Comparing the contrasting being a stay at home mom and working mom

Abstract

Stay at home moms and Working moms have their own advantages and disadvantages. However, stay at home mom is able to give greater attention to the family while working moms are able to provide financial stability although they are not able to assure greater care to their children.

Comparing the contrasting being a stay at home mom and working mom

The modern economic and social reality has led to the emergence of various social changes and one such social change is the emergence of two kinds of mothers namely stay at home mothers and working mothers. In this essay, an attempt is made to study the similarities and differences between the working mothers and stay at home mothers.

The term ‘stay at home moms’ refers to those mothers who do not go for work outside their homes. Usually they prefer to stay at home. This is usually due to their care for their children and family.  Usually these stay at home moms before they became mothers were the working women. Hence, gradually there is transition of working women to stay at home mom. However, after they became mothers, it was very difficult to manage both house and work. Consequently, they decide to quit their jobs and stayed at home for the sake of their family. For their income to maintain their family they depend on their husbands.

Stay at home moms usually enjoy their status as being ‘house wives’ and they do not crib at the fact that they are staying at home. The children of such stay at home moms are also happy that their mom is staying with them. However, in the modern society this is a very difficult decision for the mother to make as when they relinquished their lucrative jobs it reduced the income of the family. Thus only when single income parents could manage with their limited income, the mothers could leave their jobs.

However, currently there are many ‘work at home’ jobs which are tailor made to serve the stay at home moms so that they also could obtain extra income and they could make use of their spare time. These jobs are usually telecommuting in nature which means that mothers are not expected to go their work place. The main advantage with stay at home moms is that they are able to take perfect care of their family. However, the main disadvantage with this system is that such families need to depend on single income which may act as a great burden on the shoulders of the husband.(Berkeley, 2004)

However, some mothers would like to continue obtaining an income for the sake of maintaining their family. This is particularly so when the single income is not sufficient to maintain the family. In the case of single mothers they are compelled to work because there is no body else to look after their family. In the case of working mothers, there is need for greater understanding between the husband and wife as there is need for distribution of family work. The husband also should be sympathetic of his wife which leads to better cooperation between the family members. The main advantage with this system is that the family is able to obtain extra income.

However, the main disadvantage with the working mothers is that they are not able to allot much time to their children and family and as a result this leads to the breakdown of family leading to the rift between husband and wife and children in the family. Children, particularly at younger age, need extra attention of their parents. Hence, the present author would suggest that during initial years, the mothers should stay at home and when the children grow up, mother can go for work so that they can contribute to the income of their family.

Bibliography

(2004). “Being a Stay-at-Home Mom”, Berkeley Parents Network, Retrieved

 online on 29-08-2005 from http://parents.berkely.edu