Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Study finds working mothers have some work to do!

New York Times:

That was the sound of millions of working mothers breathing a sigh of relief, after a new study found that the decision of many mothers to work during the first year of their children’s lives is not such a bad thing after all.

The study showed that, over all, children whose mothers went back to full-time work within the first 12 months after birth performed worse on a series of cognitive tests. But there there were big exceptions: the study also found that children whose mothers improved the family income significantly, or selected high quality child care, or remained sensitive to their children did not have any cognitive setbacks when compared with children of stay-at-home mothers.

Great news, ladies! Now You Go Girl!™ and:

1) Improve that family income significantly!

or

2) Select high quality child care from a menu of attractive options!

or

3) Stash a small reserve of your best energy somewhere your boss can't find. Ensure your child still has a parent by the time you get home, not a zombie. Ha ha!

or

4) Don't breathe a sigh of relief -- you may be a bad mom!*

*NYT Disclaimer: Dads aren't moms.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

AWESOME takedown of this bullshit. Bravo!!

Justin said...

The comments thread on this article is pretty horrifying and to the point on this subject.

Sitakali said...

Why was this study even done, when it only includes mothers? Why does the gender of the parent matter?