A Rose by any other name...

I know I am an English teacher, but I am not about to wax on about Shakespeare to you. I promise!

I am actually talking about the recession. It seems this time round the refusal to use the word means the average person is being convinced there isn’t one. As if calling a burglar your family friend somehow means they won’t take your 40 inch TV.

The news keeps telling us that this is the worst decline since the 1930s, that unemployment is at it’s highest in 18 years, and that 2012 as yet is showing more decline rather than improvement.
Call it what you want, but it sounds like a recession to me. You can name it after a breakfast cereal, but it is still going to hurt!

And my pockets are evidence of this. For the first time since I was a student I can really feel the pressure of Money; my salary, even when being frugal, has reached it’s limit in the second week of the month. If something breaks down I am hoping and begging that my credit card is sympathetic to my needs. And I am struggling to afford to run my economical little 206 HDI which is about as cheap as motoring gets. Shortly my kids and I will be running to school in the 206 with our feet poking through the bottom like the Flintstones. I guess that will at least help the environment.

And this is all without considering how I find the money to feed my kids – especially my teenage son who eats and eats and eats and… He can inhale a dinner in seconds and he will still want an entire second helping. And I’m not talking polite portions; I’m talking an entire Family Feast from KFC is unlikely to be shared if it falls in front of his eyes first.

So I am now in a position where I won’t just be a working mum - I am likely going to be a two-job-slaving-mum. Forget 40 hour weeks, or even 60 hour weeks... I am heading straight for the 80-100 hour week. I will earn more and have less time to spend it...a perfect equation in this economy. If I work enough hours, I may not even need a house. I just have to learn how to give up sleep altogether!

The recession is not fair; in these tough times we are forced to work harder and longer just to get by - and this seems cruel, and I frequently moan about this. I guess a bit like now.

But then, does my having two jobs take away the free job for the person now not working? Is there a direct correlation between the two? For every person with two jobs is there another unemployment statistic? Despite not being able to afford to eat after Thursday this week, am I being greedy?

I’m not sure I am: in our house this was the toughest Christmas for years financially. While technology and fashion gets cheaper and cheaper, our staples like bread, milk and utilities are getting more and more costly. My bills are now using up a greater percentage of my income - the recession, credit crunch, decline or whatever you want to call it... it is really here.

Like Voldemort at the start of the fifth Harry Potter; it doesn’t matter if we deny it’s existence, there IS going to be a battle.

thenewcinders.co.uk/The_New_Cinders/Observations/Observations.html