by Effie Moore Salem

Created on: August 12, 2007   Last Updated: July 29, 2011

Yes it's better for children to be raised by stay-at-home parents. But the big if here is if it is at all possible for a mother to stay home with her children she should. There are reasons why this is so. Children love their mother and look to her for guidance and when she is not there, who can they turn to for support?

Children need to be cared for by parents when at all possible, but a suitalble substitute, such as a grandparent, a delightful play center that introduces the children to other children  is far better than having the children at home bored and ignored. Having a mother at home relieves the child of the extra burden of having to be an adults before their time. It allows children to be children while they are children and they will not have to waste adult years searching for lost childhoods.

All this of course is wishful thinking and goes against reality. In order to feed and clothe their children in today's world both parents, if there are two, need to work simply for survival. But where there are no need to work and money does not enter the picture, by all means a mother should be there for her children. But mothers that cannot be at home and must work to earn a paycheck, does not need to feel guilty.

At least in the early years. And even in the teen years, if she is not always home, she must be there enough to keep check on where they are, what they are doing, and with whom they are doing it.

Just for the records, I would like to read articles by the children and teenagers on this subject. Or articles by parents who look back and see where they went wrong and how it could have been done differently. Or how their own childhood was dealt with. Did their mothers work, or did she stay home, and what were the benefits of having her always there for them.

As in dealing with people, no two situations are alike, and what works for one, will not work for all. Some children learn how to be accountable and responsible simply because their mother expected it of them while she worked. So, who is is say which situation is best. So the right answer is yes, and no. The yes answer that I started out with deals with ideal situations and who in the world have any of those today?

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