Re: I want to get back to work.
Well, I know a few stay-at-home mom’s who’re technically with their kids all day. But majority of their day is spent on doing housework while the kids are napping or watching TV, talking on the phone with their friends/sisters/mom…and I know 1 that does “play dates” almost every other day with other mom’s…so on these “play dates”, the kids are playing with one another while the mom’s are chatting. List goes on. They’re not actually spending most of the day directly focused on the child. And before someone freaks out over this…Yes I know that not ALL stay-at-home mom’s are like this. I’m just saying that I know SOME that choose to spend their days like this. This is what lead me to make my earlier statement regarding quantity of time versus quality.
On the flip side, I know mom’s who work full-time and are lucky enough to have part-time maids to help with the housework. So when they’re home during the evenings and weekends…they spend majority of their time actually interacting with the child and building a strong bond.
I believe it’s an assumption for people to think that just b/c a woman is out of the house 8 hours during the day, that the child will feel ignored or be effected negatively. I think it’s important to consider just exactly how much time the mother spends actually interacting with the child one-on-one.