Working Mom, why not?

What comes in your mind when you hear the phrase “working mother”? Since the late 1990s, many women have left the traditional lifestyle and transformed to the modern one. Women increasingly enter workforce to have a job or career while in the traditional this is very uncommon. Nowadays, we live in the modern era in which many women work outside home, have career and children. This kind of women are called working mothers. Being a working mother is very common in this modern society even though some people still thinking that stay-at-home mother is better. Moreover, being a working mother has positive effects on her family life and herself, they are: increasing household income, being excellent role model for their children, guiding children to be more accustomed in social life, and making the children more independent.

            The first reason why being a working mother is good is increasing household income. Some people believe that a woman can opt out her career or be a stay-at-home mother while still maintaining a very comfortable material standard of living.  However, not all women want to be like this. Women may be persuaded to work by strong prospects for engaging in prestigious, empowering, and interesting careers. These women are influenced not only by income but also by the kind of work they would expect to be doing to earn money (Gilbert, 2008). Women who work outside the home and get paid for her job can increase household income which is better rather than do nothing and produce nothing. Household income becomes an important aspect in family life since without any income a family will get into trouble. This income is used for household needs, such as buying food and clothes, paying electricity, paying education needs for the children, and so on. So, it is better to have more than less; It is about household income. By working, women can increase household income and support their family finance.

            The second reason is that being working mother provides an excellent role model for children. While it is true that to be a good role model for children does not need to be a working mother, it can also be argued that being a working mother may provide excellent role model for the children. By working, mothers prepare their children to view work as meaningful thing that will be useful for their future. Mothers introduce their children with the value of work well if they are working mothers. Furthermore, when they reach their success and then tell the children about the successful result of the hard work, children may be motivated to be successful as their mother. Later on, the children may have high spirit to work hard as their mothers do. According to Working Mother Research Institute which is published in http://www.workingmother.com/bestcompanies/research, 85% of working women say that they have shown their children the good things when they show their success in work professionally.

            The third reason is making children to be more accustomed in social life and active in extracurricular activities. According to the article by Suzanne Murray which is published in Cafemom.com, if a child has a working mother, people don't like that child as much since he is more annoying to others. However, that perspective is not relevant. Working mothers can anticipate the bad thing that might happen to their children, for example behaving badly, by educate them well. The main point that should be considered here is that mothers will not work 24 hours a day in a week; So, they still have time for their children to spend together and also to educate their children, even though only on the weekends. Moreover, while the mothers are working, the children can be taken in the daycare. There the children will socialize will other children. This condition will lead them to be more accustomed to social situations and to be more out-going and likely participate in extracurricular activities (Amanda DeJong, in her journal Working Mothers: Cognitive and Behavioral Effects on Children).

The last reason why being working mothers is good is making children more independent. It is true if people say that working mothers have less time with their children rather than stay-at-home mothers. As the effect, the children cannot be together with their mothers all day, but let us see the positive effect this condition. It is like the experience from Alex, 17, who has grown up with a mom who works full time. Here are his thoughts on the good and the bad of a working mom as well as why he thinks he’s a better young man because his mom works.

“Having a working mom makes you more independent. You have to learn to cope with other people because your mom is not always around. The worst thing about having a mom who works is not being able to see her all the time. She’s not there to talk to all the time. Sometimes, if she comes home stressed-out about work, we don’t have that much fun together. If my mom hadn’t worked, I’d probably be less independent and wouldn’t be able to cope with my problems as well. I’m more relaxed about going away to college because my mom travels a lot, so I’m used to being without her.” (Greenberg and Avigdor, 2009)

Working mothers provide opportunities to their children to be more independent. Moreover, when children have problem, for example in doing their task, they try to do it by themselves since their mothers are not there for help. This condition makes them be more independent to deal with their own problems.

            In conclusion, by being a working mother, you increase household income to pay the household needs. You also become excellent role model for their children by showing your success in work professionally that can make your children being motivated to work later. Besides that, you guide children to be more accustomed in social life so that they will be more out-going and likely to participate in extracurricular activities. Moreover, you also make your children more independent since you let them face and solve their own problem. “My mom is my hero,” said Rocco Fiorentino, who is the son of working mother named Tina Fiorentino, co-founder and executive director of The Little Rock Foundation. Giving all the best for children may be one of the best ways to be their hero. So, why don’t you become a working mother?

[this writing needs revision, by: author]

References:

DeJong, Amanda. Working Mothers: Cognitive and Behavioral Effects on Children. http://www.sdstate.edu/jur/2010/upload/Working-Mothers-Cognitive-and-Behavioral-Efffects-on-Children.pdf

Gilbert, Neil. 2008,  A Mother’s Work. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Greenberg, L. Cathy and Barrett S. Avigdor. 2009, What Happy Working Mothers Know. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons Inc.

Murray, Suzanne. Hey Working Moms, We Hate Your Kids. February 19, 2010. CafeMom.com