What does a child learn from a mother that is career-focused

According to the Pew Research Center, 55% of mothers with children under 18 are employed full time in the US, while 17% are employed part-time. However, 60% of US adults still believe a child should be under the care of at least one parent at home. This ultimately led us to the question: is it possible for working moms to negatively or positively impact their children? If so, what are the effects?

The Benefits of Having Mothers that Work

Contrary to popular belief, there are many positive impacts on children with moms who work full time. According to TIME’s survey, 56% of daughters with working moms said it helped them to be independent, compared to only 35% whose mothers did not work. Many of the children whose mothers worked believed they gained invaluable life skills by learning to be independent on their own from an early age. This prepared them for adulthood by ingraining strong work ethics and survival skills. These benefits were evident in the long-term as well, and children raised by working moms were more likely to be employed and have higher incomes as adults.

So what contributes to such advantages? Although mothers who work full-time have less time for their kids, they make up for this by replacing the quantity of time with quality time. Moreover, children with mothers who have education-related jobs provide more opportunities to engage in structured and academic activities. In fact, mothers with less than a high school diploma spent only 1.7 to 3.3 hours per week with educational activities while mothers with college degrees spent around 2.5 to 4.9 hours a week.

In general, maternal employment, along with the decrease in unstructured time, seem to affect the child’s cognitive development positively. The main reason behind the lack of negative impacts may be because even if mothers are not fully employed, they can still be just as busy with other tasks. Besides, many children are busy after school with sports and other club activities and usually don’t have much time to play with their parents until after dinner.

Sweet Tips from Ally

To successfully balance your role as an employee and a mother, make sure to keep these tips in mind:

• Always set aside a specific time at night where you can devote your full attention to your children to play with them or help them with their homework.
• Don’t take on more than you can manage. This will only burn you out in the end.
• Share parenting with the other parent! The sole responsibility isn’t on you if you are not the only parent in the household.