Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness Thesis

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Introduction

There are different views on everything. This research is conducted to determine whether working moms or stay home moms are happier. In a general opinion, people think it is not suitable for us to make any comments on issues like this. They believe that every family unit is different from the others and that it is way too private to make any statements about it.

In a broader perspective, any literate person would say that as long as the woman can handle the work pressure then it is absolutely okay. However, if she cannot manage that then she should be well aware of when and how to manage things, rather than affecting her personal and family life by taking out her frustration on kids or by taking extra pressure to keep things bottled up inside.

Current researches are now showing that working women are not harming the family, as it is mostly thought of the eastern countries, it is actually helping themselves, their families and most of all their children. Over the course of the research, I came across a number of people all of whom had different perspectives on the issue. In some parts of the world, it’s considered well that a woman is working, but mostly in eastern countries, women are preferred to stay at home at look after their houses and children.

As time is changing the world is getting more competitive, and so are the views of many people. The following research organizes and summarizes some classic research, that helps us to understand how this is so.

Significance of the Research

The way women should live has been a question f doubt in different societies. Everybody has his own say, and mostly men enforce their opinions and decisions on women in the ethnic eastern societies. In the west comparatively, women are more independent.

Lack of education and free will leads to a lot of mishandling of women’s issues. This research is based on an analysis of the impacts a women’s work-life can have on her family. In short a determination of whether or not it’s worth it that women work or not. This research is not a concluding remark on this issue. It is only a belief that will be outlined in the light of the responses of the respondents and the already carried out research studies regarding the topic. Women are the support of a dwelling. A good wife or a good mother makes a house a home. That’s the only reason women’s choice of career is given so much consideration and thought.

This research will summarize a number of points of view obtained from research all over the world. It will show people how this issue is understood by the general public and how this grave situation can be handled properly so that it does not affect the women themselves or their families.

Statement of the Problem

“Do Stay Home Moms Exhibit more Indicators of Happiness than full-time working Mother?

The prime focus will be on how is the happiness of a family determined and how do we measure it.

Women should stay at home and be house moms completely.

Women should work and utilize their education, without affecting the family’s importance and lead a happy life.

All the data collected from primary and secondary sources will be used to justify the above-mentioned hypothesis. The effects on the families will also be highlighted.

Research Questions

I have used two different questionnaires for stay home moms, and for working women. The queries are:

For Stay-home Moms

  • How many do children do you have?
  • Are you single, living with a partner, or married mom?
  • Why stay at home?
  • What do you do all day while staying home with your child?
  • How do you manage the funds for it?
  • What will you do for adult interaction yourself?
  • For the child, what will you do to interact with other children?
  • Housework is the responsibility of whom?
  • Have you thought about working part-time outside the home?
  • What is the importance of home-based work for you?
  • Are you confident on your decisions?
  • What would you suggest to the new mother?

For Working Housewives

  • How many do children do you have?
  • Are you single, living with a partner or married mom?
  • Why do you choose to work outside the home while nursing a child?
  • Where do you keep your child while you work?
  • Do you pay for your childcare while you work?
  • What will you do for mother-child interaction?
  • For the child what precaution do you take in avoiding contracting contagious diseases?
  • Who does the housework while you are away at work?
  • Have you thought about working part-time instead of full-time?
  • Have you considered working from home or starting up a home business?
  • Do you have any worries?
  • What advice do you have for new mothers and mothers-to-be?

Literature Review

Demographic data depicts that key variations have been taking place in the daily routine lives of many families. This change is more noticeable over the last generation. A greater section of mothers of young children is choosing to work these days. This change has been seen due to the rise in economic instability of many countries and the increasing awareness of the importance of education and work. It is now being considered equally important to work for women as it was once for men.

Mothers and Patterns of Work

While comparing women’s and men’s work lives, one can see a startling difference. On one hand, the working style of a man shows a linear course of action, while a woman’s life includes interruptions, stops, starts and re-routings as they try to adjust themselves according to others’ lives they are living (VanKatwy, n.d).

Women take time off from all-time obligations to the compensated employees. In turn, they end up losing some ground in their relationships, and their work abilities. Though the women try to improve the work-life balance by employing them in work, it sometimes goes against them. It has been seen that women love multi-tasking. It never appears to be a problem for women to work with kids; it’s never a source of psychological stress for them.

Surprisingly it has been seen that taking maternity leaves or staying back home to take care of the family caused some sort of psychological stress for women. The change from these roles to official recruitment has been seen to improve women’s mental health (Stuchell & Barrette, n.d).

The Real Challenge: How a Working Mom Creates the Balance in Personal Life

It’s the most sacred task of all for working moms – to find and maintain a happy balance between their families and work lives. This issue has recently gathered a lot of media attention, probably because there are too many cases of successful women in our surroundings nowadays. Many firms have been taking a keen interest on these issues and considering several new policies and work rules that have been introduced, like time flexibility, reduced working hours, and most of all telecommunicating options have opened all new doors for families with working moms. But as it is hard to accept, in reality, any sort of such simple formulas are difficult to be implied in real-time workplace situations.

Rachel Emma Silverman, a columnist in “The Wall Street Journal”, wrote a column recently, “The Juggle”. In this article, she wrote about this topic. As per her views employees should sort out their priorities or tasks which require their attention like family, and take matters into their own hands instead of waiting for the employers to come up with decisions or policies benefitting them (O’Kelly, 2011).

Approaches to Women’s Roles

In the early years, women were always considered to look after the family and stay at home. Over the last few decades, this view has been changing over time. Researches from 1969 onwards depict different views and results regarding women’s work and family functions. A great deal of focus has been there on this subject from varied aspects of research specifically, psychology, sociology and organizational behavior.

Focusing in the gender viewpoint, the research papers on women’s work and family lives can be split into three classes; “The Expansion of Women’s Responsibility” (Journal of Anthropological Research); Multiple Competitive Responsibilities and a Work-Family Convergence stage.

The Spreading out Women’s Responsibility

From 1975 to 1986, there has been a visible increase in the women workforce. The percentage of women working with children under 18 years has increased from 43.71% in 1975 to 62.1% in 1986. Similarly, there’s a massive increase in working women with children under 6 years of age, from 38.8% to 53.5%.

Women’s shift toward work raised a number of questions in the early years. This raised concerns regarding their traditional responsibilities, towards their children, family and spouses. This was initially talked about as a transgression of women’s role in male realm.

Research began keeping a close watch on women’s activities looking at how they were balancing their new expanding roles without affecting their basic responsibilities. It was seen how they remain happy with their children and husbands. Results from many studies showed, that preschool-age children were at no added risk if they went to daycares or some alternative care other than parents for some part of the day.

Multiple Competitive Responsibilities

Moving forward in time, women’s choice of working was termed as “their right” and “their choice”. Slowly and gradually, the percentage of working women increased. The earlier concepts of the expansion of women’s responsibilities changed to “sharing partners”. Women started helping in the household finances. With the increasing economic instabilities, this concept was welcomed more and more. Now, most of literate women work to support their families.

Despite all this the women’s choice of working on one hand is viewed as normative but is also viewed as a cause of conflicts in family life and a lot of compromises and sacrifices towards the family. Researchers have been focusing more on women rather than on men even partially on the basis that women are psychologically more vulnerable, and because work and family issues are more of women’s issues.

Another view that researchers have is that work and family are in competition. Families need to adjust to working schedules and demands. One conclusion from all the research says that women have this aspect of personal choice. Most of the women are ready to give up their personal choices and careers for having a family because that is what they want the most. Even today women are seen in very compromising roles compared to men.

Work-Family Convergence

Employment is now considered to be a normative and healthy decision for both men and women, in fact in America only 3% family’s fall into the category of stay-home mothers. Dual-earning couples make up around 60% of couples. Employed women report better physical and psychological health than stay home moms. Most women who are employed give equal importance to their work and families.

Researches also suggest that men’s participation in household chores has also increased considerably recognizing the increase of women in the workforce. Parenting and household chores go about 50:50% in dual-earning households. This is a positive shift from men supporting their wives to work and supporting the family financially as well (Unger, 2001).

Daycares and Everything Else

It is a fact that women mostly opt for daycares or other care centers for their young children if they’re working. There can be many impacts of leaving children at daycares etc.

Normally women are lucky enough and the employees are courteous enough to give them maternity leaves. But soon after that, they have to join back to work. Some women are not even lucky in this matter, as their job requirements don’t permit leaves.

When a woman chooses to work, she has to make an immediate sacrifice and decide what’s more important to her. “Which sacrifices can they live within peace?”

It requires a lot of painstaking decisions to continue working. Women are seen to be short-tempered with children after work. They are mostly distracted by official phone calls and emails. Thus the time spent at home is never quality time. This happens mostly in long-hour jobs, or even in the normal 9 to 5 jobs (Cho, 2010).

Working Moms are Healthier than Stay Home Moms, but they have to Pay the Mommy Tax

In old times, our grandmothers used to stay home moms. Then they used to do all the household chores, be it washing clothes or dishes, or cleaning the house, looking after children, or even cooking. Women used to do everything from scratch themselves. Nowadays technology has made things so much easier. No doubt these were in themselves tough jobs, but today’s women are ready and willingly able to not only work full time but also look after the house. This surprisingly has a great unexpected impact on women’s health!

For a very long time, working and taking care of the house, was more or less playing with a women’s health and was increasing the risks of health issues. A weeklong work schedule, followed by laundry and cooking and looking after children is really stressful and very difficult at times. Not to mention it leaves no time for them. A researcher at the University of Pennsylvania found out that working woman is not only healthier than other but mentally or psychologically more sound.

Staying occupied with work and a sense of achievement can do wonders for health. But this takes a turnaround when even working women are not satisfied. Women with children in the workforce do have to pay a “mommy tax”. In successful organizations where pay scales are higher, the jobs are more competitive. Normally firms avoid hiring women with children because the jobs require very competitive skills and long working hours. Not to mention they are not very fond of giving leaves as well, and working mothers have lots of family issues always. Not getting jobs and remuneration as per their qualifications leaves every working mom dissatisfied, which in turn has an impact on their personal lives. Irritating behavior and short-tempered attitudes are visible in women due to discontentment at work.

The traditional female jobs like nurses, teachers, and administrative jobs, though have flexible time schedules but are paid very low. Hence the overall work satisfaction for highly qualified moms is zero. Such jobs are only suitable for moms with acceptable levels of education and a need to support their families (GWMCHstudents, 2010).

What’s Happening To Women’s Glee?

This is a survey that includes a representative section of men and women of all ages, education ranks, income status, and whether or not they are married, with nearly 50,000 people. It gives us a self-explanatory trustworthy view of what’s happening to men’s and women’s happiness trends over the last few years or decades.

Such a big survey produces a number of findings. Let’s go through the two most important findings of this survey. First; Women’s level of happiness has been going down since 1972. It’s actually going down with respect to where it actually was 40 years back and as compared to how men’s happiness figures are evolving. Whether these women have kids or not, how many kids they have, how much is there monthly income, how is their health, what kind of job they are doing, whether they are married, single or divorced, what’s their age and what race and ethnicity they belong to, none of this makes any difference on the results. No matter who is there in the sample the results consistently show that women are getting unhappier with every passing year.

Average happiness index value for the period 1972-2006

Gloomy Everywhere

In the previous little time, the consequences from six chief studies of contentment have been shared:

  1. The US General Social Survey included 46,000 individuals from 1972-2007
  2. The Virginia Slims Survey of American Women included 26,000 individuals from 1972-2000
  3. The Monitoring the Future survey included 430,000 individuals from 1976-2005
  4. The British Household Panel Study included (121,000 individuals from 1991-2004
  5. The Euro barometer analysis included (636,000 individuals from 1973-2002
  6. The International Social Survey Program included (97,462 individuals from 1991-2001

Around more than 1.3 million men and women participated in the last 40 years, both in the U.S. and in additional urbanized countries all over the world. The researchers have gone everywhere they could to find out and collect reliable data, but everywhere they concluded the same. Good educational, political, and employment opportunities are less for women as compared to men.

“According to Stevenson and Wolfers, if you presume a strong connection between being unhappy and being without a job, which there is…the longer you’re out of work, the more depressed you become, the decline in women’s happiness is as if women’s joblessness has risen from 10% to 18%” (Buckingham, 2009). Buckingham explains Happy Girl to Sadder Woman as:

“Happy Girl to Sadder Woman

The second finding: although women are more content than men in the beginning of their lives, as they grow older, they slowly become less happy. Men, on the other hand, get happier as they get older” (Buckingham, 2009).

Source: What's happening to Women's Happiness (Buckingham, 2009)
Source: What’s happening to Women’s Happiness (Buckingham, 2009)

In the light of this research, we can clearly see what impacts can things like this have on women with kids and families. Being in content in her own life, a working mom takes out her frustrations on her child. If a woman grows unhappier with age, her family will be the first one to get affected by it. In a situation of economic crisis like these days, certainly, the burden goes on increasing. This not only has a bad impact on women’s health but also on their personal roles. But the research states that women are getting unhappier no matter if they are employed or not. That means even stay-home moms are becoming discontent every year. That is maybe due to their added responsibilities (Harris, 2009).

Work-Family Conflicts

Work-family conflict is a type of inter-role conflict in which the position strains originating from a point are unsuited to positional functions originating from a point.

Kahn, Wolfe, Snoek, and Rosenthal have quoted that, functions are the effect of the hopes of others regarding suitable manners in a certain point. Role divergence is portrayed as the psychosomatic anxiety that is provoked by inconsistent responsibility demands. Role hypothesis puts forward that a clash happens when those involved take on several responsibilities that are unable to coexist.

Work-family disagreements can be timely, tension-based, or behavioral. Timely differences occur when responsibility stress originating from the two dissimilar spheres of influence struggle for the person’s time, for example, having the need of human resources to work late with little or no prior announcements might make it hard for workers to meet family commitments. Tension-based disagreement arises when the strain experienced in one functional sphere hinders efficient performance in the other sphere. Behavioral conflicts are called as clashes stemming from ill-assorted behaviors required by opposing parts. Time-based conflicts are the most often found type of work-family clashes. This theory suggests that the amount of personal vigor is flat and that numerous responsibilities unavoidably lessen the time and energy on hand to meet all responsibilities (Hammer & Thompson, 2003).

Children of working moms are 3 times more likely to get ill

Recently new research was conducted in London which shows that the children of working moms are more likely to get ill compared to those of stay-home moms.

Amongst 90,000 school children who were a part of this research, the ones whose mothers worked were found to have been to the hospital more than the other kids. They were more likely to be diagnosed of asthma or to have had broken bones and even poisoning. The reason of all these problems with the kids was thought to be a lack of administration (ANI, 2011).

Mom’s Still the Family Pillars

Nowadays, fathers are working very hard at home and are getting more involved with their kids. Whether or not this attention from the fathers is enough to knock down the moms from the top pedestal of the family can only be known after the coming 20 to 30 years. Surveys today of adult children show that they are closer to their moms than their fathers. Children normally feel closer to the parent towards whom they turn for advice. A Pew Research Center survey, conducted in 2005, depicts that 61% of adults with both parents alive said that they are more in contact with their mothers. Only 18% said they were more in contact with their fathers.

Being Dad May Be Tougher These Days, But Working Moms are Among Their Biggest Fans (Parker, 2007)
Source: Being Dad May Be Tougher These Days, But Working Moms are Among Their Biggest Fans (Parker, 2007)

Mom vs. Mom

Until now, it was a battle of genders, now it’s a battle between the moms.

Motherhood has always been one of the most well-documented joys of the world. It has now become a topic of envy and guilt of who’s a better mom. “One and all resist, and everyone envies what the other has,” says the stay home mom of a 7 and a 15-year-old kid. A functioning mom will wish she has more time to be with her child. On the other hand, a stay home mother would be always hopeful to achieve uniqueness as a human being, a brand name that she is original and talented.

The concern gets hardest, or at least radically, on working moms. On the other hand, it’s not as if stay home mothers are totally certain of the preferences they’ve made, either. Those who have selected to make motherhood their job will always speculate whether the dazzling life that was swinging as their legacy is flying-by-night pass them. On the contrary, many of those who are managing the world agonize they’re forfeiting their families on the altar of their own aspirations.

Shapiro remembers the conspicuous bitterness she used to come across from stay home mothers when she went to pick up her son and his nanny from a local Brooklyn playground. Many of these women gave up their professions.

The showground where these opposite base camps most often snarl is their kids’ schools. What specially irritates the working mothers is their idea, right or wrong, that the schools are on sides with the stay home mothers.

Not any of it will issue if the conferences are restricted to picking door awards. But what worries some working mothers is that while they’re off in Phoenix or Palo Alto trying to soothe a difficult client, the stay-at-home moms are fixing the system in their kids’ favor.

If the working moms detect an annoying level of smugness and a lack of self-examination among some of their nonworking sisters, perhaps it’s because most stay-at-home mothers don’t think of themselves as unemployed. Many have part-time jobs in careers such as real estate, public relations, and interior decorating. Besides, rare is the New York woman these days that didn’t once have a job, and probably a rather stressful, responsible job, before she decided to make motherhood her career. In her mind, she’s simply on an extended sabbatical from the 9-to-5 world.

What Do The Youngsters Consider?

The Mom Logic polls blew away all the results. They showed that 89% of stay-home mothers think their children would be better off if they were working. On the other hand, only 46% of the working mothers think their kids will be better off if they chose to stay at home.

It’s not a plan or decision; all of us know that women drive themselves crazy to choose a suitable standard of living. What impacts will their lifestyle have on their kids is a woman’s biggest concern. Working mothers are always stressed out. They think and realize that they are not capable to be with their kids more often, on missing out the important moments in their lives and attending them every time they come back from school.

Moving on to stay home mothers it’s a totally dissimilar account. They will always be unsure if their children will ever get to know how talented they are as women. Or will they only remember their mothers as a housewife taking care of household chores? Will they ever understand what their mothers have given up and chosen a family life?

Well, its high time moms that you actually stop guessing and taking up all the stress in the world. It’s time for the questions to be answered. Why should women just sit around and think of all the possible impacts their choices will have on their kids? The Mom Logic survey took up to find the answers to these questions resting in the minds of millions and millions of mothers all over the world. A cluster of uptown teens were approached and questioned about how they think of their mothers, whether working or staying at home. Their responses will surprise any individual.

Let’s begin with the working mothers; well it’s high time they actually take the weight off their feet for a while. Teens were very exuberant talking about their mothers. They acknowledged their mother’s professional attributes which made the children become more independent and responsible. Though they wished their mothers could be around a little more than they were yet they highly praised them. They cherished and respected them for not only fostering their careers but their children as well.

Moving on to stay-at-home moms, everyone knows they’re certainly more than a take. Well luckily the kids also think alike! They can actually see how hard they are working and taking up one of the toughest jobs around. Furthermore, the kids did love having their mothers around and keeping their lunch ready when they come back from school, but many of the teens were of the view that as soon as they start attending high school they are craving for a little independence, which they can only get if their mothers and they themselves get their due space (MomLogic, 2008).

Outlook crack broadens between working and stay home mothers

Just when people’s attention started to drift away from the mother wars, new studies and research coming in show that the crack between the stay home and working mothers has widened even further. With time passing the differences seem to be growing more and more.

A recent study though shows interesting results depicting that both parties now think of working full time as a less pleasing option than it used to be earlier. This might be due to the increased work pressures and changes in the way of living.

Jayson identified “The investigative research was carried out via telephone, courtesy of Pew Research Center. It puts side by side the replies of 414 moms with children 18 years and below against 457 mothers interviewed by the same research center back in 1997” (Jayson, 2007).

60% of the working moms say that part-time work is ideal compared to only 48% in 1997. On the other hand, 48% of stay-home mothers say staying at home is the most superlative situation compared to 39% in 1997.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006 data, shows only 24% of working mothers work part-time.

Pew conducted a survey of 2,020 men and women in 2007 about the communal impact of ever-increasing figures of mothers of juvenile kids working; 41% think it was an awful decision, 32% said it made no differentiation, and 22% said it was an excellent decision.

About ten years back, 38% of stay home mothers and 39% of working mothers said it was a terrible inclination. At the present, 44% of stay-home mothers consider it’s bad, while working mothers who judge it’s a good development increased from 19% in 1997 to 34% today. But 34% of working mothers at a halt consider it’s ghastly.

Rachel Hamman is the writer of Bye-Bye Boardroom published in 2006. The book was about the alternative to stay at home. In the book she says that so many fingers are being pointed at the issue which actually is connected with people themselves being guilty conscious or it’s an act of self-explanation towards the choices that the individuals make.

She further says that working mothers and stay home mothers are both trying to stand their ground. Whether you work at home or take up a professional job they both ask for sacrifices.

Examiners say an amalgamation of comparatively new aspects has strengthened the crack, together with the inclination in the direction of “concentrated parenting” at a similar instance companies are demanding additional personnel.

All of this stuff is placing women into a sort of all-or-nothing state of affairs. “It’s a type of forcing a division according to Pamela Stone, an associate professor of sociology at Hunter College in NY” (Jayson, 2007). She is also an author of “Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home” (Stone, 2008). The book is based on dialogues with women who quit their place of work; it advises they had slight options but to depart because of the ever-increasing workload and strategies that were not contributing to relations.

Mary James established MOMS Club in 1983, a grouping for stay home moms. She says the manner in which mothers describe themselves means there’s a little space for overlap in the research’s reactions. For example, she says she well thought out herself a stay-home mother, although the whole time at home I was working in some aptitude.

Joanne Brundage originator of Mothers & More says the Pew research is a photograph of the moment in time, noting that women will be inclined to shift in and out of the place of work at dissimilar eras. Her association began for mothers who quit their jobs to stay at home, but over the years have moved. Brundage says around 55% of its 6,000 affiliates are stayed home mothers, with the others operational in some capability.

She further says what has not altered, regrettably, is the place of work. The general public is asking all mothers to do it all and do it improved and superior and they have their hands fixed behind their backs.

Attitude gap widens between working, stay-at-home moms (Jayson, 2007)
Source: Attitude gap widens between working, stay-at-home moms (Jayson, 2007)

Pros & Con for mothers who work and those who stay at home

Approximately three-quarters of all mothers are in the workforce. Let’s go through their pros and cons.

Pros

  1. Toddlers who get an adequate amount of notice and fondness from an affectionate grown-up right from the beginning are most probable to accomplish something communally and psychologically.
  2. Kids who are in daycare beginning from one month on will have improved verbal communication and cognitive aptitude than family at home.
  3. Offspring with working moms tend to have a superior understanding score than children of mothers who stay home.

Cons

  1. It is hazardous for toddlers to be away from their mothers for more than twenty hours per week.
  2. Psychologists declare offspring that are on bad terms from their mothers might turn out to be disturbed afterward in living, more probable to act out in school, and have deprived relations as grown-ups.
  3. With no hurdle, toddlers are probable to nurture up to be distressed and phobic, and they might even undergo grave personality turmoil leading to depression in many cases.
  4. Kids of stay-home mothers turn out to be more forceful when they come into pre-school playgroups because mothers who are at home may be less violent than those who are working (Mother as Labor, 2002).

“Stay at Home Moms vs. Working Moms”, (Gilbert, 2010)

Gilbert stated, “One of the moms quoted that when she had a 3-year-old and a newborn, she gave her husband a photo gift for his birthday” (Gilbert, 2010). She put together 2 photos, each of them with their children and in the center, she put a color photocopy of a beautiful saying,

One hundred years from now, it won’t matter what kind of car you drive, the kind of house you lived in, or what is in your bank account. But the world may be a better place because you were important in the life of a child (The Best of Wisdom, 2002)”

She was stubbornly a stay home mom. As per Gilbert, “She couldn’t see how anybody could drop off an infant at daycare” (Gilbert, 2010). Often ladies tend to save rather than spending much. And they did. No babysitters – She understood in connection parenting. No going out dating and no restaurants, no movies and no house-cleaning assistance. They were stuck to buy all what they found on sale. Clothes from the 2nd hand store.

Now she knows that a number of families totally need double earnings just to get by and some mothers can’t put up with parting their offspring in daycare when there is no other way out for them. However, in 1995, she was the only mother at the recreational area. All the other women were Spanish nannies. Looks as if like no one else but only she wanted to be a stay home mother back then. There were by no means any other children or mothers on the block whichever. It was a without a friend in the world, first little years in anticipation when she set up my associates. No more than they could comprehend her and her connection parenting method.

At the moment though, in Santa Cruz, she can actually find many stay home mothers with their children at the recreational area. The tendency has twisted and more mothers want to stay at home with their children. But she speculates, whether they are happy?

There are disadvantages to staying back at home. The principal is that you by no means get a lunch break, or time off. Connection parenting is attractive and significant. She now believes her children are doing so fine because of the openhanded quantity of time they have had with their parents so accessible to them. But the sacrifices that she has made for them actually let her down.

When she lastly started working for a second time after a 10-year break, she acknowledged how strong and demanding it had been to by no means have her own earnings. Being back to a line of business was also enormously rewarding to her logic of self-importance. She actually started wondering about what her connection to such close-up parenting took away from her kids as far as her position representation of a fit, protected mom.

Throughout the women’s pressure group an option was complete among lobbying to obtain more hold up monetarily and or else for the stay home mom vs. lobbying to obtain women equivalent pay for equivalent labor.

Mothers require some time off to renovate and revitalize. Connection parenting can take account of that if you see that it’s also a significant requirement for your kids. Gilbert illustrates that “You can take an hour or two off for oneself once or twice a week while an important person you love and somebody the children love can watch over them. Even if it’s only to go out for grocery shopping may be” (Gilbert, 2010). But then you can use up time in many other ways as well (Gilbert, 2010).

Research Methodology

Research Design

The research is designed around the hypothesis mentioned earlier. It will be an investigative study. We will try to get as much information as possible with due consideration to the de-limitations observed during the research. The purpose of the study will be to justify the hypothesis in light of the information gathered from both primary and secondary data sources. The research objectives will hence be achieved. Primary data for the research will be gathered through questionnaires which will include both open ended and close ended questions, while the secondary data will be gathered from all sources ranging from magazines, newspapers, the internet, research journals, research articles and books.

Respondents of the Study

Respondents of the questionnaire will be chosen randomly. Since there is no effective way in which ideal candidates can be chosen they will be picked out randomly but we will try to get respondents from all areas and aspects of life, which will include mothers with toddlers and grown-up children. We can also include the responses of the spouses and the offspring to get their views about their mothers and what they think is right and not. It will consist of stay-home moms and working moms ten each.

Data Collection

Sources of Data

Research papers from institutes all across the world, books published on related topics, public discussion forums and articles on the subject and other sources from the internet. The major source of information will be through the internet where all sorts of research papers and varied articles can be accessed but libraries will also be approached for literature on the respected topics.

Instruments Used

There are three tools for the data collection, primary and secondary. The research tools can vary as per the research topics and the availability or the need of the subject. In this case, we need to get due information and statistical records from the already conducted research studies and further on we also required references of varied individuals from one-to-one interaction.

Primary Research Tools

  1. Questionnaires.
    Secondary Research Tools:
  2. Magazines
  3. Newspapers
  4. Internet
  5. Research Journals
  6. Research articles
  7. Books

Treatment of Data

The data gathered through primary and secondary sources will be analyzed by quantitative and qualitative methods. The literature review provides a detailed analysis on the quantitative aspect whereas the questionnaires filled out by individuals will be used for the quantitative analysis.

Subjects

In the last few years, there have been major changes in the work trends of women and their approaches to life. The old family-style living has changed a lot. For the purpose of having concrete information regarding these subjects, the primary research will be done.

Sampling Method: The sampling method that we will use for this research will be non-probability sampling method i-e the convenience sampling method.

Sample Size:

10 stay home moms

10 working moms

Data Analysis

Qualitative Analysis

After going through all the research papers and articles we can get to a fair conclusion.

Rewards and Disadvantages of Professional vs. Nonworking Moms

If a mother can watch her child grow up that gives her great contentment

The extent and quality of time spent with children gets even better if their moms are at home

Children’s principles and ethics can be guided

Children can be more closely controlled

Children normally feel safer when their moms are with them and are not working

Advantages for Working Moms

Working mothers earn themselves which is beneficial to both their children and their families

Children with working moms are likely to be more practical, mature and independent than children with stay home moms

As discussed earlier, working is better for not only a woman’s psychological but personal health as well

The feeling of working and earning, the feeling of being independent satisfies the working moms, it makes them happier which has a good impact on their kids

Conflicts for Working Moms

The sadness of wanting to be with their children and knowing they can’t

Missing out on an important event in the child’s life

Anxiety and worry of if their children are adequately cared for

Neglecting the child’s emotional needs

Overall, working moms as a person are more satisfied and content in life. Though they do try and manage their household chores pretty well with their jobs and are mentally and physically stronger, but they partially miss out in their interaction with the kids. A lot of major aspects of the child’s life are missed because their moms are not with them.

On the other hand, stay home moms are though extremely successful in their house lives but are more prone to frustrations and health issues. Stay home moms are normally there for their children but their own health and preferences are compromised.

Method of Verification

Quantitative Analysis

We took a sample of 10, stay home moms and working moms.

While interviewing stay home moms we observed a consistent pattern. Nearly all of them were married moms, staying completely at home. Their daily work patterns were also pretty much similar. Males were the sole bread earners of all these families, and all of the moms appeared to be doing pretty good with that. Around 60% of them had maids to do all household chores except cooking, while the other 40% did partial work on their own and partially got maids. Nearly 70% strongly disagreed to have any thoughts about working part-time or of having any business. They didn’t have time away from household responsibilities to consider such things. Probing them a little more we got to know that their self-esteem was nowhere to be found. They were so lost in their household worlds that they had absolutely forgotten about their own aspirations and goals.

Moving on to working moms it was a totally different scenario. They gave as much time at home as possible. Around 20% of them agreed that their children were neglected a lot many times. A few of them around 30% were considering beginning a home-based business. Overall they were more content with their lives. They were satisfied with who they were.

Delimitations

The de-limitations encountered during the making of this research report include:

Sample-based on non-probability sampling due to time constraints.

The sample considered as populations gives us approximate opinions.

Non accessibility of current information.

Summary & Conclusion

Deciding whether to stay at home with your kids or to join the workforce and be an ambitious professional can be a very tough choice. There is no exact reply to this query. Normally researchers encourage women to make choices that bring them nearer to the fulfillment of their hopes and aspirations.

In today’s world and in the ways the economic stress is increasing day after day it is becoming necessary for both the partners to work to get sufficient earning for leading a happy successful life. Most of the single handed running families are experiencing lots of stress and financial issues. In such times it becomes extremely difficult for women to decide her area of importance or in other words her priorities. New born kids or toddlers require immense attention which can be seriously affected in the case of working mothers.

As research says that it has been damaging for parents to stay away for more than some hours a day. Study has established that early on connection among toddlers and preschool children is the foundation of all subsequent behavioral development.

Dr. Phil argues that there is no testimony to support this statement. He says kids who are going to superior day cares have boosted in cognitive ability, cleverness, societal talent and calm.

In the hold up of mothers who chose to work, a researcher says that women wish to have a successful career and be a good mother at the same time. They often become depressed when they are stuck in only one role of their life. According to Dr. Phil, if the kid is taken care of by a parent who is feeling irritated and down in the dumps that is not an excellent thing (Dr. Phill, n.d).

No matter what is the decision of the women there are a few things every woman should consider before taking up any actions or decisions whether or not to work? Some of the factors include financial conditions, spouses interest or point of view, children needs etc. Before taking any vital decisions whether it is to stay back home or start working it should be a mutual decision of the spouses since it directly affects the family. Everything should be considered and all aspects should be highlighted.

If one were to stroll in the region of the park, one may hear stay home mothers passing judgments on their working mother peers for “preferring occupation over their kids and families”, while on the other hand working mothers are passing judgments on the stay home mothers for “letting go off their aspirations and dreams and proceeds for an apron and a dish washer”. Both of these condemnations can’t be more than the fact.

In order for stay home mothers and working mothers to get along well with each other, we have got to first be aware of each other and have understanding. Just for the reason that a mother is working doesn’t mean she has selected her occupation over her children and family, and only for the reason that a mother chooses to stay at home doesn’t mean she has deserted her aspirations and thoughts. The reality is lots of working mothers desire they could make the adjustment to stay home, and lots of stay at home mothers desire they could go to work.

So from now if you happen to go to the recreational area, and any of your peers makes a sarcastic observation about the mother living down the street, you should stand up for her. Nobody can pass any judgments about someone without knowing the families state of affairs; and what’s precise for anyone at all is not essentially correct for somebody else. When we disapprove of other women for their preferences, we pass judgments on ourselves as women.

References

ANI. (2011). Kids of working mums ‘are up to 3 times more likely to be ill’. Web.

Buckingham, M. (2009). Web.

Cho, H. (2010). Rethinking daycare and everything in between. Web.

Dr. Phill. (n.d). Stay at Home Moms vs Working Moms. Web.

Gilbert, A. (2010). Stay at Home Moms vs. Working Moms. Web.

GWMCHstudents. (2010). Web.

Hammer, L., & Thompson, C. (2003). Work-Family Role Conflict. Web.

Harris, T. W. (2009). Oprah and the Secret Lives of Moms. Web.

Jayson, S. (2007). Web.

MomLogic. (2008). Working Moms VS SAHMs – What Your Teen Really Think of You. Web.

Nearly three-quarters of all mothers are in the labor force. (2002). Web.

O’Kelly, A. (2011). Teaching Work-Life Balance To Our Children. Web.

Parker, K. (2007). Web.

Perez, R. L. (2007). Challenges to Motherhood. Journal of Anthropological Research , 63 (3).

Stone, P. (2008). Opting Out. University of California Press.

Stuchell, S. C., & Barrette, R. H. (n.d). Mothers Who Wor. Web.

The Best of Wisdom. (2002). Web.

Unger, R. K. (2001). Handbook of the Psychology of Women and Gender. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

VanKatwy, P. L. (n.d). Family Lifr Cycle Theory. Web.

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IvyPanda. (2022, July 10). Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stay-home-moms-and-full-time-working-mothers-indicators-of-happiness/

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"Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness." IvyPanda, 10 July 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/stay-home-moms-and-full-time-working-mothers-indicators-of-happiness/.

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IvyPanda. (2022) 'Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness'. 10 July.

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IvyPanda. 2022. "Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness." July 10, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stay-home-moms-and-full-time-working-mothers-indicators-of-happiness/.

1. IvyPanda. "Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness." July 10, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stay-home-moms-and-full-time-working-mothers-indicators-of-happiness/.


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IvyPanda. "Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness." July 10, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stay-home-moms-and-full-time-working-mothers-indicators-of-happiness/.

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