Families are
feeling insecure about their futures!
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Many are
wondering, ”When are things going to get better for my
family and me?
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Deep down
inside many feel as though they are just surviving and
not succeeding.
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They are trying
hard to balance their work and family responsibilities.
Most families need
a combined income to make ends meet.
Seven
out of ten working mothers say they need their salaries in
order to pay the bills.
According to the
Census Bureau, more moms than ever before are returning to
work within a year of giving birth.
A report in the
journal Child Development says that children of mothers, who
return to work full-time before their kids are 9 months old,
score slightly lower in cognitive –development tests at age
3 than kids with moms who stayed home longer.
Many feel they are
letting women down by pulling out of the workforce.
Remember…. “I can bring home the bacon….fry it up in a
pan….and never… never.. never let you forget you’re a
man…I’m a woman…."(Enjoli)
In the
‘80’s…..Mothers became exhausted hauling baby and briefcase
through the career traffic.
Two incomes became a
real necessity not a luxury. When asked to sketch their
future…young adults say they want good careers, good
marriages and two to three kids, and they don’t want their
kids to be raised by strangers.
When married
couples with children were polled, 32 percent thought one
parent should spend more time with the kids.
Is it time for moms
to stay home?
More than 80% of
American women have a child at some point in their life, and
most of those mothers must decide if and when to return to
work.
Moms have a tough
decision to make. How do we have time for our families and
still be successful women? Do we stay home or send the
children to day care?
Moms are torn by
the pressures between family and their career.
Between 1973 and 1983
income for young families fell by more than 16 percent.
Suddenly purchasing a house and a car along with providing
three square meals carried a dual-income price tag.
WE WANT
IT ALL!
Many failed to see the conflict that would arise between
work and family life.
Moms feel guilty
about their work taking their time away from the kids!
Parents are faced with the
difficult dilemma of finding
day cares, many too expensive and often of poor
quality. Safe, licensed childcare is a real need. Fretting
about the effects of day care on children has become a
national preoccupation.
Moms worry if the diapers are being
changed…. if the medications are being ignored and if kids
are being lined up in front of the TV like a bunch of
zombies. What trouble lies ahead for a generation reared by
strangers? What kind of adults will they become? The
question parents ask, “Who can I trust to raise our child"?
“It’s scary! We now
have a generation of children being raised in a way that has
never happened before." (The Child Dilemma …Time
magazine)
In TIME magazine,
a poll of 505 men and women ages 18-24 found that 4 out 5
believed it was difficult to juggle work and family, and
that too much pressure is placed on women to bear the
burdens. More moms are working longer and more irregular
periods of time, and it's having a direct influence on the
family.
In many dual-career families, both parents are victim of the
great American speedup. The results of the stress falling on
mothers who continue to shoulder the majority of the child
care and the housework, causes the pressure to reach a
bursting point. Many married mothers make the decision to be
a "stay-at-home" Mom because they can't balance job and
family, and they don't want to have that kind of pressure.
A record of 53% of
mothers with infants at home in 1998 had gone back to work—
36% were working full time and 17% were working part time.
A 1999 poll found 70 percent of Americans
think that women do more work at home. On the average, wives
tackle 40 hours of housework a week, compared to 16 hours by
husbands. (26,500)
In 2001, many highly educated, highly employable women have
tossed their careers to the wind, opting to stay home.
Women found they really did burn out from “having it all.”
Moms were thoroughly exhausted from putting in a full day at
work and then another full evening at home. They dreamed of
the good old days…when moms did stay home.
It really is fascinating to watch the pendulum swing the
other way the last 15 years, as women face the untold
frustrations of trying to work full time and raise a family.
It’s becoming a priority shift.
According to Time magazine, April 30,
2001, Nancy Gibbs writes the article: What Kids (Really)
Need. Based on the findings of a survey funded by the
National Institutes of Health, this survey stoked many
parents’ fears. Here is what they found. The more hours
children spend away from their mothers, researchers
concluded, the more likely they are to be defiant,
aggressive and disobedient by the time they reach
kindergarten. Kids who are in child care more than 30 hours
a week “scored higher on items like ‘gets in lots of fights,
'cruelty,’ ‘explosive behavior,’ as well as ‘talking too
much’, ’argues a lot’ and 'demands a lot of attention,’”
said principal researcher Jay Belsky. It didn’t matter if
the children were black or white, rich or poor, male or
female, and –most confounding—whether the care was provided
by a traditional child-care center, a nanny, a grandmother,
or even dad. Only mom will do.
Balancing the demands of work and family
responsibilities remains one of the most talked about issues
for women in the workplace today.
In her landmark book, “The Second Shift”
Arlie Hoschschild reported that many women found they
were working basically to pay for childcare.
No wonder more and more women began to reconsider the
stay-at-home options. As Mary Snyder, co author of “You
Can Afford to Stay Home With Your Kids,” told readers,
“It’s a total priority shift. Women don’t want the Supermom
Syndrome. It looked GREAT from the outside, but once you
were in it, you were miserable and you couldn’t excel at
anything.
Too often….mothers think there are only
two choices: working outside the home or not working at all.
They fear they are going to “waste” all of those years of
going to school to stay at home! Many have invested a lot in
their careers.
However, many opportunities really do
exist for women to work at home.
"Working from home doesn’t mean…falling
for a scam. …or stuffing envelopes" said Cheryl Demas,
author of “The Work-At-Home Mom’s Guide to Home Business, “
(Hazen Publishing, 2000). “Certainly
there are scams. However, there are opportunities out there
where you can make money.”
It’s time to make healthy lives a top
priority!
AND…MOM…It starts with YOU!
Don’t wait until you are
ill before you take action.
Many have the “wait and see” approach to
health or “I’ll think about it later solution.
Is that you???
Moms…don’t neglect your health for years and
years…and expect to walk into the doctor’s office for a
“quick fix” when you don’t feel good.
You owe it to yourself and your family
members to stay in good health!
