Your hours of work – 24 hours a day, seven days a week – are well above the maximum weekly hours. You receive no penalty rates, no loading and no leave. In fact, your child (the employer) requires a weekly salary from you in the form of pocket money.

Bathroom breaks are not permitted unless they are a group activity and the Fair Work Act does not recognise tantrum-based dispute resolution procedures.

However, the annual incentive of breakfast in bed and a hand-painted coffee mug on Mothers’ Day and your total fixed remuneration of the priceless love of your children are sufficient to know that you would not trade a single sleep-deprived moment for the world.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the hard-working mums.

Rachel Cosentino, mum and employment lawyer, Slater and Gordon

I BELIEVE it was Chairman Mao who said: “It’s no good running if you are on the wrong road.”

Who will give me a watertight guarantee that any of the “action on climate change”, as advocated by Leigh Ewbank (Mail-Times letters to the editor, May 8) will have any worthwhile impact on global warming?

Strangely, however, the term “global warming” was replaced by “climate change” almost two decades ago when the apparently steady climb in ambient temperature began to wobble. Yes, I am suggesting we are on the wrong road in acting on climate change.

Sure we can blame the burning of fossil fuels but if we seriously curtailed that activity you would have to walk to the supermarket (no more corner stores available) to buy whatever stock they had because the trucks had no fuel. You would walk because your car was out of petrol because you had used up your ration tickets in the first couple of days of the month.

However, Leigh supports emission reduction targets for which there has not been a skerrick of evidence produced that CO2 emissions are the culprit.

Oh, yes, but the religious statement “scientists believe”, the basis on which the entire edifice of “action on climate change” is built is certainly not scientific.

It is elsewhere proffered that planting trees is a logical “action on climate change”. Why not plant more crops? They benefit from increased CO2 while reducing the content of this non-toxic gas in the atmosphere.

Ron Fischer, Horsham 

WITH National Volunteer Week upon us, it’s a great time to reflect on the valuable community contribution of our local volunteer firefighters and thank those that support this vital work.

The Country Fire Authority has about 60,000 skilled volunteers that make up around 95 per cent of Victoria’s firefighting force. That’s a lot of people giving their time for the good of our communities – 24 hours, seven days a week.

CFA volunteers are from all walks of life and are highly trained to professional, nationally recognised standards.

This enables them to protect our communities in a wide range of situations, including urban and rural fires, motor vehicle accidents, rescues and hazardous material incidents.

Considering Victoria is one of the most fire prone areas in the world, this volunteer capability means there is a huge surge capacity to provide skilled resources, like ours, to combat Victoria’s large incidents when they happen.

We have around 4029 CFA volunteers and 85 brigades in our district and we are very grateful for their selfless dedication to serve both our local communities and those far away when it is needed the most.

Our volunteers have attended most major fires across the state and can be counted on to work professionally day and night with other CFA volunteers and paid staff.

I would like to sincerely thank the families and employers of our volunteers as being called to duty at any time often places a strain on those left behind.

CFA volunteering is much more than firefighting. It makes up the social fabric of our small towns and is about community spirit and resilience.

CFA volunteers are proof that the Australian spirit of giving tirelessly when others need it most lives on.

Ian Plumridge, District 17 secretary, Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria