The working woman may be quick to see any problems with children as her fault because she isn't as available to them. However, the... fact that she is employed is rarely central to the conflict. And overall, studies show, being employed doesn't have negative effects on children; carefully done research consistently makes this clear.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
What stunned me was the regular assertion that feminists were "anti-family." . . . It was motherhood that got me into the movement... in the first place. I became an activist after recognizing how excruciatingly personal the political was to me and my sons. It was the women's movement that put self-esteem back into "just a housewife," rescuing our intelligence from the junk pile of "instinct" and making it human, deliberate, powerful.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Recent studies that have investigated maternal satisfaction have found this to be a better prediction of mother-child interaction ...than work status alone. More important for the overall quality of interaction with their children than simply whether the mother works or not, these studies suggest, is how satisfied the mother is with her role as worker or homemaker. Satisfied women are consistently more warm, involved, playful, stimulating and effective with their children than unsatisfied women.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Adults empathize so readily with a clinging child because all of us (including those who were raised by doting mothers who stayed ...home) have felt abandoned at some time or other as children: it's part of growing up. . . . But you can't stop working because your child doesn't want you to leave her--and you needn't think it would be better if you could.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Your children get a lot of good stuff out of your work...They benefit from the tales you tell over dinner. They learn from the thi...ngs you explain to them about what you do. They brag about you at school. They learn that work is interesting, that it has dignity, that it is necessary and pleasing, and that it is a perfectly natural thing for both mothers and fathers to do...Your work enriches your children more than it deprives them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I'm always on the lookout for research "proving" that women who work are a) in the majority (because misery loves company); b) rai...sing more, not fewer Nobel Prize winners or Olympic medalists; and c) not handicapping children for life, because they need or want to work.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If work is part of your identity, think very carefully before you give it up. Giving it up won't make you a better mother; it will... make you less of the person you are; and that will make you less of a mother.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
After your baby is born, guilt can grow into a monster that sits on your shoulder and whispers into your ear, "Mirror, mirror on t...he wall--who's the guiltiest of them all?" The answer is working mothers. Every time you can't calm your screaming baby, the guilt monster will tell you that if you were a true mom, an at- home mom, you would know what to do. . . . Everytime something goes wrong at work, it will tell you that it's your fault for trying to be a "supermom."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Many working mothers feel guilty about not being at home. And when they are there, they wish it could be perfect.... This pressure... to make every minute happy puts working parents in a bind when it comes to setting limits and modifying behavior.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »