Motherhood

Staying home full-time to take care of your children is an option that most of us can’t take on. With the economy the way it is mothers have no choice but to have a full-time paying job. This wasn’t always the case.

Since the beginning of the 19th century motherhood as an institution has changed. Women started off being the one who was told to stay home to teach and educate their children but this was only for the middle-class white women. Colored women were still expected to go out into the work force. They were, in a sense, deemed unfit to take care of and educated their own children.

In the 20th century, women wanted to work outside of the home but were considered, by child experts, not a good mother if they didn’t stay home with their children. This was due to research that indicated how benifical it is for children to be home with their mothers.

Now in the 21st century most women have no choice, financially speaking, to be at home with their children. Either they need more then one income in the household or they are a single parent who can’t afford daycare. This puts limits on our choices as mothers. We want to provide for our children, but are in a hardship.

In any case motherhood is what keeps our society going. If we, as women, do not reproduce then our society, one day, could disappear.

http://www.njmac.ca/taf/issue9/mother.htm

http://suite101.com/article/social-institution-of-motherhood-a64879

5 thoughts on “Motherhood

  1. In many respects, the role of stay-at- home mom has become somewhat of a mockery in society. There are many shows, like Real Housewives (which I don’t watch, so forgive me if I’m way off base) that portray women that do not work for entertainment, rather than praise. When wealthy women stay at home, they often have nannies to care for their children for them. I would hardly classify this as a stay at home mom. This type of portrayal is a far cry from the television shows of 20 years ago that showed a stay-at-home mom who works really hard while the dad does very little at work, such as Everybody loves Raymond. Its an even farther cry from shows like Father Knows Best and Leave it to Beaver that make the role of the stay-at-home mom look relatively effortless.

  2. The institution of marriage has changed drastically since the middle of the 20th century. The wife’s role was to be a stay at home mom, and it was fairly recently that women really started to be considered an equal part of the workforce. Unfortunately, they’re still paid less per dollar than men are. Many studies have been done which offer differing views on equal pay for equal work, with the definition of equal work being debated. The point is that parents are being forced to both work jobs in order to afford the standard of living we are used to. This definitely leaves less time for the traditional parental roles, like spending time with children and tending to the home. Maybe the mothers are affected more so than fathers because their traditional roles have been to stay at home. Now both parents need to adjust and compromise with how they spend their time and who has which responsibilities.

  3. Times are changing, and child care is a hot topic. It’s so hard for parents to afford childcare, especially single mothers. In the same sense, early childhood teachers are underpaid for what they do because it is a profession that, for the most part, has been dominated by women. Some women question weather to work or stay at home with their children because what they would get paid would even out to childcare costs.

  4. It is very hard for most mothers to decide to stay at home or work. Most have to work because they need the income. but then they have to factor in child care. child care is very expensive whether its a center based place or a home daycare. I work with a few people who have actually questioned why they work. most of their pay check goes to child care. I have been talking to my fiance about this recently because we are trying to conceive. we have decided that I will work days while he stays home and he will work nights. That is the only solution that we could come up with that was reasonable.

  5. The thought of what behaviors are expected from a mother have definately changed over time. The various roles that a woman has to play in our times can be very overwhelming. I wonder how these changes have affected the outcomes of children. Did they do better while home with their mothers? Has children spending more time in day cares and after school programs caused some of the problems we have in our society?

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