Stay at Home vs Working Mothers
Stay at Home vs Working Mothers
Stay at Home vs Working Mothers
I have been fortunate enough to experience being both a stay at home mom and a work away from home mom. Currently there is a societal debate on which approach raises a healthier and better adjusted child. On that I cannot comment as I have not yet raised a child to adulthood, but having my own mixed feelings on this topic I can clearly see the vast differences to each method. Does working away from home make a more secure and adaptable child? Does staying home form a stronger bond? Does working away from home leave a child to be raised by a daycare provider with different values than your own? Does staying at home compromise social skills and personality? These are the questions that most parents face when they are trying to balance raising a happy and healthy family with paying bills and providing adequate food and shelter. Is one choice really better than the other? I will attempt to use my humble experience to compare these two approaches, not in an effort to decide which the ideal is, but simply to point out what I see to be the differences between each. Each morning as I headed to work, I stopped off along the way to drop my child off at a carefully chosen home daycare facility. From day one, I was fortunate enough to have a child that was easy going enough to leave me for a few hours each day to learn and grow in an environment where learning was first and foremost. I’ve never had to deal with the crying and leg-clinging torture sessions that many children and parents go through almost every-single-day. As a new parent I agonized over the decision to go back to work and send my baby to daycare or stay home and live in poverty because I couldn’t bear the separation. I thought that I was doing my child a disservice by leaving her and creating an insecure environment. On the contrary, I felt that leaving her in the care of someone that I have carefully
Stay at Home vs Working Mothers
I have been fortunate enough to experience being both a stay at home mom and a work away from home mom. Currently there is a societal debate on which approach raises a healthier and better adjusted child. On that I cannot comment as I have not yet raised a child to adulthood, but having my own mixed feelings on this topic I can clearly see the vast differences to each method. Does working away from home make a more secure and adaptable child? Does staying home form a stronger bond? Does working away from home leave a child to be raised by a daycare provider with different values than your own? Does staying at home compromise social skills and personality? These are the questions that most parents face when they are trying to balance raising a happy and healthy family with paying bills and providing adequate food and shelter. Is one choice really better than the other? I will attempt to use my humble experience to compare these two approaches, not in an effort to decide which the ideal is, but simply to point out what I see to be the differences between each. Each morning as I headed to work, I stopped off along the way to drop my child off at a carefully chosen home daycare facility. From day one, I was fortunate enough to have a child that was easy going enough to leave me for a few hours each day to learn and grow in an environment where learning was first and foremost. I’ve never had to deal with the crying and leg-clinging torture sessions that many children and parents go through almost every-single-day. As a new parent I agonized over the decision to go back to work and send my baby to daycare or stay home and live in poverty because I couldn’t bear the separation. I thought that I was doing my child a disservice by leaving her and creating an insecure environment. On the contrary, I felt that leaving her in the care of someone that I have carefully
References: Hard Choice for Moms: Work or Stay Home. (2006, May 8). Retrieved November 21, 2010, from WebMD: http://www.webmd.com/parenting/guide/hard-choice-for-moms-work-stay-home?page=3