by DianeD

Created on: February 11, 2009

Family life in America has changed dramatically since the 1960s. It was rare for a child to come home from school and not have their Mother waiting to hear about their day with a plate of cookies in hand. In today's world, children attend after school programs, are picked up by a daycare bus, go to a neighbor's home, or become a "latchkey kid" because Mom is at work. However, is being a working mother synonymous with being a bad parent? Absolutely not, a successful, working mother must achieve a workable balance by setting priorities at work and at home.

According to the most recent Census statistics available, of the over 80 million women who are employed in the United States, over 45 million are working moms with over 10 million of those being single moms. Any working Mom, married or single, realistically maintains two full time jobs; however, there is a huge difference in the hardship single, working mothers experience vs. married working mothers; therefore, each classification should be explored separately.

Married mothers hopefully have a husband who is helpful. Household chores should be shared equally by the husband and wife if they both work full time away from home. Dad can help the children with their homework, while Mom cooks dinner, or vice versa. It is very important that with modern families on the go, they enforce a rule to sit down together for dinner. This may be the only conversation time that is available during the week as a family unit.

Married mothers have a greater opportunity to accept positions other than the 8:00 to 5:00 usual routine. There are many benefits when a husband and wife work opposite shifts. The need for expensive daycare is eliminated, one parent is home if a child becomes ill, and one parent is home to supervise the children after school. This, of course, would only be workable if both parents fulfilled their home chores assuring, that on the weekends, one parent will not be overloaded with household duties. A marriage relationship can also suffer greatly by working opposite shifts if the lines of communication are not open wide.

Single mothers tend to sacrifice for the welfare of her children on a daily basis. If an ex-husband is faithful sending child support payments, life can be much less stressful which will give the children a more balanced environment.

Single moms have little relief; they go from one full time job during the day to the next at home. They come home as tired as anyone else and have to cook, clean, run

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>