Sounds like working moms are struggling to find enough time in the day. But experts say it’s OK.
A new study by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development reveals that working women in the UK spend just over and hour with their children each day, compared to working moms in the U.S. who spend an hour and 34 minutes a day with their kids. But as troubling as that might sound, experts say that it’s quality time rather than quantity of time that really matters.
And if you think about it, working moms don’t have a lot of time for themselves, let alone their children. Working from say 9 to 5, commuting and getting home for dinner pretty much leaves you with little time to spend with your children. That’s why experts recommend making that time count!
The study, which took place between 1998 and 2009, focused on the parents’ time spent with their children, covering things like meals, dressing, playing, and reading bedtime stories.
Interesting enough, although working moms are juggling their careers with household duties, stay-at-home moms don’t manage to spend that much more time with their kids. UK’s at home moms spend two hours and 35 minutes with their kids each day, about double the amount of working moms. Working dads were said to spend 63 minutes with their children.
“I think a lot of working mothers might think it’s quite surprising – and maybe reassuring – that others who spend their time at home only spend just over an extra hour a day looking after their children,” family psychologist Dr. Sandra Wheatley says.
“I don’t think parenting is a numbers game. The important thing is that children get opportunities to have fun with their parents,” she adds. “If a mother gets home from work and spends 45 minutes haring around the living room dressed up as a belly dancer, or making drums out of yoghurt pots, before a quick dinner and bed, that could easily be enough.”
Do you agree, HollyMoms and Dads?
–Leigh Blickley
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Ally
Posted at 11:51 PM on December 8, 2012
“UK’s at home moms spend two hours and 35 minutes with their kids each day, about double the amount of working moms.”
Where did this study get their numbers from? I am a stay-at-home mom and spend every single minute of my child’s waking hour with him from 7 in the morning to when he finally falls asleep at 9 pm. Then again, I don’t have a nanny, so maybe this study is referring to stay-at-home moms that also have help?