Personal experiences of WLM Creche at Ruskin — a revisionist view

Author: SOS  Year: 1970

I attended what is now called the first Women’s Liberation conference at Ruskin College, Oxford, in 1970. I was with my almost two year old son and my husband. I was hugely pregnant with my second child and gave birth less than two weeks after Ruskin. Of course I remember the creche – which was ‘manned’ primarily by partners of women at the conference who had kids in tow. As I remember and I think I’m right on this one, all the women were overly chuffed that ’the men’ were going to run the creche, considering it a ‘living’ testament to women’s liberation in practice and proof that men could do the right thing. So my son found himself the creche with a bunch of children he’d never met before but thankfully also with his father. He, my husband, did it all the time at home, including setting up an informal arrangement with a few neighbouring mothers to take turns looking after their combined gaggle of toddlers a couple of times a week.

He stayed well out of the way of the people filming the conference which included long and lingering shots of men (!) taking care of kids. (You can see this in the wonderful Ruskin film made by the late Sue Crockford.) So how was it for my son? Well, after that and a few other experiences of depositing a child in a creche, I gave it up completely. Eldest son never found the creches fun or easy going and as he became more articulate he made it clear he really did not want to be in any conference creche – run by men or not. I concurred, by then realising that having a child or two in the creche meant I ended up feeling I should at least visit off and on during the day or share lunch with them.

The answer for both mother and children was to – leave them at home! I know the creches were a boon for women without partners or friends at home or with ones who weren’t willing to look after the kids regularly. Lucky me – because my kids’ father intended and wanted to look after them where they lived, playing with children they knew, visiting the park they loved. Then I was totally free to dive into the exciting highs and lows of those early conferences in the company of my women’s liberation sisters. Without a thought of what my children were doing. But then I was already well on my way to being a ‘bad mother’. Ha ha.