JENNI MURRAY: Why on earth do women think it’s OK to care for a baby while at work?

A very strange story earlier this week: Helen Ballerino was pregnant when she started working as an accountant at Ascot with the Racecourse Association.

She had her own office and once the baby was born, she agreed to come and work for a few ‘contact days’ during her maternity leave – a community initiative where employees can earn extra money by working up to ten days during their leave.

The 38-year-old says she was told it would be inappropriate for her to breastfeed her baby in the office. She was later fired. She has brought a claim for pregnancy discrimination and unfair dismissal against her former employers, alleging that she was discriminated against as a mother because she was not allowed to breastfeed during her working days.

I’m all for supporting women in the workplace, but come on, honey: your employer’s objection was that it was inappropriate to work in an office and care for a baby at the same time – and they’re right.

Taking care of a baby is a full-time job, just like being an accountant. Dealing with numbers and complex analyzes of money requires total concentration and accuracy. How do you deal with a long and complicated spreadsheet when your baby is growling in the corner, asking for food, changing a diaper, or just longing for mom’s attention?

Babies need constant love and entertainment from you or someone else. You can’t leave your baby alone while you’re busy navigating a series of complicated figures. And imagine how annoying the constant shouting would be – both for you and your colleagues.

As for the layoff, Ballerino was offered a new opportunity when her part-time job, which she did primarily from home, was changed to a full-time office job. She didn’t take it because she didn’t want to. As far as I can see there is no maternity discrimination, just an employer trying to keep their workplace functioning properly.

It’s not difficult to balance raising a baby and a full-time job; it just takes some organization – and realism. I know. I’ve done it twice.

I never dreamed of taking one of my sons to the office. I had no qualms about breastfeeding in front of coworkers or disappearing for half an hour to change a diaper, but I would never have found it acceptable to force the presence of a baby on them .

Why should they have to put up with a crying baby while making phone calls to staff at the programs I worked on? How could they or I put the necessary effort into writing a good script or preparing for an interview? Who kept an eye on the child when I went to record in the studio?

You can’t leave your baby alone while you’re busy navigating a series of complicated figures, writes Jenni Murray. Imagine how annoying his shouting would be – to you and your colleagues

Work and childcare simply don’t go together. So you need someone on the home front who you can trust and who will care for your child with as much love and attention as you would give him yourself. Dads are the way to go and I was lucky enough to have an excellent live-in nanny too.

When my boys were babies, my husband laughingly called me the Milk Marketing Board. I breastfed before going to work and pumped enough milk until I got home. I breastfed them all until they were barely a year old. I only gave up on what was one of the most enjoyable times of my life when the first front tooth kept appearing. Yes, they all thought it was hilarious when Mom started screaming at the first bite. By this time they were already consuming solid food, so there was no need to worry about them starving without mommy’s milk.

I have to say that I was a bit of a radical breastfeeding nurse. Nothing irritates me more than people who disapprove of a woman feeding her baby in public. It’s the most normal thing in the world. I fed tableside restaurants – no hiding in toilets for me – and I once sat in the shoe department at Marks & Spencer because Ed was hungry and there was nowhere else to sit.

I wish we were still as accepting of the mother and her hungry baby as we were when I was a child. I remember traveling on the bus to Sheffield at the age of five, sitting opposite a woman as her baby openly slurped away – and her breasts were far from small. My mother often teased me about my reaction when I first saw something like this. She told me not to stare. I said, ‘But does that baby have to eat all that before we get to Sheffield?’

Helen Ballerino’s story has nothing to do with a mother’s right to breastfeed. It’s about paying attention to your colleagues and your employers. Young people like Helen seem to feel they have the right to be or do whatever they want when it comes to work. The work itself always comes second. They’re wrong. You get paid to do the work, not to take care of your baby. Getting the job done – and done professionally – is important.

That she has lost her tribunal is a victory for common sense.

Let’s see how her call goes.

It’s not a ruff life for Demi’s dog

At 61, Demi Moore is as beautiful as ever and she’s been working hard in Cannes to promote her latest film The Substance. It received a 13-minute ovation during the screening, one of the longest in the festival’s history. I interviewed her years ago and found her charming, but only now have I discovered that she is a woman after my own heart. Her little dog, Pilaf, accompanies her everywhere, from the front rows of fashion to photocalls on the red carpet. Long live chihuahua!

Life doesn’t have to be so difficult!

I had a nightmare for three months, terrified I would lose my Blue Badge, which signifies my disability. My bad hips, scoliosis, sciatica and asthma make it impossible for me to travel by public transport. For ten years I have had a badge that makes it possible to travel with my car and ensure that I can park closer to my destination.

I applied for an extension at the beginning of March. I added the broken vertebra to my list of problems. On April 25, an email came saying that I needed to speak with a healthcare provider from a company called Dependability to determine if I qualify.

On Thursday, May 16, a phone call finally came and a long conversation about my misery. My badge ran out on Saturday May 18th. Endless phone calls to Barnet Council to people who were clearly working from home brought no progress – just: ‘Well, you’ll just have to find another way when this one runs out.’

Confirmation of my eligibility came on Monday, May 20, but it will take seven to 10 days to arrive. Apparently there are too many people trying to cheat the system and a council, like so many, desperate to save money. I doubt I’m the only one who has faced so many anxiety-inducing barriers.

• I’ve never agreed with Gary Lineker, but I agree with him when he asks, “Why don’t schools teach children to cook more?” He is right. Home economics or food technology teach how to design the packaging of a pizza, but not how to actually make the pizza. Bring back home economics, I say. Once a week, for a whole afternoon, during which I even learned how to gut and pickle a herring. We need to teach boys and girls to shop, cook and eat. It’s the only way to end the lazy take-out culture.

Giovanni Pernice left Strictly Come Dancing after nine series, following allegations of unspecified bad behaviour

Don’t judge Giovanni by innuendo

What exactly is meant by ‘serious misconduct in the workplace’? It is as a result of such an accusation that strictly professional dancer Giovanni Pernice – who is said to have now left the program of his own accord – is reportedly being investigated by the BBC. Former contestant Amanda Abbingdon has reportedly claimed the show left her with post-traumatic stress disorder. She has now been joined by two other women and they are taking legal action. But for what? Is it, as he says, because his training methods were tough and demanding? If they claim it’s something more serious, they should say so. A man’s reputation and career should not be ruined by innuendo, nor by women who want to be Ginger Rogers but can’t handle the hard work required.