Can Mothers Effectively Manage Work And Raising Children?

Over the past five to six decades women have been entering the workforce in ever increasing numbers. Some enter because of financial need and others for professional and career goals. Whatever the reason, the result for the children is the same; they are in daycare. Many

Both men and women hope to be parents someday, and both recognize the importance of working and parenting. While some are confident leaving their children with a nanny for extended periods of time, most students portrayed a desire to be financially stable and have time to cultivate memories with their family. They then went on to say that both parents would have to work at least part-time in order to make such a family dynamic work for the benefit of

There is data to support the idea of a mother taking time off or a woman reducing her working hours to part-time will hurt her significantly in the career world. The reason for this sudden break in a woman’s career being motherhood. The most popular reason for working less hours is in a law firm is for a mother to take care of her child. Taking this additional time off decreases the chances of the mother receiving a partnership immensely. When doing this, the mother also risks the idea of herself being seen as “not serious about her career”, permanently damaging her chances of promotion at the private practice. However, mothers are no less likely than childless women to receive a

In Judith Stadtman Tuckers “The Least Worst Choice: Why Mothers Opt out of the Work Place” Judith Stadtman Tucker looks at why hard working, intelligent woman are choosing to leave their high end jobs to stay at home with their children. Judith Stadtman Tucker expresses her option that it is nearly impossible to work 40 hours a week, be available on your off hours as well as raise children. I fully agree with Judith Stadtman Tucker’s point of view that it is absurd to have to be at the mercy of your employer even in your off hours, nor less if you are attempting to create an emotional connection and successfully raise a child. It is no question that even in today’s modern society that it is assumed that woman are the best caregivers for young children. If you are put in a position where you have a child to raise, is it more appropriate to abandon your career or to emotionally abandon your child to a stranger or strangers and allow them to raise it? Judith Stadtman Tuckers argument against mothers having to choose between the joys of parenthood and the freedom of being able to work a career really speaks to me because it makes me consider what I want for my own future and what I would choose.

Linda Hirshman’s book, Get to Work… And Get a Life Before It’s Too Late, opens up to debate the role that women should have in society. She theorizes her ideas based on the experiences of women in American society and what she believes they should be established with. She puts in a plan on how women should approach higher education and marriage in which they can keep their success. Hirshman wants to emphasize that in American society women have been facing gender stereotypes in their homes and in public.

3. “Children with working mothers have low early education level” says the author of “Working Mothers Negative Effects On Young Children”

Future research would benefit from looking beyond these variables and a mixed method approach would be useful. Using a mixed method approach would allow for the validation of one form of data with other forms (Driscoll et al. 2007). A qualitative interview component, with the use of semi-structured interviews would be beneficial to consider attitudes towards working mothers in depth via a case-by-case basis. This would allow the study to examine respondent’s attitudes and actions more closely (Maykut & Morehouse 1994). By integrating both quantitative and qualitative methodology, a more complete and comprehensive explanation of a mothers duty to her family, could be analysed. This would help draw more meaningful inferences about the determinants of whether someone agrees or disagrees that mother’s should not work. Furthermore, a research project like this would determine the impact of life events on shaping individuals opinions and beliefs towards

In the past 30 years, one of the most dynamic social changes in the history of the United States has taken place in the area of employment, specifically of women with children. Although, to some degree there have always been employed mothers, today a greater proportion of mothers are employed than ever before. Statistics show that in 1976, 48% of the population of women categorized as “married women with children” were employed and it increased to 62% in 1986 just 10 years later. What are the causes for this and how does it affect the children?

When the mother is stressed and exhausted from handling these multiple roles it is also said to affect the child in that they will also feel stressed from feeding off the mother’s attitude. Dr. Rosalind Barnett stated in her article, Women and Multiple Roles: Myths and Reality, that a common myth centers on “the underlying assumption that the roles of wife and mother are ‘natural’ roles and are therefore performed without undue stress”, and that the role of being employed is “seen as ‘unnatural’ and therefore highly demanding” leading to the belief that mother’s and wives should remain in the traditional role that society has set for them (2004:158). The message a lot of women are receiving from society is that they are selfish in pursuing “other” dreams, when they should be taking their role of mother and wife as the main job. Barnett explained that the message women commonly hear is “children of working mothers, especially during the crucial early years, will suffer a range of problems from insecure attachment to inappropriate externalizing behaviors” (2004:160). However, as Barnett points out, contrary to society’s perceptions of mothers working, the consistent findings in various studies, including cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, showed that a working mother with multiple roles “exhibited better mental and physical health” and consequently felt less stressed and less anxious overall (2004:160).

Stay-at-home mothers are not like the rest of the working society as we are able to tell in the article “Confessions of a Stay-at-Home Mom”. In today’s society a lot of the time mothers are forced out of their jobs, or docked pay. “Women who take time out of the workforce, pay a big career penalty. Only 74 percent of professional women will rejoin the workforce in any capacity, and only 40 percent will return to full-time jobs. Those who do rejoin will often see their earnings decrease dramatically”(qtd.in Ashley Nelson 411). In “Confessions of a Stay-at-Home Mom” Ashley Nelson argues that stay at home mothers are forced out of work and are docked pay because, their bosses believe mothers are not capable of working the hours they used to. I agree with Nelson that mothers should not be forced out of work or docked pay just because they have a child, all a mother is asking for is flexibility.

Mothers who worked in occupations with a variety of tasks and problem solving opportunities provided more warmth and support and a greater number of stimulating materials. Their children manifested more advanced verbal competence. Such findings are consistent with the classic argument of Kohn & Schooler (1982): "What parents experience at work, they incorporate into their styles of parenting."

From many studies we know that the role of the mother has a big impact not just to the child’s well being but it impacts on his adulthood. If a child builds secure attachment with her mother during the first three years of the life this will have a good effect at the future of the child. This is the reason that differnt researchers conclude in the negative effects that has early maternal employment specially about the lack of attention that they offer their children. “Mothers of young children are in the labor force in record number: Over half(66%) of mother with children under 18 years of age work outside the home are seeking

Mothers play an important role in a child’s life. Whether it is being present when the baby takes their first step, or being in the crowd for the childs first recital. Two different types of mothers have evolved in society. One is a stay-at-home mother. These mothers take care of the children while the husband makes a living for the family. Working mothers go to work everyday to provide a living (like the husband), and are also expected to take care of the children once home. Stay-At-Home mothers have many advantages against working mothers.

The benefits of me being a working mom, it’s was satisfying to know that my children loved me and my boss happy with me. Even though I cherished my family, I started to appreciate that the world didn’t revolve around them. Career-wise I was able to stay in the loop, stay connected with what was going on in the world. Also found satisfaction being able to get intellectual stimulation from co-workers and work projects. Even though I love my kids to bits, they can’t understand the stresses of the world. My children never understood that me working benefits us with a second income coming in, but they get to enjoy the perks of it. I found that my children learned and developed earlier and faster than being at home with me. With both my husband and I working, I found it was easier to stay in sync. He understood how hard I worked all day. He never believed that I should be the only one on kids duty after a hard day of work. When I was on the home front he never took me for granted. It took less effort to keep the spark a live in our marriage.

A mother who stays at home is likely to have a very strong bond with her children (Stone and Lovejoy 72). One could only imagine how friendly and happy a child can be based off a mother-child bond. Because of this strong bond, a mother is often viewed as more sensible towards her children (Nomaguchi 1344). Quality time with children along with love and affection improves the child’s lifestyle in such a way where he or she grows up with a more positive attitude towards life and the people around them. On another note, a mother has to be careful on giving in to the child too much. A mother who constantly gives a child what they want and never learns to say “no”, could at the same time be unhealthy for the child.