In my opinion, working mothers are unable to balance work and family as they bring stress to their children, by showering them love that is less than how much they need, they also bring great stress to their husbands. Quoting from “http://www.psyc hpage.com /family/library/work-family-balance.html”, it stated: “By the year 2000, women had decreased their housework to 19 hours a week, while men increased their housework to 10 hours a week. Nonetheless, women still logged 42 hours a week in unpaid labor compared to men’s 21 hours per week of unpaid labor. This would amount to 21 hours more unpaid work per week for women. Interestingly, women may not resent this imbalance when they enjoy the work, and when they and their spouses feel they are especially competent at it. Grote and colleagues do cite past research indicating that this imbalance is likely to be seen as acceptable, but much more of an imbalance (the woman performs more that 66% or the man performs more than 36%) is likely to be seen by one of the partners as unfair.” This statement shows that working mothers have decreased the amount of household chores to be done by them, while their spouse’s percentage of doing household chores increases. This brings an imbalance to the working mothers’ spouses and is said to be unfair to many. Also, from the same website, under the heading of “Intrusion of work into family and family into work”, it said: “The most common complaint from employers about mother workers is absenteeism. Mother workers tend to agree, with 60% reporting childcare as the largest problem they face, and 35% reporting health problems for themselves or their children being the next largest problem. Only a scarce amount of 9% of employers provides childcare at or near the workplace, making the mother’s greater likelihood of nonstandard work hours more problematic.” This clearing states that working mothers to employers are troublesome as they need to have flexible working hours, which means having the permission to leave the working place when there is an emergency, and this too, creates stress for the working mothers as well, enabling them to perform poorly as an employee and as a mother, neglecting her children due to stress and the amount of work of their particular job. Neglecting children will lead children in the future to many problematic situations like for example: psychological problems due to being unloved, addiction to drugs, drinks, or cigarette as they have a strong mindset that no one is there to care about them. This in another words, is called unstable childhood. These working mother’s children would seem to have a deprived childhood, a childhood that is different from other children their age group, making them feel left out and unwanted.
However, working mothers might also be able to balance or cope in their career and the upbringing of their children as contradicting the previous website, “http://parentjazz.wordpress.com/2008/02/ 17/achieving-a-work-family-balance/”, a working mother states that she is able to cope family and work having to give these following reasons: “ I want to work because I want to accomplish things outside of my home. I want to work because my family needs money. I want to work because I want to be a good role model for my daughters. I want to work because I want to maintain my financial independence.” Working mothers are able to cope between these two choices: work and family, as work makes them stronger, more independent, and also increases their ability in planning time. Many working mothers want to work for the sake of their children, having able to feed them well and being a good role model for them so that they can learn to be independent in their own financial maintenance and also a good sense of responsibility.
Overall, I’ve come to a conclusion in the end despite the contradictions that mothers are still difficult roles to play and we should cherish them as each on of us only has a pair of parents. There is no second biological mother. Either ways, it is a sacrifice for them to make. A sacrifice made for our own good upbringing. If a mother chooses to work at the same time, she would have to sacrifice enjoyment and networking and must learn to cope with great amounts of stress between work and family. If a mother chooses to not work and be a stay-home mother, she would have to forget about opportunities given to her like going abroad, being promoted and having to earn much money to support the family more stably.
