UP
“An at-home mother is not automatically an attentive mother, nor is an employed mother necessarily inattentive,”
WORKF O RCE
Ellen Galinsky, president of the Families and Work Institute
versus
HOME FRONT PARENTAL EMPLOYMENT AND KIDS’ WELLBEING WRITTEN BY KARLI MOATS
40 HEALTHY UTAH
In 1930, a couple of respected economists predicted that with a rise in technology the time spent in the workforce would significantly decrease to a shocking 15 hours per week. These economists also said that Americans would benefit from having three times the number of vacation days they had back then, giving people more time to spend with their families and find leisure in their lives. Wouldn’t that be the dream? Well, we are far, far away from that prediction. These days, work hours are higher than ever before. According to the United States Department of Labor, in 2013 out of 34.4 million US families with children, 88.2 percent had one parent employed, and in 59.1 percent of these families both parents worked. We live in an expensive world with a lot of demand, and therefore parents are feeling the pressure to support their families monetarily.
These statistics are not inherently bad. Providing for a family is a major responsibility and having income is the biggest part of that. Questions arise when it comes to how much time we’re allotting to family versus work. How often are children alone, and what influence does this have on child behavior and outcome? Does all that work we put in to provide for kids hurt how they turn out? Parental employment and children’s wellbeing is tricky. It seems we are required to give 100 percent in parenthood, and 100 percent in the workforce, but both mathematics and human capacity say that isn’t a reasonable requirement. So where is the balance, and how do we find that perfect happy medium?
Healthy-Utah.com