. I got off the phone and the little one had peed on the carpet. It can be stressful.”

All women iterate that managing a flexible, self-employed work life requires compromise, balance, and support.

“I like that saying that you can have it all, but you can’t have it all at once”, says Gamble. “Be clear on what you are going to have to give up. For instance I don’t have any time to myself. Just because it’s your own business and you can choose how you want to work, you still have to work really hard.”

For Brennan, setting boundaries and learning how to say no is key. “When I first started out, I was so surprised about getting any paid work that I would just take anything, but now, I actually turn down projects that don’t fit with where I want to be or, I quote them a bit higher than I normally would to pay for the hassle. I make it clear with my clients that I prefer email and that I work around other clients, kids and business duties.”

She also recommends setting aside separate room in the house to work in, because “work can very easily dominate your home space.”

Flynn finds balance by working from home one day a week. That way, “I can put the dinner on early, the kids get fed on time, put the washing on, so you don’t have to spend the time with them doing the washing.”

The Marketing Angels model is attractive to some women as rather than acting as sole traders chasing their own clients, they have the support of an umbrella organisation as well as access to office space, meeting rooms and marketing resources.

“I love it,” says Flynn. “One of the best things about working with other women who are all at that the same life stage is that we have these conversations in the morning about who didn’t get any sleep last night and such and such. Everyone understands and is very supportive, but at the same time they’re very intelligent.”

And for women who are taking on the challenge of working for themselves, partner support is imperative. Gamble’s husband sold his business and now works part-time, while Brennan’s husband works spread shifts, so can come home and help with the kids for a couple of hours during the day.

Gamble recommends women communicate with partners and families so they’re not doing it all. “I know a lot of mothers who work and are still doing everything else,” she says. “Be realistic about what you can achieve while you have children.”