Published: 12:00 AM, 10 May 2016
Do working moms screw up their kids?
> Neale Godfrey
The scariest question we working Moms have is: Are we messing up our kids? Many women don't have the luxury of being a stay-at-home mother; however, there is a recent trend of mothers returning to the household. The Pew Research Center released a 2014 survey revealing that, "The share of mothers who do not work outside the home has risen over the past decade… Two-thirds are 'traditional' married stay-at-home mothers with working husbands, but a growing share is unmarried."
It's important to get behind the averages. A USA Today article cited findings from Census Bureau data, which indicated that, "Since the 1970's, the percentage of children raised by a stay-at-home mother who has a working husband has fallen by half, from 41% in 1970 to 20% in 2012… Kids raised in such arrangements are increasingly rare, especially among white and African-American families. The percentage of stay-at-home moms in Asian and Hispanic families, by contrast, is higher - about 10 percentage points or more, on average."
Don't get caught up in the numbers. Remember the "Great Recession?" Many of those stay-at-home moms couldn't get jobs and some opted to start businesses at home. As such, some of these entrepreneurial women are considered stay-at-home moms. Also, sometimes low-paying jobs don't even cover the costs of daycare and transportation to and from work. Working moms do not carry the old stigma, which they once did. USA Today also reported that, "Public opinion over the past few decades also has grown more supportive of working mothers.
In 1977, only about half of Americans believed a working mother could establish 'just as warm and secure a relationship with her children' as a stay-at-home mom could… the figure since 2008 has again hovered around 70%." Who Said This Would Be Easy?
Where there are two parents working full time, the balancing act of who does what is also hard. Pew Research did find that, "About six-in-ten American parents in these dual-earning households say they share responsibility evenly for playing or doing activities with children, disciplining children, and taking care of chores.
However, when it comes to certain activities, about half of parents still say mom takes the lead."
The scariest question we working Moms have is: Are we messing up our kids? Many women don't have the luxury of being a stay-at-home mother; however, there is a recent trend of mothers returning to the household. The Pew Research Center released a 2014 survey revealing that, "The share of mothers who do not work outside the home has risen over the past decade… Two-thirds are 'traditional' married stay-at-home mothers with working husbands, but a growing share is unmarried."
It's important to get behind the averages. A USA Today article cited findings from Census Bureau data, which indicated that, "Since the 1970's, the percentage of children raised by a stay-at-home mother who has a working husband has fallen by half, from 41% in 1970 to 20% in 2012… Kids raised in such arrangements are increasingly rare, especially among white and African-American families. The percentage of stay-at-home moms in Asian and Hispanic families, by contrast, is higher - about 10 percentage points or more, on average."
Don't get caught up in the numbers. Remember the "Great Recession?" Many of those stay-at-home moms couldn't get jobs and some opted to start businesses at home. As such, some of these entrepreneurial women are considered stay-at-home moms. Also, sometimes low-paying jobs don't even cover the costs of daycare and transportation to and from work. Working moms do not carry the old stigma, which they once did. USA Today also reported that, "Public opinion over the past few decades also has grown more supportive of working mothers.
In 1977, only about half of Americans believed a working mother could establish 'just as warm and secure a relationship with her children' as a stay-at-home mom could… the figure since 2008 has again hovered around 70%." Who Said This Would Be Easy?
Where there are two parents working full time, the balancing act of who does what is also hard. Pew Research did find that, "About six-in-ten American parents in these dual-earning households say they share responsibility evenly for playing or doing activities with children, disciplining children, and taking care of chores.
However, when it comes to certain activities, about half of parents still say mom takes the lead."
