DIFFERENCES IN THE CHILDREN OF STAY-AT-HOME MOTHERS VERSUS THE
WORKING MOTHERS 2
Differences in the Children of Stay-At-Home Mothers versus the Working Mothers
In the modern society, every mother or mother-to-be is faced with a decision to make of
whether to get involved the paid employment or stay at home and make mothering her primary
role. Often the decision is based on the dominant cultures that classify women as either family or
work aligned. However, looking back at the past, women have struggled to have the rights to
work or stay at home with their children. The argument has been forthcoming over the impacts
of staying at home or working on the growth of the children. The debate is often based on the
psychological and academic growth of the children. Women find themselves under much
scrutiny in this decision to work or stay at home and nurture their children. While the
dichotomous construction of mother versus worker is oversimplified in this discussion, the
complexities of motherhood and work demand a deeper understanding evaluation to understand
the effects if any of parenting while working and staying at home to care for the children.
The concept of “stay-at-home” motherhood is a mainstream culture often thought as the
“traditional” role of the mothers. The tenets of this “good mothering” are based on: childcare is
the basic role of a mother, it should be young one-centered, and mothers should provide
sufficient care of these young ones (Paré & Dillaway, 2005). The idea is built on the assumption
that a stay-at-home mother would be able to provide this extensive mothering as opposed to a
working a mother. On the other side of the dichotomy, the working mother has several activities,
hence, she must share her time between work and parental duties. The cultural assumption is that
paid work prevents a mother from being “good” as they do not provide sufficient time for
childcare.
Despite that the biggest concern has always been based on the time spent on parenting
there is no specific evidence that points out that having more or less time with children impact
