Evidence of Advantages for Children of Working Mothers
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Re: Evidence of Advantages for Children of Working Mothers
#2The article does not mention it but where are the kids when the mother is at work? More than likely this is in day-care rather than in the home of another family member (most likely the grandparents). The likelihood is that the kids are in a richer environment, materially and socially. When you mix in the added benefit of parents not having spent all day dealing with the childens' needs then it's no surprise that generally they are able to devote more attention to them.
None of this is the direct benefit of a parent being at work. You would probably see all these advantages if one of the parents simply stayed at home, while the kids were in day-care. But where is the money going to come from for that.
Re: Evidence of Advantages for Children of Working Mothers
#3Would be quite interesting to have a Hacker news poll to see the distrubution of hners whose mother went to work!
I dont seem to have enough karma to create one unfortunately. Can someone else do it please ?
Re: Evidence of Advantages for Children of Working Mothers
#4I never understood the idea that having mom (or dad) at home is the best thing for kids. When our daughter is at daycare, she's in a very stimulating environment staffed by energetic 22-year olds on 6 hour shifts. When she's at home with me my instinct is to bribe her with some ice cream and park her in front of her iPad. My wife has slightly more desire to engage with the kid, but no more energy for it--she's pretty spent after 2-3 hours.
Re: Evidence of Advantages for Children of Working Mothers
#5I was quite delighted that my mother worked - she was the part time librarian of our village library. So from about 10 or so she would let me take the key of the library and get books as often as I wanted - providing I stuck to the limits of the number of books I borrowed at one time and kept record of what books I had borrowed in the same way as everyone else.
Re: Evidence of Advantages for Children of Working Mothers
#6The article does not mention it but where are the kids when the mother is at work? More than likely this is in day-care rather than in the home of another family member (most likely the grandparents). The likelihood is that the kids are in a richer environment, materially and socially. When you mix in the added benefit of parents not having spent all day dealing with the childens' needs then it's no surprise that gen…
This is also a good argument for providing free or heavily subsidized daycare to children whose parents are unemployed or outside the workforce.
Re: Evidence of Advantages for Children of Working Mothers
#7“Was it really her mother working who did this, or was it her mother getting an education?”
I'd personally wager on the latter. We have plenty of studies on the topic of "being educated increases the average education level of your children."
Re: Evidence of Advantages for Children of Working Mothers
#8I never understood the idea that having mom (or dad) at home is the best thing for kids. When our daughter is at daycare, she's in a very stimulating environment staffed by energetic 22-year olds on 6 hour shifts. When she's at home with me my instinct is to bribe her with some ice cream and park her in front of her iPad. My wife has slightly more desire to engage with the kid, but no more energy for it--she's pretty…
It probably isn't in every case but my wife is passionate about it and treats it as a full time job. She takes our daughters out to social groups, meetups, farms, gymnastics, swimming.. every day. There's nothing wrong with daycare (my eldest went half-time for a year for the social opportunities and because it's free in the UK ;-)) but a full-time parent can provide even more variety and social opportunities with the right resources and the right community around them.
One unexpected upside is my wife spends so much time in the community it has really extended our circle of friends. The biggest downside, however, is I still get to enjoy half the chores because my wife is rarely home in the daytime(!) ;-)
Re: Evidence of Advantages for Children of Working Mothers
#9I never understood the idea that having mom (or dad) at home is the best thing for kids. When our daughter is at daycare, she's in a very stimulating environment staffed by energetic 22-year olds on 6 hour shifts. When she's at home with me my instinct is to bribe her with some ice cream and park her in front of her iPad. My wife has slightly more desire to engage with the kid, but no more energy for it--she's pretty…
Nobody will care for or about a child more than that child's mother (barring psychological abnormalities in the mother). Father a close second.
Even the best daycare is going to devote only a fraction of the instruction/attention to any individual child.
If your approach as a parent is to give "the kid" ice cream and electronic distractions, I think you should seriously reevaluate your priorities.
Re: Evidence of Advantages for Children of Working Mothers
#10I never understood the idea that having mom (or dad) at home is the best thing for kids. When our daughter is at daycare, she's in a very stimulating environment staffed by energetic 22-year olds on 6 hour shifts. When she's at home with me my instinct is to bribe her with some ice cream and park her in front of her iPad. My wife has slightly more desire to engage with the kid, but no more energy for it--she's pretty…
I am curious why you think a 22 year old on near minimum wage cares more about engaging with your daughter than you and your wife?