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The Profound Influence of My Mom on My Personal Growth

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Essay on My Mother in English: For Class 5 to 10

Updated on
Aug 19, 2023

The bond between a mother and her child is one of the strongest and most beautiful relationships in the world. A mother’s love is unparalleled, and her presence in our lives is a source of comfort, guidance, and unwavering support. In the following blog, we will explore the different facets of a mother’s role, from being a homemaker to a working professional, and how to articulate them precisely in an essay form.

Table of Contents

1 Tips to Write an Essay
2.1 Sample Essay on My Mother: For Class 5
2.2 Sample of Essay on My Mother: For Class 6
2.3 Sample of Essay on My Mother: For Class 9
2.4 Sample of Essay on My Mother: For Class 10

Tips to Write an Essay

Writing an essay about your mother or any other topic requires careful planning and organization. Here are some tips to help you create a compelling and well-structured essay:

Decide whether you want to focus on your mother’s qualities, her role as a homemaker or a working professional, or any other specific aspect that resonates with you.
Organize your thoughts by creating an outline. Divide your essay into an introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion. Jot down key points you want to cover under each section.
Describe your mother’s attributes, actions, and qualities vividly. Use sensory details to paint a clear picture in the reader’s mind.
Support your points with real-life examples or anecdotes that showcase your mother’s impact on your life. These personal stories add depth and authenticity to your essay.
Express your feelings and emotions towards your mother. Let your readers understand the depth of your relationship and the reasons for your admiration.
Ensure that your essay flows smoothly from one point to another. Use transitional phrases to connect ideas and maintain a logical progression.
Summarize your main points in the conclusion and reiterate the significance of your mother’s role in your life. End with a memorable thought or reflection.

Must Read: The Beginner’s Guide to Writing an Essay

Samples of Essay on My Mother (Classes V-X)

Following are some samples of Essay on My Mother for your reference:

Sample Essay on My Mother: For Class 5

My mother is my superhero. She takes care of our family and loves us a lot. She cooks yummy food and makes our home cosy. She helps me with my schoolwork and listens to my stories. She is kind and patient, and I learn good things from her. Even when she’s busy, she smiles and helps me. She does a lot for us, and I’m thankful. I want to be like her when I grow up. Her sacrifices for our family are countless, and I’m truly grateful for all she does. I hope to make her proud by following her example of hard work and compassion. In my eyes, my mother is the most amazing person, and I love her dearly. My mom is the best!

Sample of Essay on My Mother: For Class 6

My mother is my rock, always standing by me through thick and thin. She selflessly cares for me, especially during tough times and sickness. As my first teacher, she imparted valuable life lessons and values. Her contributions to our family inspire me to stay on the right path. Her love and care are boundless, like that of a living goddess. Her simplicity, humility, and sincerity make her truly special. She teaches me to face life’s challenges with courage and determination. Her constant prayers and blessings have contributed to my success. Our bond is based on trust, understanding, and unconditional love. My mother’s presence is a source of strength, love, and guidance in my life.

Sample of Essay on My Mother: For Class 9

My mother is my guiding light, a beacon of love and care in my life. She wears multiple hats, juggling work, home, and my needs effortlessly. Her unwavering support fuels my ambitions and encourages me to aim high. With every challenge, she stands strong, teaching me resilience by example. Her wisdom and advice are like a compass, steering me in the right direction. She selflessly puts our family’s needs before her own, a true embodiment of sacrifice. Her nurturing presence creates a haven of warmth and security in our home. The bond we share is beyond words, built on trust, understanding, and companionship. Her unconditional love and belief in me are my constant sources of strength. In her, I find not only a mother but also a friend who I am forever grateful for.

Sample of Essay on My Mother: For Class 10

From the very beginning of my existence, my mother’s presence has been a driving force that moulded me into who I am today. Her enduring qualities have not only shaped my character but have also taught me invaluable life lessons.

Among the numerous qualities she possesses, her kindness stands out the most. She has an innate ability to shower love and care on our family and friends without expecting anything in return. I often find myself in awe of her selflessness and hope that her kindness is always reciprocated.

As I reflect on our journey together, I am amazed at how our relationship has evolved. From being a nurturing figure during my younger years to becoming a confidante and a source of wisdom as I grew older, my mother’s role in my life has been irreplaceable.

Looking ahead, I envision a future filled with shared adventures, heart-to-heart conversations, and the same unwavering support that she has always provided. I yearn to ensure that her efforts are acknowledged and that she experiences the same warmth and care that she has given us.

In conclusion, my mother’s influence has been the cornerstone of my upbringing, and her unwavering dedication continues to shape my path forward.

Also Read: Essay on Indian Freedom Struggle – 100,200,500 Words

A. Begin your essay with a captivating introduction that introduces the topic, provides context, and engages the reader’s interest. You can start with a thought-provoking question, a relevant quote, or an intriguing anecdote.

A. An outline helps you organize your thoughts and ideas before you start writing. It provides a clear structure for your essay, ensuring that your arguments flow logically and coherently.

A. Use descriptive language and sensory details to create a vivid picture in the reader’s mind. Incorporate metaphors, similes, and descriptive adjectives to enhance the imagery and make your writing more engaging.

A. Developing your writing style takes practice. Experiment with different sentence structures, use literary devices and read widely to expose yourself to different writing styles. Over time, your unique voice and style will emerge.

Remember, essay writing is a skill that can be honed through practice and dedication. By following these tips and guidelines, you can create compelling, well-structured, and engaging essays. For more amazing daily reads that will help you build your IQ and improve your reading and writing skills, stay tuned with Leverage Edu .

Manasvi Kotwal

Manasvi's flair in writing abilities is derived from her past experience of working with bootstrap start-ups, Advertisement and PR agencies as well as freelancing. She's currently working as a Content Marketing Associate at Leverage Edu to be a part of its thriving ecosystem.

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Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness Thesis

Introduction.

There are different views on everything. This research is conducted to determine whether working moms or stay home moms are happier. In a general opinion, people think it is not suitable for us to make any comments on issues like this. They believe that every family unit is different from the others and that it is way too private to make any statements about it.

In a broader perspective, any literate person would say that as long as the woman can handle the work pressure then it is absolutely okay. However, if she cannot manage that then she should be well aware of when and how to manage things, rather than affecting her personal and family life by taking out her frustration on kids or by taking extra pressure to keep things bottled up inside.

Current researches are now showing that working women are not harming the family, as it is mostly thought of the eastern countries, it is actually helping themselves, their families and most of all their children. Over the course of the research, I came across a number of people all of whom had different perspectives on the issue. In some parts of the world, it’s considered well that a woman is working, but mostly in eastern countries, women are preferred to stay at home at look after their houses and children.

As time is changing the world is getting more competitive, and so are the views of many people. The following research organizes and summarizes some classic research, that helps us to understand how this is so.

Significance of the Research

The way women should live has been a question f doubt in different societies. Everybody has his own say, and mostly men enforce their opinions and decisions on women in the ethnic eastern societies. In the west comparatively, women are more independent.

Lack of education and free will leads to a lot of mishandling of women’s issues. This research is based on an analysis of the impacts a women’s work-life can have on her family. In short a determination of whether or not it’s worth it that women work or not. This research is not a concluding remark on this issue. It is only a belief that will be outlined in the light of the responses of the respondents and the already carried out research studies regarding the topic. Women are the support of a dwelling. A good wife or a good mother makes a house a home. That’s the only reason women’s choice of career is given so much consideration and thought.

This research will summarize a number of points of view obtained from research all over the world. It will show people how this issue is understood by the general public and how this grave situation can be handled properly so that it does not affect the women themselves or their families.

Statement of the Problem

“Do Stay Home Moms Exhibit more Indicators of Happiness than full-time working Mother? ”

The prime focus will be on how is the happiness of a family determined and how do we measure it.

Women should stay at home and be house moms completely.

Women should work and utilize their education, without affecting the family’s importance and lead a happy life.

All the data collected from primary and secondary sources will be used to justify the above-mentioned hypothesis. The effects on the families will also be highlighted.

Research Questions

I have used two different questionnaires for stay home moms, and for working women. The queries are:

For Stay-home Moms

How many do children do you have?
Are you single, living with a partner, or married mom?
Why stay at home?
What do you do all day while staying home with your child?
How do you manage the funds for it?
What will you do for adult interaction yourself?
For the child, what will you do to interact with other children?
Housework is the responsibility of whom?
Have you thought about working part-time outside the home?
What is the importance of home-based work for you?
Are you confident on your decisions?
What would you suggest to the new mother?

For Working Housewives

Are you single, living with a partner or married mom?
Why do you choose to work outside the home while nursing a child?
Where do you keep your child while you work?
Do you pay for your childcare while you work?
What will you do for mother-child interaction?
For the child what precaution do you take in avoiding contracting contagious diseases?
Who does the housework while you are away at work?
Have you thought about working part-time instead of full-time?
Have you considered working from home or starting up a home business?
Do you have any worries?
What advice do you have for new mothers and mothers-to-be?

Literature Review

Demographic data depicts that key variations have been taking place in the daily routine lives of many families. This change is more noticeable over the last generation. A greater section of mothers of young children is choosing to work these days. This change has been seen due to the rise in economic instability of many countries and the increasing awareness of the importance of education and work. It is now being considered equally important to work for women as it was once for men.

Mothers and Patterns of Work

While comparing women’s and men’s work lives, one can see a startling difference. On one hand, the working style of a man shows a linear course of action, while a woman’s life includes interruptions, stops, starts and re-routings as they try to adjust themselves according to others’ lives they are living (VanKatwy, n.d).

Women take time off from all-time obligations to the compensated employees. In turn, they end up losing some ground in their relationships, and their work abilities. Though the women try to improve the work-life balance by employing them in work, it sometimes goes against them. It has been seen that women love multi-tasking. It never appears to be a problem for women to work with kids; it’s never a source of psychological stress for them.

Surprisingly it has been seen that taking maternity leaves or staying back home to take care of the family caused some sort of psychological stress for women. The change from these roles to official recruitment has been seen to improve women’s mental health (Stuchell & Barrette, n.d).

The Real Challenge: How a Working Mom Creates the Balance in Personal Life

It’s the most sacred task of all for working moms – to find and maintain a happy balance between their families and work lives. This issue has recently gathered a lot of media attention, probably because there are too many cases of successful women in our surroundings nowadays. Many firms have been taking a keen interest on these issues and considering several new policies and work rules that have been introduced, like time flexibility, reduced working hours, and most of all telecommunicating options have opened all new doors for families with working moms. But as it is hard to accept, in reality, any sort of such simple formulas are difficult to be implied in real-time workplace situations.

Rachel Emma Silverman, a columnist in “The Wall Street Journal”, wrote a column recently, “The Juggle”. In this article, she wrote about this topic. As per her views employees should sort out their priorities or tasks which require their attention like family, and take matters into their own hands instead of waiting for the employers to come up with decisions or policies benefitting them (O’Kelly, 2011).

Approaches to Women’s Roles

In the early years, women were always considered to look after the family and stay at home. Over the last few decades, this view has been changing over time. Researches from 1969 onwards depict different views and results regarding women’s work and family functions. A great deal of focus has been there on this subject from varied aspects of research specifically, psychology, sociology and organizational behavior.

Focusing in the gender viewpoint, the research papers on women’s work and family lives can be split into three classes; “The Expansion of Women’s Responsibility” (Journal of Anthropological Research); Multiple Competitive Responsibilities and a Work-Family Convergence stage.

The Spreading out Women’s Responsibility

From 1975 to 1986, there has been a visible increase in the women workforce. The percentage of women working with children under 18 years has increased from 43.71% in 1975 to 62.1% in 1986. Similarly, there’s a massive increase in working women with children under 6 years of age, from 38.8% to 53.5%.

Women’s shift toward work raised a number of questions in the early years. This raised concerns regarding their traditional responsibilities, towards their children, family and spouses. This was initially talked about as a transgression of women’s role in male realm.

Research began keeping a close watch on women’s activities looking at how they were balancing their new expanding roles without affecting their basic responsibilities. It was seen how they remain happy with their children and husbands. Results from many studies showed, that preschool-age children were at no added risk if they went to daycares or some alternative care other than parents for some part of the day.

Multiple Competitive Responsibilities

Moving forward in time, women’s choice of working was termed as “their right” and “their choice”. Slowly and gradually, the percentage of working women increased. The earlier concepts of the expansion of women’s responsibilities changed to “sharing partners”. Women started helping in the household finances. With the increasing economic instabilities, this concept was welcomed more and more. Now, most of literate women work to support their families.

Despite all this the women’s choice of working on one hand is viewed as normative but is also viewed as a cause of conflicts in family life and a lot of compromises and sacrifices towards the family. Researchers have been focusing more on women rather than on men even partially on the basis that women are psychologically more vulnerable, and because work and family issues are more of women’s issues.

Another view that researchers have is that work and family are in competition. Families need to adjust to working schedules and demands. One conclusion from all the research says that women have this aspect of personal choice. Most of the women are ready to give up their personal choices and careers for having a family because that is what they want the most. Even today women are seen in very compromising roles compared to men.

Work-Family Convergence

Employment is now considered to be a normative and healthy decision for both men and women, in fact in America only 3% family’s fall into the category of stay-home mothers. Dual-earning couples make up around 60% of couples. Employed women report better physical and psychological health than stay home moms. Most women who are employed give equal importance to their work and families.

Researches also suggest that men’s participation in household chores has also increased considerably recognizing the increase of women in the workforce. Parenting and household chores go about 50:50% in dual-earning households. This is a positive shift from men supporting their wives to work and supporting the family financially as well (Unger, 2001).

Daycares and Everything Else

It is a fact that women mostly opt for daycares or other care centers for their young children if they’re working. There can be many impacts of leaving children at daycares etc.

Normally women are lucky enough and the employees are courteous enough to give them maternity leaves. But soon after that, they have to join back to work. Some women are not even lucky in this matter, as their job requirements don’t permit leaves.

When a woman chooses to work, she has to make an immediate sacrifice and decide what’s more important to her. “Which sacrifices can they live within peace?”

It requires a lot of painstaking decisions to continue working. Women are seen to be short-tempered with children after work. They are mostly distracted by official phone calls and emails. Thus the time spent at home is never quality time. This happens mostly in long-hour jobs, or even in the normal 9 to 5 jobs (Cho, 2010).

Working Moms are Healthier than Stay Home Moms, but they have to Pay the Mommy Tax

In old times, our grandmothers used to stay home moms. Then they used to do all the household chores, be it washing clothes or dishes, or cleaning the house, looking after children, or even cooking. Women used to do everything from scratch themselves. Nowadays technology has made things so much easier. No doubt these were in themselves tough jobs, but today’s women are ready and willingly able to not only work full time but also look after the house. This surprisingly has a great unexpected impact on women’s health!

For a very long time, working and taking care of the house, was more or less playing with a women’s health and was increasing the risks of health issues. A weeklong work schedule, followed by laundry and cooking and looking after children is really stressful and very difficult at times. Not to mention it leaves no time for them. A researcher at the University of Pennsylvania found out that working woman is not only healthier than other but mentally or psychologically more sound.

Staying occupied with work and a sense of achievement can do wonders for health. But this takes a turnaround when even working women are not satisfied. Women with children in the workforce do have to pay a “mommy tax”. In successful organizations where pay scales are higher, the jobs are more competitive. Normally firms avoid hiring women with children because the jobs require very competitive skills and long working hours. Not to mention they are not very fond of giving leaves as well, and working mothers have lots of family issues always. Not getting jobs and remuneration as per their qualifications leaves every working mom dissatisfied, which in turn has an impact on their personal lives. Irritating behavior and short-tempered attitudes are visible in women due to discontentment at work.

The traditional female jobs like nurses, teachers, and administrative jobs, though have flexible time schedules but are paid very low. Hence the overall work satisfaction for highly qualified moms is zero. Such jobs are only suitable for moms with acceptable levels of education and a need to support their families (GWMCHstudents, 2010).

What’s Happening To Women’s Glee?

This is a survey that includes a representative section of men and women of all ages, education ranks, income status, and whether or not they are married, with nearly 50,000 people. It gives us a self-explanatory trustworthy view of what’s happening to men’s and women’s happiness trends over the last few years or decades.

Such a big survey produces a number of findings. Let’s go through the two most important findings of this survey. First; Women’s level of happiness has been going down since 1972. It’s actually going down with respect to where it actually was 40 years back and as compared to how men’s happiness figures are evolving. Whether these women have kids or not, how many kids they have, how much is there monthly income, how is their health, what kind of job they are doing, whether they are married, single or divorced, what’s their age and what race and ethnicity they belong to, none of this makes any difference on the results. No matter who is there in the sample the results consistently show that women are getting unhappier with every passing year.

Average happiness index value for the period 1972-2006

Gloomy Everywhere

In the previous little time, the consequences from six chief studies of contentment have been shared:

The US General Social Survey included 46,000 individuals from 1972-2007
The Virginia Slims Survey of American Women included 26,000 individuals from 1972-2000
The Monitoring the Future survey included 430,000 individuals from 1976-2005
The British Household Panel Study included (121,000 individuals from 1991-2004
The Euro barometer analysis included (636,000 individuals from 1973-2002
The International Social Survey Program included (97,462 individuals from 1991-2001

Around more than 1.3 million men and women participated in the last 40 years, both in the U.S. and in additional urbanized countries all over the world. The researchers have gone everywhere they could to find out and collect reliable data, but everywhere they concluded the same. Good educational, political, and employment opportunities are less for women as compared to men.

“According to Stevenson and Wolfers, if you presume a strong connection between being unhappy and being without a job, which there is…the longer you’re out of work, the more depressed you become, the decline in women’s happiness is as if women’s joblessness has risen from 10% to 18%” (Buckingham, 2009). Buckingham explains Happy Girl to Sadder Woman as:

“Happy Girl to Sadder Woman

The second finding: although women are more content than men in the beginning of their lives, as they grow older, they slowly become less happy. Men, on the other hand, get happier as they get older” (Buckingham, 2009).

Source: What's happening to Women's Happiness (Buckingham, 2009)

In the light of this research, we can clearly see what impacts can things like this have on women with kids and families. Being in content in her own life, a working mom takes out her frustrations on her child. If a woman grows unhappier with age, her family will be the first one to get affected by it. In a situation of economic crisis like these days, certainly, the burden goes on increasing. This not only has a bad impact on women’s health but also on their personal roles. But the research states that women are getting unhappier no matter if they are employed or not. That means even stay-home moms are becoming discontent every year. That is maybe due to their added responsibilities (Harris, 2009).

Work-Family Conflicts

Work-family conflict is a type of inter-role conflict in which the position strains originating from a point are unsuited to positional functions originating from a point.

Kahn, Wolfe, Snoek, and Rosenthal have quoted that, functions are the effect of the hopes of others regarding suitable manners in a certain point. Role divergence is portrayed as the psychosomatic anxiety that is provoked by inconsistent responsibility demands. Role hypothesis puts forward that a clash happens when those involved take on several responsibilities that are unable to coexist.

Work-family disagreements can be timely, tension-based, or behavioral. Timely differences occur when responsibility stress originating from the two dissimilar spheres of influence struggle for the person’s time, for example, having the need of human resources to work late with little or no prior announcements might make it hard for workers to meet family commitments. Tension-based disagreement arises when the strain experienced in one functional sphere hinders efficient performance in the other sphere. Behavioral conflicts are called as clashes stemming from ill-assorted behaviors required by opposing parts. Time-based conflicts are the most often found type of work-family clashes. This theory suggests that the amount of personal vigor is flat and that numerous responsibilities unavoidably lessen the time and energy on hand to meet all responsibilities (Hammer & Thompson, 2003).

Children of working moms are 3 times more likely to get ill

Recently new research was conducted in London which shows that the children of working moms are more likely to get ill compared to those of stay-home moms.

Amongst 90,000 school children who were a part of this research, the ones whose mothers worked were found to have been to the hospital more than the other kids. They were more likely to be diagnosed of asthma or to have had broken bones and even poisoning. The reason of all these problems with the kids was thought to be a lack of administration (ANI, 2011).

Mom’s Still the Family Pillars

Nowadays, fathers are working very hard at home and are getting more involved with their kids. Whether or not this attention from the fathers is enough to knock down the moms from the top pedestal of the family can only be known after the coming 20 to 30 years. Surveys today of adult children show that they are closer to their moms than their fathers. Children normally feel closer to the parent towards whom they turn for advice. A Pew Research Center survey, conducted in 2005, depicts that 61% of adults with both parents alive said that they are more in contact with their mothers. Only 18% said they were more in contact with their fathers.

Being Dad May Be Tougher These Days, But Working Moms are Among Their Biggest Fans (Parker, 2007)

Mom vs. Mo m

Until now, it was a battle of genders, now it’s a battle between the moms.

Motherhood has always been one of the most well-documented joys of the world. It has now become a topic of envy and guilt of who’s a better mom. “One and all resist, and everyone envies what the other has,” says the stay home mom of a 7 and a 15-year-old kid. A functioning mom will wish she has more time to be with her child. On the other hand, a stay home mother would be always hopeful to achieve uniqueness as a human being, a brand name that she is original and talented.

The concern gets hardest, or at least radically, on working moms. On the other hand, it’s not as if stay home mothers are totally certain of the preferences they’ve made, either. Those who have selected to make motherhood their job will always speculate whether the dazzling life that was swinging as their legacy is flying-by-night pass them. On the contrary, many of those who are managing the world agonize they’re forfeiting their families on the altar of their own aspirations.

Shapiro remembers the conspicuous bitterness she used to come across from stay home mothers when she went to pick up her son and his nanny from a local Brooklyn playground. Many of these women gave up their professions.

The showground where these opposite base camps most often snarl is their kids’ schools. What specially irritates the working mothers is their idea, right or wrong, that the schools are on sides with the stay home mothers.

Not any of it will issue if the conferences are restricted to picking door awards. But what worries some working mothers is that while they’re off in Phoenix or Palo Alto trying to soothe a difficult client, the stay-at-home moms are fixing the system in their kids’ favor.

If the working moms detect an annoying level of smugness and a lack of self-examination among some of their nonworking sisters, perhaps it’s because most stay-at-home mothers don’t think of themselves as unemployed. Many have part-time jobs in careers such as real estate, public relations, and interior decorating. Besides, rare is the New York woman these days that didn’t once have a job, and probably a rather stressful, responsible job, before she decided to make motherhood her career. In her mind, she’s simply on an extended sabbatical from the 9-to-5 world.

What Do The Youngsters Consider?

The Mom Logic polls blew away all the results. They showed that 89% of stay-home mothers think their children would be better off if they were working. On the other hand, only 46% of the working mothers think their kids will be better off if they chose to stay at home.

It’s not a plan or decision; all of us know that women drive themselves crazy to choose a suitable standard of living. What impacts will their lifestyle have on their kids is a woman’s biggest concern. Working mothers are always stressed out. They think and realize that they are not capable to be with their kids more often, on missing out the important moments in their lives and attending them every time they come back from school.

Moving on to stay home mothers it’s a totally dissimilar account. They will always be unsure if their children will ever get to know how talented they are as women. Or will they only remember their mothers as a housewife taking care of household chores? Will they ever understand what their mothers have given up and chosen a family life?

Well, its high time moms that you actually stop guessing and taking up all the stress in the world. It’s time for the questions to be answered. Why should women just sit around and think of all the possible impacts their choices will have on their kids? The Mom Logic survey took up to find the answers to these questions resting in the minds of millions and millions of mothers all over the world. A cluster of uptown teens were approached and questioned about how they think of their mothers, whether working or staying at home. Their responses will surprise any individual.

Let’s begin with the working mothers; well it’s high time they actually take the weight off their feet for a while. Teens were very exuberant talking about their mothers. They acknowledged their mother’s professional attributes which made the children become more independent and responsible. Though they wished their mothers could be around a little more than they were yet they highly praised them. They cherished and respected them for not only fostering their careers but their children as well.

Moving on to stay-at-home moms, everyone knows they’re certainly more than a take. Well luckily the kids also think alike! They can actually see how hard they are working and taking up one of the toughest jobs around. Furthermore, the kids did love having their mothers around and keeping their lunch ready when they come back from school, but many of the teens were of the view that as soon as they start attending high school they are craving for a little independence, which they can only get if their mothers and they themselves get their due space (MomLogic, 2008).

Outlook crack broadens between working and stay home mothers

Just when people’s attention started to drift away from the mother wars, new studies and research coming in show that the crack between the stay home and working mothers has widened even further. With time passing the differences seem to be growing more and more.

A recent study though shows interesting results depicting that both parties now think of working full time as a less pleasing option than it used to be earlier. This might be due to the increased work pressures and changes in the way of living.

Jayson identified “The investigative research was carried out via telephone, courtesy of Pew Research Center. It puts side by side the replies of 414 moms with children 18 years and below against 457 mothers interviewed by the same research center back in 1997” (Jayson, 2007).

60% of the working moms say that part-time work is ideal compared to only 48% in 1997. On the other hand, 48% of stay-home mothers say staying at home is the most superlative situation compared to 39% in 1997.

Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006 data, shows only 24% of working mothers work part-time.

Pew conducted a survey of 2,020 men and women in 2007 about the communal impact of ever-increasing figures of mothers of juvenile kids working; 41% think it was an awful decision, 32% said it made no differentiation, and 22% said it was an excellent decision.

About ten years back, 38% of stay home mothers and 39% of working mothers said it was a terrible inclination. At the present, 44% of stay-home mothers consider it’s bad, while working mothers who judge it’s a good development increased from 19% in 1997 to 34% today. But 34% of working mothers at a halt consider it’s ghastly.

Rachel Hamman is the writer of Bye-Bye Boardroom published in 2006. The book was about the alternative to stay at home. In the book she says that so many fingers are being pointed at the issue which actually is connected with people themselves being guilty conscious or it’s an act of self-explanation towards the choices that the individuals make.

She further says that working mothers and stay home mothers are both trying to stand their ground. Whether you work at home or take up a professional job they both ask for sacrifices.

Examiners say an amalgamation of comparatively new aspects has strengthened the crack, together with the inclination in the direction of “concentrated parenting” at a similar instance companies are demanding additional personnel.

All of this stuff is placing women into a sort of all-or-nothing state of affairs. “It’s a type of forcing a division according to Pamela Stone, an associate professor of sociology at Hunter College in NY” (Jayson, 2007). She is also an author of “ Opting Out? Why Women Really Quit Careers and Head Home” ( Stone, 2008). The book is based on dialogues with women who quit their place of work; it advises they had slight options but to depart because of the ever-increasing workload and strategies that were not contributing to relations.

Mary James established MOMS Club in 1983, a grouping for stay home moms. She says the manner in which mothers describe themselves means there’s a little space for overlap in the research’s reactions. For example, she says she well thought out herself a stay-home mother, although the whole time at home I was working in some aptitude.

Joanne Brundage originator of Mothers & More says the Pew research is a photograph of the moment in time, noting that women will be inclined to shift in and out of the place of work at dissimilar eras. Her association began for mothers who quit their jobs to stay at home, but over the years have moved. Brundage says around 55% of its 6,000 affiliates are stayed home mothers, with the others operational in some capability.

She further says what has not altered, regrettably, is the place of work. The general public is asking all mothers to do it all and do it improved and superior and they have their hands fixed behind their backs.

Attitude gap widens between working, stay-at-home moms (Jayson, 2007)

Pros & Con for mothers who work and those who stay at home

Approximately three-quarters of all mothers are in the workforce. Let’s go through their pros and cons.

Toddlers who get an adequate amount of notice and fondness from an affectionate grown-up right from the beginning are most probable to accomplish something communally and psychologically.
Kids who are in daycare beginning from one month on will have improved verbal communication and cognitive aptitude than family at home.
Offspring with working moms tend to have a superior understanding score than children of mothers who stay home.
It is hazardous for toddlers to be away from their mothers for more than twenty hours per week.
Psychologists declare offspring that are on bad terms from their mothers might turn out to be disturbed afterward in living, more probable to act out in school, and have deprived relations as grown-ups.
With no hurdle, toddlers are probable to nurture up to be distressed and phobic, and they might even undergo grave personality turmoil leading to depression in many cases.
Kids of stay-home mothers turn out to be more forceful when they come into pre-school playgroups because mothers who are at home may be less violent than those who are working (Mother as Labor, 2002).

“Stay at Home Moms vs. Working Moms”, (Gilbert, 2010)

Gilbert stated, “One of the moms quoted that when she had a 3-year-old and a newborn, she gave her husband a photo gift for his birthday” (Gilbert, 2010). She put together 2 photos, each of them with their children and in the center, she put a color photocopy of a beautiful saying,

“ One hundred years from now, it won’t matter what kind of car you drive, the kind of house you lived in, or what is in your bank account. But the world may be a better place because you were important in the life of a child (The Best of Wisdom, 2002)”

She was stubbornly a stay home mom. As per Gilbert, “She couldn’t see how anybody could drop off an infant at daycare” (Gilbert, 2010). Often ladies tend to save rather than spending much. And they did. No babysitters – She understood in connection parenting. No going out dating and no restaurants, no movies and no house-cleaning assistance. They were stuck to buy all what they found on sale. Clothes from the 2nd hand store.

Now she knows that a number of families totally need double earnings just to get by and some mothers can’t put up with parting their offspring in daycare when there is no other way out for them. However, in 1995, she was the only mother at the recreational area. All the other women were Spanish nannies. Looks as if like no one else but only she wanted to be a stay home mother back then. There were by no means any other children or mothers on the block whichever. It was a without a friend in the world, first little years in anticipation when she set up my associates. No more than they could comprehend her and her connection parenting method.

At the moment though, in Santa Cruz, she can actually find many stay home mothers with their children at the recreational area. The tendency has twisted and more mothers want to stay at home with their children. But she speculates, whether they are happy?

There are disadvantages to staying back at home. The principal is that you by no means get a lunch break, or time off. Connection parenting is attractive and significant. She now believes her children are doing so fine because of the openhanded quantity of time they have had with their parents so accessible to them. But the sacrifices that she has made for them actually let her down.

When she lastly started working for a second time after a 10-year break, she acknowledged how strong and demanding it had been to by no means have her own earnings. Being back to a line of business was also enormously rewarding to her logic of self-importance. She actually started wondering about what her connection to such close-up parenting took away from her kids as far as her position representation of a fit, protected mom.

Throughout the women’s pressure group an option was complete among lobbying to obtain more hold up monetarily and or else for the stay home mom vs. lobbying to obtain women equivalent pay for equivalent labor.

Mothers require some time off to renovate and revitalize. Connection parenting can take account of that if you see that it’s also a significant requirement for your kids. Gilbert illustrates that “You can take an hour or two off for oneself once or twice a week while an important person you love and somebody the children love can watch over them. Even if it’s only to go out for grocery shopping may be” (Gilbert, 2010). But then you can use up time in many other ways as well (Gilbert, 2010).

Research Methodology

Research design.

The research is designed around the hypothesis mentioned earlier. It will be an investigative study. We will try to get as much information as possible with due consideration to the de-limitations observed during the research. The purpose of the study will be to justify the hypothesis in light of the information gathered from both primary and secondary data sources. The research objectives will hence be achieved. Primary data for the research will be gathered through questionnaires which will include both open ended and close ended questions, while the secondary data will be gathered from all sources ranging from magazines, newspapers, the internet, research journals, research articles and books.

Respondents of the Study

Respondents of the questionnaire will be chosen randomly. Since there is no effective way in which ideal candidates can be chosen they will be picked out randomly but we will try to get respondents from all areas and aspects of life, which will include mothers with toddlers and grown-up children. We can also include the responses of the spouses and the offspring to get their views about their mothers and what they think is right and not. It will consist of stay-home moms and working moms ten each.

Data Collection

Sources of data.

Research papers from institutes all across the world, books published on related topics, public discussion forums and articles on the subject and other sources from the internet. The major source of information will be through the internet where all sorts of research papers and varied articles can be accessed but libraries will also be approached for literature on the respected topics.

Instruments Used

There are three tools for the data collection, primary and secondary. The research tools can vary as per the research topics and the availability or the need of the subject. In this case, we need to get due information and statistical records from the already conducted research studies and further on we also required references of varied individuals from one-to-one interaction.

Primary Research Tools

Questionnaires. Secondary Research Tools:
Research Journals
Research articles

Treatment of Data

The data gathered through primary and secondary sources will be analyzed by quantitative and qualitative methods. The literature review provides a detailed analysis on the quantitative aspect whereas the questionnaires filled out by individuals will be used for the quantitative analysis.

In the last few years, there have been major changes in the work trends of women and their approaches to life. The old family-style living has changed a lot. For the purpose of having concrete information regarding these subjects, the primary research will be done.

Sampling Method : The sampling method that we will use for this research will be non-probability sampling method i-e the convenience sampling method.

Sample Size:

10 stay home moms

10 working moms

Data Analysis

Qualitative analysis.

After going through all the research papers and articles we can get to a fair conclusion.

Rewards and Disadvantages of Professional vs. Nonworking Moms

If a mother can watch her child grow up that gives her great contentment

The extent and quality of time spent with children gets even better if their moms are at home

Children’s principles and ethics can be guided

Children can be more closely controlled

Children normally feel safer when their moms are with them and are not working

Advantages for Working Moms

Working mothers earn themselves which is beneficial to both their children and their families

Children with working moms are likely to be more practical, mature and independent than children with stay home moms

As discussed earlier, working is better for not only a woman’s psychological but personal health as well

The feeling of working and earning, the feeling of being independent satisfies the working moms, it makes them happier which has a good impact on their kids

Conflicts for Working Moms

The sadness of wanting to be with their children and knowing they can’t

Missing out on an important event in the child’s life

Anxiety and worry of if their children are adequately cared for

Neglecting the child’s emotional needs

Overall, working moms as a person are more satisfied and content in life. Though they do try and manage their household chores pretty well with their jobs and are mentally and physically stronger, but they partially miss out in their interaction with the kids. A lot of major aspects of the child’s life are missed because their moms are not with them.

On the other hand, stay home moms are though extremely successful in their house lives but are more prone to frustrations and health issues. Stay home moms are normally there for their children but their own health and preferences are compromised.

Method of Verification

Quantitative analysis.

We took a sample of 10, stay home moms and working moms.

While interviewing stay home moms we observed a consistent pattern. Nearly all of them were married moms, staying completely at home. Their daily work patterns were also pretty much similar. Males were the sole bread earners of all these families, and all of the moms appeared to be doing pretty good with that. Around 60% of them had maids to do all household chores except cooking, while the other 40% did partial work on their own and partially got maids. Nearly 70% strongly disagreed to have any thoughts about working part-time or of having any business. They didn’t have time away from household responsibilities to consider such things. Probing them a little more we got to know that their self-esteem was nowhere to be found. They were so lost in their household worlds that they had absolutely forgotten about their own aspirations and goals.

Moving on to working moms it was a totally different scenario. They gave as much time at home as possible. Around 20% of them agreed that their children were neglected a lot many times. A few of them around 30% were considering beginning a home-based business. Overall they were more content with their lives. They were satisfied with who they were.

Delimitations

The de-limitations encountered during the making of this research report include:

Sample-based on non-probability sampling due to time constraints.

The sample considered as populations gives us approximate opinions.

Non accessibility of current information.

Summary & Conclusion

Deciding whether to stay at home with your kids or to join the workforce and be an ambitious professional can be a very tough choice. There is no exact reply to this query. Normally researchers encourage women to make choices that bring them nearer to the fulfillment of their hopes and aspirations.

In today’s world and in the ways the economic stress is increasing day after day it is becoming necessary for both the partners to work to get sufficient earning for leading a happy successful life. Most of the single handed running families are experiencing lots of stress and financial issues. In such times it becomes extremely difficult for women to decide her area of importance or in other words her priorities. New born kids or toddlers require immense attention which can be seriously affected in the case of working mothers.

As research says that it has been damaging for parents to stay away for more than some hours a day. Study has established that early on connection among toddlers and preschool children is the foundation of all subsequent behavioral development.

Dr. Phil argues that there is no testimony to support this statement. He says kids who are going to superior day cares have boosted in cognitive ability, cleverness, societal talent and calm.

In the hold up of mothers who chose to work, a researcher says that women wish to have a successful career and be a good mother at the same time. They often become depressed when they are stuck in only one role of their life. According to Dr. Phil, if the kid is taken care of by a parent who is feeling irritated and down in the dumps that is not an excellent thing (Dr. Phill, n.d).

No matter what is the decision of the women there are a few things every woman should consider before taking up any actions or decisions whether or not to work? Some of the factors include financial conditions, spouses interest or point of view, children needs etc. Before taking any vital decisions whether it is to stay back home or start working it should be a mutual decision of the spouses since it directly affects the family. Everything should be considered and all aspects should be highlighted.

If one were to stroll in the region of the park, one may hear stay home mothers passing judgments on their working mother peers for “preferring occupation over their kids and families”, while on the other hand working mothers are passing judgments on the stay home mothers for “letting go off their aspirations and dreams and proceeds for an apron and a dish washer”. Both of these condemnations can’t be more than the fact.

In order for stay home mothers and working mothers to get along well with each other, we have got to first be aware of each other and have understanding. Just for the reason that a mother is working doesn’t mean she has selected her occupation over her children and family, and only for the reason that a mother chooses to stay at home doesn’t mean she has deserted her aspirations and thoughts. The reality is lots of working mothers desire they could make the adjustment to stay home, and lots of stay at home mothers desire they could go to work.

So from now if you happen to go to the recreational area, and any of your peers makes a sarcastic observation about the mother living down the street, you should stand up for her. Nobody can pass any judgments about someone without knowing the families state of affairs; and what’s precise for anyone at all is not essentially correct for somebody else. When we disapprove of other women for their preferences, we pass judgments on ourselves as women.

ANI. (2011). Kids of working mums ‘are up to 3 times more likely to be ill’. Web.

Buckingham, M. (2009). What’s happening to Women Happiness? Web.

Cho, H. (2010). Rethinking daycare and everything in between. Web.

Dr. Phill. (n.d). Stay at Home Moms vs Working Moms. Web.

Gilbert, A. (2010). Stay at Home Moms vs. Working Moms. Web.

GWMCHstudents. (2010). Working Mothers are Healthier, But Must Pay the Mommy Tax in the Meantime. Web.

Hammer, L., & Thompson, C. (2003). Work-Family Role Conflict. Web.

Harris, T. W. (2009). Oprah and the Secret Lives of Moms. Web.

Jayson, S. (2007). Attitude gap widens between working, stay-at-home moms. Web.

MomLogic. (2008). Working Moms VS SAHMs – What Your Teen Really Think of You. Web.

Nearly three-quarters of all mothers are in the labor force. (2002). Web.

O’Kelly, A. (2011). Teaching Work-Life Balance To Our Children. Web.

Parker, K. (2007). Being Dad May Be Tougher These Days, But Working Moms are Among Their Biggest Fans. Web.

Perez, R. L. (2007). Challenges to Motherhood. Journal of Anthropological Research , 63 (3).

Stone, P. (2008). Opting Out. University of California Press.

Stuchell, S. C., & Barrette, R. H. (n.d). Mothers Who Wor. Web.

The Best of Wisdom. (2002). Web.

Unger, R. K. (2001). Handbook of the Psychology of Women and Gender. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

VanKatwy, P. L. (n.d). Family Lifr Cycle Theory. Web.

Chicago (A-D)
Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2022, July 10). Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stay-home-moms-and-full-time-working-mothers-indicators-of-happiness/

"Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness." IvyPanda , 10 July 2022, ivypanda.com/essays/stay-home-moms-and-full-time-working-mothers-indicators-of-happiness/.

IvyPanda . (2022) 'Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness'. 10 July.

IvyPanda . 2022. "Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness." July 10, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stay-home-moms-and-full-time-working-mothers-indicators-of-happiness/.

1. IvyPanda . "Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness." July 10, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stay-home-moms-and-full-time-working-mothers-indicators-of-happiness/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness." July 10, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/stay-home-moms-and-full-time-working-mothers-indicators-of-happiness/.

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Descriptive Essay

Descriptive Essay About My Mother

Descriptive Essay About My Mother - A Guide to Writing

Descriptive Essay - What You Need to Know

A descriptive essay is a type of essay that uses words to describe an object, person, experience, or place. The purpose of writing this type of essay is to provide the reader with a vivid and clear description of something. The writer must use sensory details, such as sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste to make the reader experience the topic.

When writing about a person such as your mother, you need to describe the characteristics that make her unique. It can include personality traits or experiences that make her special.

Reading a few essay samples will help you out! So read on to find good examples and tips.

How to Write a Descriptive Essay About My Mother - 8 Easy Steps

Writing a heartfelt and vivid descriptive essay about your mother requires careful consideration.

Here, we'll guide you through the process step by step, helping you express your feelings and admiration effectively:

Step 1: Choose a Focus

Decide on a specific aspect or trait of your mother that you want to describe. It could be her appearance, personality, nurturing qualities, or a particular event that showcases her character.

Step 2: Brainstorm Descriptive Words

Make a list of adjectives and descriptive words that come to mind when you think about your mother. Try to capture the essence of her being.

Step 3: Create an Outline

Organize your thoughts by creating a descriptive essay outline . Decide on the structure, such as the introduction, body, and conclusion, and what aspects you'll cover in each section.

Step 4: Start with a Hook

Begin your essay with an engaging hook or an anecdote that draws the reader in. It can be a personal memory or a captivating description of your mother.

Step 5: Descriptive Details

In the body of your essay, use sensory details to paint a vivid picture. Describe her appearance, mannerisms, and the emotions she evokes. Incorporate the descriptive words from your brainstorming list.

Step 6: Emotions and Memories

Share your personal emotions and memories associated with your mother. How does she make you feel, and what experiences have shaped your relationship with her?

Step 7: Use Metaphors and Similes

Employ metaphors and similes to enhance your descriptions. Compare her to elements from nature, objects, or anything that can add depth to your portrayal.

Step 8: Show, Don't Tell

Instead of simply stating qualities, show them through actions, interactions, and specific examples. Let the reader experience her through your words.

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Examples of Descriptive Essay About My Mother

Exploring essay examples can provide valuable insights for crafting an essay that deeply connects with your readers.

Below, you'll find both a descriptive essay about my mother and an analysis of its content.

Why This Descriptive Essay Works

Here are several reasons why this descriptive essay is effective:

Emotional Connection

The essay immediately establishes an emotional connection with the reader through its theme of a mother's love. The use of descriptive language and personal anecdotes invites the reader to empathize and relate to the feelings and experiences described.

Vivid Imagery

The essay employs vivid imagery to paint a clear picture of the mother and her attributes. The descriptions of her eyes, hands, voice, and smile create a sensory experience for the reader, making them feel as if they are present with the author.

The essay uses symbolism effectively to convey the depth of the mother's love. The mother's eyes, for example, symbolize her wisdom and the shared experiences with the author. The use of the mother's hands as a source of healing symbolizes her nurturing and caring nature.

Structure and Flow

The essay is well-structured and flows seamlessly from one descriptive element to another.

It begins with a general introduction, moves into specific descriptions, and ends with a strong, heartfelt conclusion. This organization keeps the reader engaged and ensures a logical progression of ideas.

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Emotional Impact

The essay's emotional impact is profound. It not only describes the mother's physical attributes but also delves into the intangible qualities that make her special. The reader is left with a deep sense of appreciation for the role of a mother and the love she provides.

Relatability

The essay's theme of maternal love is universal, making it relatable to a broad audience. Most readers can connect with the feelings of love, protection, and guidance that the author describes.

If you still find it challenging to write a descriptive essay, consider these additional examples for guidance.

Descriptive Essay About My Mother PDF

Descriptive Essay About My Mother My Hero

Descriptive Essay Example About Mother

Descriptive Essay About My Mother 200 Words

Descriptive Essay On My Mother's Kitchen

Sample Descriptive Essay About My Mother

Here is a video of another short essay example about mother:

Want to read descriptive essays on other topics as well? Here are more descriptive essay examples that will help you out!

Tips to Write a Descriptive Essay About Mother

Now that you’ve read the examples, let’s look at some tips that will lead you to essay writing success.

Start with the Basics

Begin by brainstorming ideas of what makes your mother special and why she is important to you. Think about her personality traits, accomplishments, quirks, and unique qualities. In addition, consider the ways that your mother has influenced you and shaped your life.

You can also practice your writing skills with other descriptive essay topics . So write away!

Create an Outline

Once you have all of your ideas written down, create an descriptive essay outline that will guide the structure of your essay. This should include sections for your introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion.

Capture Her Essence

Use vivid language to capture the essence of who your mother is. Utilize descriptive words and phrases that will help your reader understand who your mother is and what she means to you.

Show, Don’t Tell

Instead of simply telling the reader about your mother’s traits or accomplishments, use stories and examples to illustrate them. This will make your essay more interesting to readers.

Keep Your Tone Consistent

Maintaining a consistent tone throughout ensures a cohesive narrative without feeling disjointed or scattered. This keeps readers interested until they reach their conclusion!

Don’t Forget the Conclusion

Summarize the main points of your essay in your conclusion and provide a call to action for readers. Maybe you’ll leave them feeling inspired or motivated to do something special for their own mother.

Revise & Edit Diligently

Revision is key when putting together any written piece. Read over your work multiple times and fix any errors in spelling, grammar, punctuation, etc. Also improve any awkward phrasing or unclear ideas that might not be conveyed effectively enough.

To sum it up,

Writing a descriptive essay about your mother doesn't have to be difficult. With our guide and examples, you can easily write an effective essay that will make your mother proud! So get started today, and create the perfect essay for her!

By following these tips and examples, you will find it easier to write a meaningful descriptive essay about your mother. Good luck!

Looking for a professional descriptive essay writer to write it for you? We're right here for you!

You can trust our custom essay writing online for all your essay needs. We offer top-notch essay writing help to you get the best grade possible. Our essay writers are experienced and qualified to handle any essay topic with ease.

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Why Do We Call Them “Stay-at-Home Moms?” There Must Be A Better Term.

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It’s been a week since the New York Magazine cover story “ The Retro Wife ” hit newsstands, and its merits ( or lack thereof ) are still being debated. Two of the feminist stay-at-home moms featured in the story—Kelly Makino and Rebecca Woolf—spoke to Tracie Egan Morrissey at Jezebel about how they felt misrepresented by the piece. Woolf, it seems, has more of a case than Makino. It’s strange that she would be used as an example of a feminist “stay-at-home mom” in the first place, since she has a full-time job: running her blog, Girl’s Gone Child .

The source of the confusion and feelings of misrepresentation might lie in the inadequacy and general clunkiness of the term “stay-at-home mom.” Technically Woolf stays at home, and is a mom. But she’s also self-employed, and that important nuance isn’t relayed by the SAHM label (I am also technically a SAHM, but work 40 or more hours a week). I’ve always disliked the term. It connotes “shut in” to me, as if mothers who don’t do paid work are too fragile to handle the outside world. How did this become the default terminology for women who don’t go to an office every day?

According to the etymology expert and University of Minnesota professor Anatoly Liberman, the term “stay at home,” without the mom or dad tacked on, is very old. (Liberman recalls seeing the term in Dickens.) “Stay at homes” were people who didn’t travel. The “mom” part didn’t start becoming attached to the phrase until the ‘80s, and it didn’t grow really popular until the ‘90s, says Rebecca Jo Plant, an associate professor of history at UC San Diego and the author of Mom: The Transformation of Motherhood in Modern America. The New York Times did not use the phrase until 1992, and even then it was in quotes .

Earlier in the 20 th century, “housewife” was the preferred term, but as the Victorian focus on efficiency and sanitization began to shift in the 50s, a new word—“homemaker”—came into vogue. The mid-century popularity of “homemaker,” says Plant, “reflects the rise of a therapeutic culture in the twentieth century, when advice literature to women began to stress the importance of meeting the emotional and psychological needs of children and husbands.”

“Homemaker” had pretty thoroughly replaced housewife by the 1970s, but it was already sounding old-fashioned by the ‘80s. Enter the “stay-at-home mom.” No one I spoke to could tell me definitively why the term became ascendant; Plant speculates, “My sense is that their usage reflects the notion that the most important thing that the woman who stays home actually does is to focus on her children and foster their development, with an increasing emphasis on intellectual/cognitive development.”

Both “housewife” and “homemaker” connote domestic drudgery like toilet scrubbing ( which no one really wants to do ). “Housewife” in particular emphasizes an old-fashioned devotion to the husband, while “stay-at-home mom” shifts the focus onto the children. “It’s probably no coincidence that the term ‘playdate’ as we currently use it also takes off,” during the 80s and 90s, Plant muses. “You can’t really perform domestic labor when you’re attending or even hosting a playdate.”

Though it’s impossible to say if “stay-at-home mom” (and let’s not forget “stay-at-home dad,” equally lame) beat out other aspirants for referring to parents who don’t do paid work, Plant’s research shows that this kind of terminology is ever-changing. Which means we, as a culture, are free to come up with a new word to refer to stay-at-home parents. Primary caretakers is the only thing I could come up with, but it sounds a little stiff and census-y. Any other suggestions?

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My Mother Essay

An Introduction to the Essay

The word Mother is a very pious word and whosoever is called by the name ‘Mother’ is a person who sacrifices and prioritizes her children over anything. Her whole Life revolves around the well-being of her child, their growth, their development, and their welfare. A Mother not just only gives birth to a child but she takes a Lifelong commitment to take care of her child.

The only unconditional love in the world is the mother's love. My mother is my inspiration, my superhero, my best friend, and my guiding light. My life would not have been beautiful without my mother. Through ups and downs and in every step of life, she holds my hand and supports and encourages me. No matter what happens, my mother is always there beside me- cheering me up and motivating me. All mothers in the world are great and so, we should not celebrate their contribution in our life on Mother's Day only, which is 10th May, but every day of the year and throughout their life. It is because no gesture of appreciation is ever enough when it comes to acknowledging our mother. Her selfless love and sacrifice are the precious of all gifts under the sun.

An Essay on Mothers

My Mother- The Multi-Tasker

Mothers play an important role in everyone’s Life since she acts as a Protector, a Friend, and Guide for Life. A Mother does everything selflessly for her child and without any condition. There the love of a Mother is known to be Unconditional.

The way she manages my family with utter dedication and devotion is inspiring. The relationship with my mother is something very hard to explain. I do not merely love her because she is my mother and we should respect our elders. I love her because she is my world and when I was not able to speak and communicate she took care of me, time and time again. The best part about my mother is that even though I have grown older she knows and understands my needs without me speaking a word. I learned kindness and love from her. She taught me no matter how bad a situation might get, only love can improve it in the most effective way. She has been the rock-solid pillar of my life and in every big moment of my life.

My Mother has constantly supported me throughout my entire Life, whenever I am in a danger or in a situation where I am stuck, she has always been there for me, protected me, and guided me. She has been my favorite teacher who has taught me about Life and the beauty of it. She is the essence of truthfulness, sincerity, and lots of love. The only person who holds our family together is my Mother. She cares for everyone in the house and for the ones in need outside the house as well. One of the most beautiful things that I learned from my mother is empathy. Be it strangers or animals, she treats everyone equally which makes her more amazing. Moreover, she taught me to not hurt anyone on purpose and help people whenever possible. Not only this but also she taught me to not differentiate among rich or poor, beautiful or ugly. She says that it is the heart of a person that makes them beautiful and rich and not temporary possessions.

My Mother is my constant source of encouragement, be it in Life or in school for studies. She has always inspired me to do other activities along with my studies. She has taught me to enjoy every aspect of Life and live Life to the fullest. She wants me to do those things in Life as well which she could not do or pursue. She is my backbone for everything. My mother has inspired me through her hard work and sacrifices. She taught me once never to get disheartened by failure and to keep challenging the failure with our honest effort. And one day, failure will pave the path to our success. The strength of facing hurdles and overcoming it is what I have learned from her.

Mothers have never-ending qualities even though they do not get much credit for their goodness and hard work. She binds everyone in the family and plays a very important part in everyone’s Life. Even when I do something wrong in Life, she scolds me but at the same time, she makes me understand and helps me to get out of the situation. She forgives me after every mistake but ensures that I’ve realized my mistake first. She is the most selfless human being I have ever encountered in my life till now.

My mother knows me in and out. Even if I am lying she catches me immediately and I start feeling guilty. We should never lie to our parents and especially, to our mother. They simply do not deserve it. Mothers spend a significant part of their lives making us capable of standing on our own feet. Sometimes, they have to sacrifice their own career and happiness for that. So a mother's trust should never be destroyed. And when it comes to my mother, I would not change a bit about her. She is the best chef, reading partner, and an independent working woman who can balance almost everything with utmost perfection. Even her imperfection makes me proud of her. Without my mother, I would never become a better human being. My Mother is my biggest strength and makes me, even more, stronger when I go through all my ups and downs in life. The best thing she possesses is her patience. The patience she has is difficult for anyone to have. She deals with every situation in the family, in my life, or even in her Life with so much patience because of the reason the family is bonded so strongly. It is the responsibility of every child to appreciate their Mothers and give them the love and respect that Mothers deserve.

Study with Vedantu

Students can find all their necessary study materials and learning resources at Vedantu. Along with the Essay on Mothers, students can also find various other Essays on different topics with two ranges of both long and short examples. For more information and details, they can head over to the website of Vedantu. The Vedantu app can also be downloaded and skimmed through for more ease while studying.

FAQs on My Mother Essay

1. What is the role of a mother in a family?

Mothers provide an ideal environment for the family and are the best role model in everyone’s Life. She is the one person everyone in the family can totally depend on in Life. She is the only one who asks every member of the family at the end of each day if they’ve had their proper meals all day long or not.

2. What does a Mother do to provide a comfortable life to her children?

A mother works hard day and night in order to give her children a comfortable life. She teaches her children to believe in themselves and have faith in themselves and never give up on Life. She teaches them moral values and the difference between right and wrong and how one decision in their lives can impact their futures.

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I’m the primary breadwinner—and I still shoulder most of the housework

woman carrying a basket of laundry- breadwinner mom

5m3photos / Twenty20

According to this year's State of Motherhood survey, I'm not alone.

By Shannon Vestal Robson Updated June 20, 2023

It started innocently enough. The emotional revelation slapped me in the face, right in the middle of taking Motherly’s annual State of Motherhood survey . While the survey sheds valuable insight into the state of motherhood in America, I never expected that simply taking the survey itself would change the way I looked at my own marriage and place in it.

It was question 40 that did it. “Which of the following household chores or responsibilities are you primarily responsible for? Select all that apply.”

“Hey babe, come take this question with me,” I called out to my husband of eight years, the father of our 3-year-old daughter. I swear I was not being passive aggressive, but genuinely curious about narrowing down who did what in our partnership.

“Laundry.” Me.

“Meal planning and preparation.” Me.

“Grocery shopping.” Me.

“Maintain social calendar/plan date nights.” I awkwardly laughed. Me.

“Scheduling medical appointments.” Um.

At this point, my husband and I both stopped uncomfortably laughing and became uncomfortable with this line of answering.

Let me back up: like almost half of today’s millennial and Gen Z moms (according to this year’s survey ), I am my family’s primary breadwinner. And as I recently discovered, I also shoulder most of our family’s mental load .

I am usually proud of how my husband and I communicate. We’ve embraced couples therapy at different times in our relationship—the first time being after our daughter was born when the division of labor felt very imbalanced. Since I was breastfeeding our daughter and getting up with her multiple times a night, then staying home on leave while he went off to work, I felt like more of the baby duties were on me.

We figured things out then, and in fact, that moment in time led to our decision for me to become the sole breadwinner and for him to take on more responsibilities at home with our daughter. This all translated to him to going back to school to finish his Bachelor’s degree while I worked full-time. We finagled his schedule so he’d go to school two days a week, meaning we’d only need childcare on those two days, and on the other three days he was our baby’s primary caregiver.

It was formative for his relationship with our daughter, and gave him the kind of confidence and autonomy as a parent I don’t necessarily see in all the fathers I know. This setup worked for me, too. It allowed me to focus fully on my job during the day, which eventually led me to the Editorial Director role at Motherly.

So when we were answering the survey questions about our division of household labor, this imbalance of responsibility felt particularly disturbing to me: we’d done so well before. What happened?

Well, a couple of things: he graduated and started a job search. Our daughter started preschool. He was no longer needed as a stay-at-home dad, but his job hunt has ebbed and flowed and culminated in his embarking on a new career as an educator and substitute teacher, while researching Master’s programs. My husband is in a career middle ground that I see as being more flexible than my own full-time job. Even when he does become a full-time teacher, I’m looking at potentially being the primary breadwinner forever, and I don’t know how I feel about that.

Despite my uncertainty, last year’s survey data actually helped me feel like I’m in a sisterhood of primary breadwinners who are also doing the most: not only did we learn tha t 47% of Gen Z and millennial moms surveyed were contributing more than half of the household income , of those moms, 50% are also handling the household chores.

It hit me like a ton of bricks. I had failed at eschewing the traditional gender roles I’d hoped to reject since I’d been married. We hadn’t even achieved balance in our roles at all.

I’m looking at potentially being the primary breadwinner forever, and I don’t know how I feel about that.

But after I looked at the list again, I realized that there’s way more that both of us do that qualify as household chores. And, the latter half of the list contained more things my husband handles, and often shares with me.

At the risk of sounding more defensive, I had to ask myself: just because I’m making more money, do I deserve to do less at home?

Related: Housekeeping is not motherhood

Maybe, if I play the ‘if I were a man’ game. It’s a game many women play in our heads when it comes to career and parenting scenarios and the choices we make daily. My mind goes to the stay-at-home moms I know with husbands who work out of the home. The moms own that list of responsibilities. I’m sure many of us would think it strange if she didn’t, or insultingly, ask what she does all day . And yet I wondered, why am I not brought a martini like Don Draper when I sign off for the day?

Because, I begrudgingly admit: that’s not what I want. I don’t think I deserve to do less of the household organization because I make more money. I would resent my husband if the roles were reversed and that’s what he wanted.

I am more organized. I do trust my husband less to handle all the bills and coordinate things like my childcare. I have to work on that. Together, we have to work on how I can delegate responsibilities to him without me feeling like the delegation itself is an extra thing on the list. He needs to be more proactive. And maybe I need to work on letting go of him picking “the wrong time” for our kid’s dentist appointment.

This experience has taught me to keep checking in—with myself and what I’m happy with and with my partner to see who’s overwhelmed and who needs a change. Yes, I have delegated that as a responsibility to him, too. Our careers will evolve, our daughter will grow up, and the “duties” will shift like seasons. We have to shift, too.

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What Research Says About Being a Stay-at-Home Mom

Pros and cons of staying at home.

Changes Due to the Pandemic

Ask people what they think about stay-at-home moms (SAHMs) and stay-at-home dads (SAHDs) and you'll likely get a variety of answers. Some might say they've got it easy, or that life at home with the kids would be boring. Some might think they're lazy or not contributing much to society. Others contend that stay-at-home parents are making the best decision of their lives and that they're making a noble, worthwhile sacrifice to stay home and nurture their kids day in and day out.

If you're contemplating whether or not to be a stay-at-home parent, what matters most is what works best for your family. So, first and foremost, consider your personal beliefs, priorities, finances, and lifestyle. However, there is also a wealth of research on the subject that you can consult when making your decision. The findings on life as a stay-at-home parent may surprise you.

Verywell / Brianna Gilmartin

There are, of course, many personal reasons for or against staying home with your kids. Benefits may include being able to spend more time with your kids and having more direction over their learning and development. You may not want to miss a minute of their childhood. You also might not trust others to care for your little loves. Drawbacks include the big hit to your family's income and to the trajectory of your career as well as the big change to your lifestyle.

Each person's specific pros and cons and how they feel about them are unique. However, research shows that there are overarching pros and cons of being a stay-at-home parent that may apply overall to many. These key factors are supported by data gathered in research studies and may help you to decide whether you want to stay at home or return to the workplace.

While there is no right or wrong answer, this research may help inform your choice—not make it for you. Keep in mind that each of these benefits and drawbacks may or may not apply to you. There are many different factors, such as budget, lifestyle, priorities, social support, relationship status, spousal involvement, and your kids' specific needs, to take into account before making your final decision.

Increase in child's school performance

Child has less stress and aggression

Greater involvement in child's day-to-day life

Feeling good about the choice to stay home

Parents often desire to go back to work

Parents may have higher levels of sadness, depression, and anger

Social isolation for the parent

Loss of income

Evidence-Based Pros

There are many reasons that parents choose to stay at home with their children. Studies have shown that many people think this is the best option for kids when financially plausible. According to a Pew Research Center study, about 18% of American parents stayed home with their children in 2018.

According to Pew Research Center's Social and Demographic Trends, 60% of Americans say a child is better off with at least one parent at home. Another 35% said kids are just as well off with both parents working outside the home.

Kids Benefit at Every Age

A 2014 study found that the benefits of having a parent at home extend beyond the early years of a child's life. The study measured the educational performance of 68,000 children. Researchers found an increase in school performance all the way to high school-aged children. However, the biggest educational impact was on kids ages 6 and 7.

Most homeschoolers also have an at-home parent instructing them. A compilation of studies provided by the National Home Education Research Institute supports the benefits of a parent at home for educational reasons.

Some research has found homeschoolers generally score 15 to 30 percentile points above public school students on standardized tests and achieve above-average scores on the ACT and SAT tests.

Regardless of whether parents stay home or work outside the home, research shows that parent involvement in schools makes a difference in children's academic performance and how long they actually stay in school. And some kids with learning differences and/or special needs may do better in a school (vs. homeschooling) in order to access any required services.

Decreased Stress and Aggression in Kids

Some studies link childcare with increased behavioral problems and suggest that being at home with your children offers benefits to their development compared with them being in being in childcare full-time. This may be reassuring news for stay-at-home parents knee-deep in diapers and temper tantrums.

Studies have found that children who spend a large amount of their day in daycare experience high stress levels, particularly at times of transition, like drop-off and pick-up.

Subsequent studies also showed higher levels of stress in children in childcare settings compared with those who are cared for at home. But that doesn't mean you have to keep your children with you every minute until they're ready to go to school. Look for a Parent's Day Out or babysitting co-op that allows your kids to play with others while giving you some time alone.

Greater Control of Children's Upbringing

The ability to directly protect, spend time with, and nurture their children each day is often cited as a primary benefit of not working outside the home. Studies show that some parents stay home specifically with the purpose of having greater first-hand control over the influences their child is exposed to. Others simply see it as their duty to be the one who provides the daily care to their offspring.

More Parents Want to Stay Home

More people are becoming stay-at-home parents—and 60% of Americans believe that choice is best for children. The number of stay-at-home parents jumped from a low of 23% in 1999 to 29% in less than 15 years. However, today's rates don't match those of the 1970s and earlier when around 50% of women (and very few men) were stay-at-home parents.

While the number of men taking on this role is far lower than that of women (around 210,000 compared with over 5.2 million), the rate of men becoming stay-at-home dads is on an upswing, too. Between 2010 and 2014, the prevalence of men choosing to say home increased by 37%.

Evidence-Based Cons

Regardless of the increasing numbers and some important benefits, a decision to quit your job to become a stay-at-home parent shouldn't be made out of guilt or peer pressure. While there are many great reasons to be a stay-at-home parent, it's not necessarily right or beneficial (or financially plausible) for everyone. For some families, the drawbacks significantly outweigh any positives.

Many People Miss Working

Research shows that many stay-at-home parents miss working outside the home and think about going back to work someday. It can be tough to leave behind the tangible rewards and results of a job, especially one you enjoyed and were good at.

If you stay home when your kids are little but plan to return to the workforce, you can take some steps to bridge that employment gap, such as taking classes, earning licenses or certificates that enhance your resume, or even taking a part-time job. You might also consider at-home business opportunities as well as work-at-home jobs that let you stay home while also earning money and reclaiming some of what you missed about your career.

Costs to Career and Pocketbook

Clearly, the decision to stay at home with your kids means giving up income. Research shows that stay-at-home parents must contend with lost wages now and decreased wages when returning to work. This "wage penalty" often amounts to 40% less in earned income over time.

There is also a big hit to the stay-at-home parent's career trajectory. Some parents are able to regain their previous work roles upon reentering the workforce, while others struggle to get a foothold professionally after taking time off.

Clearly, the direct impact on your family's finances will depend on your personal earning potential, skills, and career choices—as well as the income of your partner, if you have one. However, studies show that mothers who reenter work after having children experience between a 5% and 10% pay gap compared with their childless peers. This is in addition to the pay gap between women and men.

Adverse Impacts on Physical and Mental Health

Studies show that stay-at-home parents experience poorer physical and mental health compared with parents who work outside the home. Effects include higher rates of mental health conditions, such as depression and anxiety, as well as higher rates of chronic illness.

There are likely several reasons for this, including experiencing more parental and financial stress. Working parents tend to have access to more robust health insurance plans than stay-at-home parents. They also tend to benefit from greater self-worth, personal control over their life, economic security, and more dynamic socio-economic support.

Increased Sadness

Stay-at-home parents report feeling more depression, sadness, and anger than parents with jobs. A 2012 Gallup poll surveyed 60,000 women including women with no children, working moms, and stay-at-home moms who were or were not looking for work, and found more negative feelings among the SAHMs.

However, it's worth noting that significant research shows that whether they work outside the home or not, parents generally are less happy than their childless counterparts. Of course, the joy you personally get from parenting (and staying home with the kids) is likely to be highly individual.

More Social Isolation

A 2015 study found that many moms are spending lots of time with their kids, more so than in years past. Researchers believe this extra kid-focus results in a higher potential for social isolation. Interestingly, the research found no scientifically proven difference in outcomes for the children with this additional parental attention.

Some stay-at-home parents may feel isolated or undervalued by what some call the mommy wars , which pit parents against each other. This social dynamic can create perceived judgments or pressures that leave some stay-at-home parents feeling like they're not respected as worthy members of society. On the flip side, some working parents may feel criticized for not spending as much time with their children. Both groups can end up feeling socially isolated.

A 2021 study found that around a third of all parents experience loneliness. That's why it's so important for all parents (whether they stay at home or work outside the home) to find the right balance of social activities, exercise, sleep, hobbies, and self-care. Additionally, it's helpful to make the most of your family time, including creating gadget-free zones and planning fun activities you can all enjoy.

It's also key to take care of your own emotional well-being and let your children spend some time away from you. Whether it's a date night with your spouse or scheduling a day off so you can have some alone time, you're not going to shortchange your child because you didn't spend every minute with them. In fact, giving yourself parenting breaks and opportunities to socialize is important for your well-being, particularly during times of stress.

Life Changes Due to the Pandemic

Lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in closed offices and schools. This caused many working parents to either lose their jobs or switch to working from home. At the same time, parents needed to take on additional childcare duties and/or oversee their child's schooling . These radical, often overwhelming life shifts caused many working parents to reduce their hours or quit their jobs entirely and become de facto stay-at-home parents.

Research tells us that these shifts in work and parenting responsibilities affected working women more than men. These changes caused increased stress, burnout, and anxiety, as well as loss of income. Coping with the illness and death caused by COVID-19 also took a huge toll.

As the pandemic retreated, some parents chose to continue to stay home, while others returned to work, shifted to part-time jobs, changed careers, or started their own businesses. But some struggled to get back into the workforce.

The pandemic derailed or sidetracked careers, especially for women who bore the brunt of school and childcare closures. Many parents, especially moms, didn't have the opportunity to choose how to balance their work and life commitments. This lack of control can contribute to burnout and stress.

A Word From Verywell

Societal pressures make many parents feel like they can't win whether they're carrying a diaper bag or a briefcase all day. Whether you work or stay home, stop feeling like you're failing as a parent. There are trade-offs to every decision you make.

When it comes down to it, research is just research. Make a choice that's right for you and your family and don't worry about what strangers, neighbors, relatives, or scientists think. These findings can't tell you exactly what's going on in your family. Ultimately, honor what's best for you and your family—and note that these circumstances are highly individual and may change over time.

Nomaguchi K, Milkie MA. Parenthood and well-being: A decade in review . J Marriage Fam . 2020;82(1):198-223. doi:10.1111/jomf.12646

Pew Research Center. Stay at home moms and dads account for about 1-in-5 U.S. parents .

Pew Research Center. After decades of decline, a rise in stay-at-home mothers .

Bettinger E, Hægeland T, Rege M. Home with mom: The effects of stay-at-home parents on children’s long-run educational outcomes . J Labor Econ. 2014;32 ( 3):443-467. doi:10.1086/675070

National Home Education Research Institute. Research facts on homeschooling .

Lara L, Saracostti M. Effect of parental involvement on children’s academic achievement in chile . Front Psychol. 2019;10:1464. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01464

Panagouli E, Stavridou A, Savvidi C, et al. School performance among children and adolescents during COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review . Children (Basel) . 2021;8(12):1134. doi:10.3390/children8121134

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The NICHD study of early child care and youth development .

Nystad K, Drugli MB, Lydersen S, Lekhal R, Buøen ES. Toddlers’ stress during transition to childcare . European Early Childhood Education Research Journal . 2021;29(2):157-182. DOI:10.1080/1350293X.2021.1895269

Bernard K, Peloso E, Laurenceau JP, Zhang Z, Dozier M. Examining change in cortisol patterns during the 10-week transition to a new child-care setting . Child Dev . 2015;86(2):456-471. doi:10.1111/cdev.12304

Pew Research Center. 7 key findings about stay-at-home moms .

Rushing C, Sparks M. The mother's perspective: Factors considered when choosing to enter a stay-at-home father and working mother relationship . Am J Mens Health . 2017;11(4):1260-1268. doi:10.1177/1557988317693347

Frech A, Damaske S. The relationships between mothers' work pathways and physical and mental health . J Health Soc Behav . 2012;53(4):396-412. doi:10.1177/0022146512453929

Kahn JR, García-Manglano J, Bianchi SM. The motherhood penalty at midlife: Long-term effects of children on women's careers . J Marriage Fam . 2014;76(1):56-72. doi:10.1111/jomf.12086

Genadek KR, Hill R. Parents' work schedules and time spent with children . Community Work Fam . 2017;20(5):523-542. doi:10.1080/13668803.2017.1371672

Gallup. Stay-at-home moms report more depression, sadness, anger .

Glass J, Simon RW, Andersson MA. Parenthood and happiness: Effects of work-family reconciliation policies in 22 OECD countries . AJS . 2016;122(3):886-929. doi:10.1086/688892

Milkie MA, Nomaguchi KM and Denny KE. Does the amount of time mothers spend with children or adolescents matter? . J Marriage Fam. 2015;77 (2):355-372. doi:10.1111/jomf.12170

Nowland R, Thomson G, McNally L, Smith T, Whittaker K. Experiencing loneliness in parenthood: A scoping review . Perspect Public Health . 2021;141(4):214-225. doi:10.1177/17579139211018243

Coyne LW, Gould ER, Grimaldi M, Wilson KG, Baffuto G, Biglan A. First things first: Parent psychological flexibility and self-compassion during COVID-19. Behav Anal Pract . 2020;14(4):1092-1098. doi:10.1007/s40617-020-00435-w

Croda E, Grossbard S. Women pay the price of COVID-19 more than men . Rev Econ Househ . 2021;19(1):1-9. doi:10.1007/s11150-021-09549-8

By Apryl Duncan Apryl Duncan is a stay-at-home mom and internationally-published writer with years of experience providing advice to others like her.

Motherhood Changes Us All

By Jessica Grose May 5, 2020

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The most memorable moment of becoming a mother often involves a single day. You gave birth, or the child someone else baked inside comes into your life. It’s a before, and an after. But that first day is only the beginning of an identity shift that is ongoing and eternal. The person you are after the first year of motherhood is not the same person you are after year three, year 10 or year 40.

That’s why, in honor of Mother’s Day, we decided to look at the whole messy, glorious, complicated story of identity and motherhood.

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We have short essays about how becoming a mother changed the way we look at ourselves, from our relationships to our own ambitions, as well as failure, body image and more, written by Amber Tamblyn, Casey Wilson, Nikole Hannah-Jones, Angela Garbes, Robin Tunney, Jennifer Weiner and several others. There’s a piece by Jenni Gritters about how motherhood rewires your brain, and another by Pooja Lakshmin, M.D., a perinatal psychiatrist, about how not to lose yourself when you become a parent.

During this coronavirus pandemic, it can be hard to know who we are as people, as the barriers between our public and maternal selves have collapsed in ways we never considered. But if there’s one thing to take away from all of these stories, it’s that your identity as a mother isn’t fixed; it’s likely to change in ways that will surprise and maybe even delight, as you and your children grow.

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"Staying at Home" versus "Working": A Call for Broader Conceptualizations of Parenthood and Paid Work [1]

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Using cultural discourse on "stay-at-home" and "working" mothers as a jumping off point, this review essay describes current conceptualizations of parenthood and paid work and critiques the current academic and lay discourses on these topics. The authors highlight the many contradictions between cultural discourse and the reality of parenting and working and call for broader conceptualizations of and more empirical research on what it means to "parent" and "work" in the U.S.

Key Words: motherhood, fatherhood, paid work, stay-at-home, working mother, conceptualization, critique

Every mother-to-be faces the decision of whether to participate in the paid work force while mothering or to disengage from the paid work force and make mothering her sole social role. Often this decision is portrayed in terms of whether one will be a "stay-at-home" and presumably "full-time" mother or a "working mother" and therefore one who prioritizes paid work. "The dominant culture portrayal of work and family for women in the United States classifies women as either work oriented or family oriented" (Garey, 1999, p. 6). Thus, women are socially constructed as either mothers or workers, but not both.

Popular media from television images of mothers, advice and self-help books for expectant or new mothers, and news stories on motherhood all rely on this oversimplification. From Eisenberg et al.'s (2002) What to Expect When You Are Expecting which poses work/family as an either-or question, to Iovine's (1997) The Girlfriend's Guide which discusses the "extreme difficulty" new mothers face "trying to combine it all," to W. Sears, M. Sears, R. Sears, & J. Sear's (2003) Baby Book which promotes a "better baby" through constant contact with the mother, experts continually suggest that women are mothers or workers. Recent news articles about professional women who are "opting out" of paid work in order to mother, or who struggle to balance the two, also perpetuate this dichotomy (Belkin, 2003; Warner, 2005).

Parenting advice books, current news stories, and other forms of popular media help to create a binary between "stay-at-home" and "working" mothers, so that we are unable to conceptualize both statuses in the same person. Experts in popular media as well as academia refer to this rhetoric as an ideological war waging between two camps, with the "stay-at-home" ("good") mother pitted against the "working" ("bad") mother (Douglas, 2000; Hays, 1996; Johnston & Swanson, 2004). Proponents of each side of this "Mommy War" claim that their approach is the appropriate form of parenting in current times. In addition, both sides argue that society does not see the full value of what women do as mothers whether they are "at home" or "at work." Yet, neither characterization of motherhood necessarily reflects what all mothers actually experience.

We argue, as other feminist scholars have (e.g., Garey, 1999; Hondagneu-Sotelo, 2001; Uttal, 2004), that the dichotomous construction of mother versus worker oversimplifies the complexities of motherhood and work in the current economic system which requires most adults to participate in the workforce. Specifically, it assumes that those who are at home are not participating in the paid work force and that those who are working outside the home are disengaged from being mothers. The reality is not clear cut since stay-at-home mothers have varied levels of interaction with their children, complete domestic work without receiving salaried income, and work for paid income either from the home or part-time outside the home (Garey, 1999; Hertz, 1997; Johnston & Swanson, 2004; Ranson, 2004; Uttal, 2004). Additionally, those who are full-time in the paid work force do not disconnect from their role of mother per se and, like those at home, may still consider themselves to be "full-time" mothers (Johnston & Swanson, 2004). There are various other mother/worker roles that women can occupy as well; these depend on the type of paid work in which one is engaged, the presence/absence of another parent (usually a father), and the racial-ethnic and socio-economic locations of women and families. Thus the landscape that ties the roles of mother and worker together is extremely complex and impossible to dichotomize.

If we study women's experiences as mothers and workers, we discover that there is not a rigid divide with women lining up on one side or the other as suggested by the Mommy War terminology. Motherhood and paid work are intimately intertwined and most women maintain both social roles simultaneously, negotiating the boundaries of each every day. Most women cannot even decide to be a "stay-at-home" mother or "working" mother. The public (outside the home) and private (within the home) do not separate easily in the life of a mother or paid worker.

In this review essay we explore and critique the dichotomous conceptualizations of "stay-at-home" versus "working" motherhood by concentrating on the discrepancies between ideology and experience. We take our lead from feminist scholars such as Anita Ilta Garey (1999), who has done considerable empirical and theoretical work already in pushing the boundaries of how we think about women's motherhood and work activities. Thus, in this endeavor, we attempt to start where she and others have left off in their conceptual work. Our focus in the first part of this article is to review the current ideology surrounding "stay-at-home" and "working" mothers. Second, we critique these ideologies and the mother-work dichotomy by highlighting reasons why mothering and working are not mutually exclusive. While our focus is mostly on the complexities of motherhood and paid work, we include a discussion of fatherhood at the end of this section to illustrate how men may be engaging in similar efforts to balance parenthood and paid work. We argue that fatherhood and paid work may be as intertwined as motherhood and paid work, despite cultural discourse. Third, we explain how recent structural transformations in the economy have necessitated mothers' participation in paid work and fathers' participation in childcare, thus blurring any dichotomy that might exist in our imaginations. After reviewing existing literature and providing this critique, we call for broader conceptualizations of and more empirical research about the lived experiences of parenthood and paid work. We begin by reviewing the cultural discourse on "stay-at-home" and "working" mothers.

The "Stay-at-Home" Mother

The idea of a "stay-at-home" mother is a modern mainstay in U.S. culture and is often thought of as the "traditional" mother. This image has become an ideal version of what a "true" and "good" mother is and should be. It gained its popularity from the iconic homemaker imagery of the 1950s even as the number of employed women grew (Garey, 1999). Hays (1996) explained that the dominant motherhood ideology in the U.S. today is that of "intensive mothering." There are three main tenets of "intensive mothering" to which all women must adhere if they are to be viewed as "good" mothers: a) childcare is primarily the responsibility of the mother; b) childcare should be child-centered; and c) children "exist outside of market valuation, and are sacred, innocent and pure, their price immeasurable" (Hays, 1996, p. 54).

The "good" mother focuses exclusively on mothering her children and is committed to them in time, energy, and affection (Berry, 1993; Glenn, 1994; Hays, 1996). In other words, a "good" mother is "all-giving" (Thompson & Walker, 1989). Furthermore, intensive mothering—as an ideology of "child-rearing guidelines" —encompasses the view that child rearing should be "expert-guided, emotionally absorbing, labor intensive and financially expensive" (Hays, p. 69). Mothers should be ready at all times with "age-appropriate stimulation and interaction; and they should carefully monitor their child's cognitive and emotional development" (Macdonald, 1998, p. 30; see also Berry, 1993; Hays, 1996). Today's "good" mother is at home with her children but also spending physical and psychological "quality time" with them each day to ensure their "proper" development:

Whether the activity is one of the numerous structured moms-and-tots programs—swimming, kindergym, dance—or an at-home activity—reading, gardening, cooking, playing—the mother's day is to revolve around the child, . . .and is to be centered upon the child's educational development. The child is to be involved in any domestic labor performed and the chore at hand is to be transformed into a learning experience for the child (O'Reilly, 1996, p. 90).

Intensive mothering is therefore also considered a full-time job - "a constant responsibility" —at least in a child's early years (Thompson & Walker, 1989; Macdonald, 1998). It assumes that children require one primary caregiver, that is, the biological or social mother (Berry, 1993; Hays, 1996; Lorber, 1995; Macdonald, 1998; O'Reilly, 1996). "Intensive" mothering presupposes a psychological bond between young children and their mothers and that this "umbilical connection" remains "unsevered: that as the primary caregiver, the mother is ideally best suited to comprehend her child's needs and can interpret and respond to those needs intuitively" (Macdonald, 1998, p. 30). Within the "magic circle of ["good"] mother and child," the mother devotes herself to her child and "holds her child's fate in her hands" (Thompson & Walker, 1989, p. 860).

Indeed, motherhood as ideology and institution presupposes women's and children's interests to be exactly the same (Berry, 1993; Presser, 1995; Rich, 1986). That is, children's needs are mothers' needs. "Good" mothers are supposed to "subsume their own personality to family" which means "having no other real interests, but only substitute or contingent ones, depending on other family member's desires" (Berry, 1993, p. 25). "Mother" becomes an abstract concept in our minds that melds with our expectations for "family" and "gender" and symbolizes the fulfillment of our emotional and physical needs (Lorber, 1995).

Consequently, mothering becomes a career in itself that needs a strong commitment in order for one to be "successful" (Sears, 1999). In this view no other person is able to provide this caregiving. Fathers are seen as incompetent in many types of parenting activities and lacking the "innate" ability to nurture like a mother (Hays, 1996; see also LaRossa, Gordon, Wilson, Bairan, & Jaret, 1991). Even other women are seen as less able to mother. This mother (usually defined as the biological mother) becomes "indispensable" to the wellbeing of a child. Therefore, while this ever-present mother dedicates herself to producing the well-adjusted children possible through continuous nurturing, the father completes his role by providing for the family as an income earner or as a secondary parent in rare moments (Bobel, 2004; Büskens, 2004; Hays, 1996; Hertz, 1997; Johnston & Swanson, 2004; Mack-Canty & Wright, 2004). Importantly, the mother does not engage in income-earning activities. She is not only "at home" but also becomes a "true" full-time mother because she is not dividing her time or focus between her employment and her children (Johnston & Swanson, 2004; Ranson 2004; Sears, 1999; Sears et al., 2003).

Thus the key to understanding the cultural discourse on stay-at-home mothers is to understand that not only are they omnipresent in the home setting but they also are seen as constant mothers, especially because they are not engaging in income-earning activities. Societal norms assume that she is "at home" and "not working" because she prioritizes her family and children above earning income and career advancement. She believes that those nonmaterial acts have more value than earning material objects; indeed, this is seen as her "natural" duty. Children's physical and emotional development is her sole priority (Garey, 1999; Hays, 1996; Hertz, 1997; Johnston & Swanson, 2004).

The "Working" Mother

On the other side of the dichotomy of motherhood is the "working" mother. This mother gained her popularity during the late 1970s and early 1980s and was seen as the feminist ideal (Douglas, 2000). The term "working" mother suggests a mother who works 40 hours or more a week outside the home and usually in a profession that is career oriented (e.g., lawyer, doctor, CEO). This is the power woman who desires to "have it all." Liberal feminists thought that she would revolutionize the way society saw women and motherhood in the workplace, that eventually the public sphere would alter its practices to combine the roles with ease with such work benefits as flexible work hours, on-site day care, job sharing, and paid time off for parents (Mack-Canty & Wright, 2004). From this perspective, the "working" mother would become the norm and the "stay-at-home" mother would be the exception. The reality, however, is that worker and mother statuses are not straightforward, and ideologies about the need for paid workers and mothers to be fully dedicated to their tasks in mind and body do not wane. These titles or roles are more complex and difficult to define and manage when one takes into account that work can exist without pay and that mothers and workers can mother and work in any setting. Ultimately, the "working" mother image that liberal feminists have promoted is not the reality most mothers in the paid work force experience.

The working mother is often negatively depicted as a woman concerned more with her own personal success (e.g., maintaining a perfect body, getting a big salary, career advancement) and attainment of material objects (e.g., new car, big house, expensive clothes) than the success of her own children (Johnston & Swanson, 2004). These mothers are suspect when it comes to the bond and level of attachment they have with their children. They have become "good" workers and "liberated" women by tackling the roles of worker and mother simultaneously and, in the process, have become "bad" mothers because they appear not to practice intensive mothering as fully as stay-at-home mothers and might even allow others to do a "mother's job" (Macdonald, 1998; Uttal, 2002; Wrigley, 1995). Thus, the cultural assumption is that "working" mothers are "prevented by this employment from becoming full-time mothers" (Ranson, 2004, p. 89). Paid work activity, consequently, also prevents them from being "good" mothers. Popular parenting guides, like those by Sears et al. (2003) and Sears (1999), imply that these mothers need to compensate for their "working" status by engaging in "extreme parenting." This compensation may involve "night-time" parenting (enhanced by co-sleeping [sharing sleep space with children] and an emphasis on "quality time") and constant strategizing to limit the amount of time away from children (Garey, 1999; Hays, 1996; Sears, 1999; Sears et al., 2003).

The "working" mother is also characterized as a "supermom." The mythic "supermom" is able to switch effortlessly from high-powered career woman to attentive mother/homemaker without sacrificing job or children (DeMeis & Perkins, 1996; Hays, 1996). Yet the "supermom" image and the very label itself suggests that, when women work outside the home, motherhood should still be their primary duty. Indeed, many "working" mothers see mothering as their primary identity and place family in the same regard as "at home" mothers even if they are not in the home "full-time" (Cinnamon & Rich, 2002; Johnston & Swanson, 2004). Paid work is characterized as an ancillary activity compared to motherhood, and working women are still held accountable for the intensive mothering practices that "stay-at-home" mothers supposedly do. While working mothers are skirting their "natural" responsibilities of "full-time" mothering (Büskens, 2004), these "bad" mothers are still supposed to try as much as possible to appear and act like "good," stay-at-home mothers, as intensive mothering is not really optional.

Contradictions within the Dichotomy of Mother and Worker

Many real-life situations contradict the cultural discourse on "stay-at-home" versus "working" mothers as described above. That is, we suggest that there are disconnects between the ideologies and experiences of motherhood and paid work. Below we detail some of the major ways in which mothers' and workers' thoughts and behaviors provide a critique of this ideological dichotomy. Towards the end of this section, we purposely shift from discussing mothers to discussing parents to illustrate that, in our current economy, it is not only difficult to dichotomize mothering and working but also mothering and fathering and fathering and paid work. Ultimately, all forms of parenthood and paid work are intertwined in lived experience, and we may need to reconceptualize more than one set of identities and activities to truly capture the daily lives of women, men, and children.

Stay-At-Home Mothers Feel Pressured to Work

First, while many in the U.S. champion the mother who opts to "stay at home," and stay-at-home mothers are "good" mothers, there are few social support systems intact to help her maintain this status over time (Hertz, 1997). Many mothers feel that they lack the emotional, social, and political support in their decision to be "at home." They feel that they are constantly suspect as "bad" women because they do not work. This feeling of being a female "suspect" occurs even though they are the "ideal" or "good" mothers. Despite fulfilling their ideologically defined gender roles, stay-at-home mothers report feeling pressured to return to work (Johnston & Swanson, 2004). Hays (1996) also found that many mothers consider childrearing as more challenging than employment outside of the home, partially because child rearing possesses a lesser public value than paid work does within American culture. Child rearing is invisible reproductive labor that does not receive any tangible reward or acknowledgment, despite the cultural assumptions about mothers' responsibility to these activities. The lack of public acknowledgment and the difficulty of child-rearing tasks in general devalue the decisions some women make to be "at home" and makes the role of mother seem lesser than that of paid worker. Thus while we uphold stay-at-home mothers as those "good" mothers, they may feel enough pressure to eventually return to paid work and risk becoming a "bad" mother.

Women Conceptualize Themselves as Mothers First and as Workers Second

Second, while they do indeed engage in paid work, many mothers do not consider themselves "working" mothers because they work part-time or at night (Garey, 1998; Garey, 1999; Hertz, 1997). These "chameleon mothers" are able to perform both at home and work without social sanctions (Johnston & Swanson 2004; Garey, 1999). Some "chameleons" maintain their foothold in the professional world while others work in industries that are service-oriented or noncareer-oriented employment. The latter mothers do not have autonomy at work, and their work is considered less prestigious by social standards. They may not even receive benefits as part of this work. Yet maintaining part-time work in the service sector is a way—perhaps the only way—to support their family (see our discussion of economic transformations) (Garey, 1998, 1999). The former mothers may choose part-time work solely for the time it gives them for parenting; these women are aware that they are sacrificing career advancement but believe it is in the best interests of their children and families to do so (Hill et al., 2004; Belkin, 2003). Both groups are engaging in paid work outside the home and thus go against definitions of "good" mothering, yet both also attach less value to their worker status than their mother status and therefore elevate themselves as "good" mothers. Thus, both groups attempt to keep their paid work invisible. [4] While they may acknowledge at times that paid work may be important for their own identities and/or for their families' well being, they still minimize its importance, calling themselves mothers first and foremost.

Diverse Groups of Mothers Have Always Worked Outside the Home

The connections between mothering and paid work are even more complicated if we specifically look at diverse groups of women by race and social class who cannot even consider staying at home (and therefore may never be labeled "good" mothers). Motherhood discourse assumes there is a privileged status that all mothers possess (e.g., White, college educated, able to pursue a stable career, upper middle class, and married with a spouse who earns a high-level income) and that this privilege allows them to make clear-cut choices between staying at home or engaging in paid work. Lisa Belkin (2003) sparked a hot debate in The New York Times with "The Opt-Out Revolution," an article that described a growing number of college educated career women "opting-out" of the work force in order to mother. The idea that these women were "opting out" hit a nerve among women who did not or could not make the same "choice." Societal norms expect all mothers to choose mothering over work even though most women do not have real choice in their work status.

Women who are not living in the middle or upper class must work in order to maintain a basic standard of care (e.g., food, shelter, clothing) for their children. These mothers, usually depicted as Black or Latina in our cultural imaginations, are not at home because they cannot afford this luxury. Their only choice is to work and then mother when they can. In fact, if these mothers stayed home with their children they would still be labeled socially unacceptable or "bad" mothers, especially if they were to rely on governmental assistance. As a result, certain groups of women have always worked outside the home for pay, regardless of whether they were mothers simultaneously. Black women have been negotiating the boundaries of paid work and motherhood since slavery (Benin & Keith, 1995; Collins, 1991). Lower middle-class, working-class, and poor White women have all traditionally worked for income in some capacity in American culture as well, even during the iconic 1950s when women supposedly did not work (Garey, 1999; Kessler-Harris, 1983). Thus the realities of motherhood often are overlooked. We pay more attention to a cultural discourse based on a White, middle- or upper-class experience than the fact that most women are working mothers and have been for a very long time.

Mothers Often Mother for Income

Further, there are two types of women/mothers who perform mothering in return for income, illustrating moments when mothering and working are one and the same. First, there are women/mothers who run in-house daycare facilities, baby sit others' children for income, work as employees in public daycares, and/or are employed in preschool or nursery-school settings. These mothers care for other family's children, either while simultaneously taking care of their own children in their homes or while someone else (most likely another woman, often mother) takes care of their children as they work in a public caregiving facility.

Second, there are growing numbers of women/mothers who work in strangers' private homes as caregivers for others' children. Women in this category could be, for example, nannies or au pairs or other types of "mother's helpers"; yet in each case their paid work duties include the full-time (often 24-hour) mothering of others' children which cannot be combined with their own mothering activities. Macdonald (1998) terms this "shadow work," in that while these hired female caregivers do all the work of "intensive mothering" for someone else's children, they are not supposed to take the place of the "real" (biological) mother (see also Wrigley, 1995). "Stay-at-home" mothering, in this scenario, is accomplished by someone other than the mother herself. To contradict the boundaries of motherhood and paid work even more (yet to insure the distinction between the "real" mother and hired mother), this second group of paid caregivers is often of a different racial-ethnic and social class background than the family who hires them. Thus, despite the fact that they are carrying out familial activities, their worker/non-mother status within others' homes is solidified by this lack of privilege (England, 2005; Macdonald, 1998; Wrigley, 1995). Hondagneu-Sotelo (2001) explains further that nannies hired by middle- and upper-class, White families in particular areas of the U.S. (e.g., California, New York City) are often immigrant women of color who leave their own children behind in other countries in order to come to the U.S. to care for others' children for income (see also Hondagneu-Sotelo & Avila, 1997; Wrigley, 1995; Hochschild, 2003; Romero, 1992).

"Transnational mothers" (Hondagneu-Sotelo & Avila, 1997), as well as all other mothers in this second category and many in the first category, negotiate definitions of themselves as "bad" mothers because they are "working" mothers, as they ironically provide "good," "stay-at-home" care for others' children. All mothers who mother for income face the issue of trying to balance the care of their own children while caring for others' children and may not feel that they are able to the devote "proper" amount of care to either set (perhaps especially their own), even if they are "staying at home" while engaging in this paid work (Cochran, 1997; DeMeis & Perkins, 1996; Hays, 1996; Helburn & Bergmann, 2002). The complex web of mothering and working relationships created by the fact that women, and often mothers, mother for income shows how intricately combined mothering and working can be in lived experience. As we think about any of the mothers in this web (i.e., those who seek out public or private daycare outside of their home so that they can work outside of their own home, those who bring others' children into their own home to make extra money, those who hire full-time caregivers to take care of children in their own home, and those who are hired as full-time caregivers in others' private homes), it does not make sense to designate some women as "working" and some women as "mothering" because in reality they are all doing both in some fashion. The mere existence of mothering for income and the complex relationships that ensue surely contradict a strict ideological dichotomy of mother and worker.

Work-at-Home Mothers are "Stay-at-Home" Mothers?

We also must remember that there are many groups of mothers who engage in paid work from the home (and only some of them are engaged in caregiving for income, as in the last example). These mothers maintain their duties as primary caregiver and public worker all from the private sphere of their homes. These women identify themselves, like many of the part-time workers, as "stay-at-home" mothers even though they are participating in paid work and unable to give "full-time" attention or care to their children (Ranson, 2004). The divide between being at work and being at home, then, is constantly blurred. Who is the "working" mother and who is the "stay-at-home" mother, and what do these titles really mean? Mothers who engage in paid work from the confines of their home note that, while they are torn between working and mothering, their presence seems to be enough to balance out the fact that they are unable to devote complete attention and time to their children. Work-at-home mothers, however, assume that they are different from "true" "stay-at-home" mothers who constantly devote attention and time to their children; thus being at home may not be enough to make women feel like "good" mothers (Ranson, 2004).

What these various types of mothers and workers demonstrate is that there are ways of mothering and working outside the dichotomy. Mothers also think of themselves in ways that contradict cultural discourse about their parenting and paid work. Greater attention needs to be paid to mothers' identities, behaviors, and choices when working and mothering, since paid work and motherhood seem to exist more on a continuum than anything else. As Garey (1999) appropriately notes, mothering and working are "woven" together. There is a constant negotiation between the two, and they are not mutually exclusive tasks or identities (Garey, 1998, 1999; Hays, 1996). Perhaps in reviewing a larger variety of mothering choices and practices, scholars of motherhood could put aside the narrow view that mothers are not the same as workers once and for all. And, if they did not live in the shadow of this dichotomy, mothers themselves might not be at odds with each other, as in the "Mommy Wars" (Hays, 1996; Warner, 2005; Quinlan, 2005). Future empirical research can demonstrate that there are many contradictions within the ideological dichotomy of mothering and working as well as between the ideology and the reality of mothering.

Motherhood versus Fatherhood: Bringing Fatherhood into the Discussion

If we desire to understand motherhood more fully, though, we need to conceptualize and study fathers more completely as well. There is no lengthy discussion about "Daddy Wars" or a strict cultural discourse defining "stay-at-home" fathers and "working" fathers (although both groups of men exist) because the social assumption is that fathers will continue to participate in the paid work force just as they did before they became parents. [5] This view reinforces the mother as the only parent who needs to decide how paid work affects the family and as the primary parent overall, simply because definitions of mothers are connected to definitions of fathers. Thus, how we have defined fathers over time has reinforced the dichotomy between mother and worker.

Indeed, fathers have been defined as having a secondary and unimportant role in child rearing, when compared to mothers. Many new mothers have been given the advice of "setting dad up for success" meaning give dad a baby that is fed, changed, and happy because dads cannot handle the "dirty" work involved in child rearing. Fathers are continually defined as minimal participants in parenting activities and minor members within the family structure as a whole, outside of the income they provide for its survival (Lorber, 1995; LaRossa et al., 1991; Townsend, 2002). Fathers typically have only gained notice when they reject their economic responsibilities; in this case, they become "bad dads" (Furstenberg, 1988).

Academic interest in fatherhood is fairly new in the last few decades, and therefore there is little empirical or conceptual research on how fathers actually think about and act in the face of fatherhood and whether they also must deal with the contradictions between parenthood and paid work (Townsend, 2002). In both popular culture and academic research on parenthood, the focus has remained primarily on motherhood (Forste, 2002; Townsend, 2002). In a recent study of 20 fathers, however, Townsend (2002) found that men may think of fatherhood/parenthood and paid work as a "package deal," that is, more interrelated than cultural discourse allows us to assume. Townsend hints at very much the same argument we make about motherhood and paid work—that fathering/parenting and paid work are not separate entities in meaning or experience. In addition, there is initial evidence of an increasing willingness of fathers to put family before career (Renk et al., 2003) and fathers' changing roles within the family structure (Coltrane, 1996; Forste, 2002; Townsend, 2002). For instance, while fathers may decide (or feel forced) to work more after children are born if the mother steps out of the work force to remain "at home" (Hertz, 1997), we know little about the actual negotiations occurring before or after this decision. There are also fathers who choose to stay at home, but there is little attention given to these men in public conversation; it is assumed that a stay-at-home father is simply at home because he is between jobs (Zimmerman, 2000; Pruett, 2001). These studies can only point to the need for more theoretical and empirical research on men's lives and parenthood-work negotiations as a whole.

Structural Transformations in the Economy

Ideologically, we have tried our best to confine mothers to the private, family sphere and fathers to the public, income-earning sphere, but the lived experiences of parenthood and paid work described in the last section illustrate that our current conceptualizations of these identities/behaviors do not fit with reality. Structural theorists reason that "the current economic system is no longer congruent with traditional family values," thus making the labels of "good" and "bad" parents even more unfair and restrictive (Dill et al., 1998, p. 9; Mann et al., 1997; Smith, 1993). This section comprises a brief review of some of the recent economic transformations in the U.S. We concentrate mostly on how the market economy is now global and few U.S. jobs are secure. Consequently, we attempt to explain why more women and men are combining parenting and work out of necessity and how this reality must encourage us to critique dichotomous conceptualizations of parenthood and paid work.

Due to advancements in computer technology and the elimination of tariffs/trade barriers (in agreements like NAFTA and GATT), the market economy is now "global" (Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 2005). The flow of raw materials, finished products, and information across national and international boundaries has changed the geography and pace of the contemporary workplace (Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 2005; England, 1996; Hochschild, 1997). U.S. companies only employ about 14 percent of their manufacturing workforces within our country now, as companies move to low-wage countries looking for cheaper employees and transfer corporate monies elsewhere (Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 2005). Although corporate decisions appear beneficial for those in the new location, "they also take investment away from others" (Baca Zinn & Eitzen, p. 97), that is, workers, families, communities, and suppliers in the U.S.

Fewer and fewer low-skill manufacturing jobs are performed within the United States. Furthermore, those who still work in manufacturing within this country can continue to expect forced early retirements and/or frequent layoffs due to the foreign competition U.S. companies face. Outsourcing of information-based goods and services now affects the availability of other white-collar jobs in the U.S. as well (e.g., engineering, computer technology, communications, accounting, customer service, and telemarketing), as more and more companies find it cheaper to base their services and production elsewhere (Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 2005). Thus, many service sector jobs that have been considered safe are now vulnerable as well. Finally, as major companies continue to leave U.S. locations, smaller, local businesses left in those locations suffer economically (because of a lack of stable infrastructure and customer base); this puts minimum wage jobs in jeopardy. Almost no U.S. job is secure in the current economic climate.

How do these contemporary structural changes in the economy affect the experiences of mothers and fathers, and how we think about them? First, families are affected when male "good providers" lose their jobs (Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 2005; Newman, 1994; Rubin, 1994; Wilson, 1996). While fathers may be physically present in the home more often after being laid off, this does not secure their "good" father status; rather being laid off counteracts it. Recent research on fathers shows the excessive self-esteem problems former "good providers" face in reaction to being laid off from jobs that paid a "family wage" that supported the family (Rubin, 1994; Newman, 1994). This loss of the provider role is also problematic since there is no other role for men conceptually (Coltrane, 1996; Rubin, 1994). Some men may become more "involved" with their children and see active fathering as the immediate solution (Coltrane, 1996). Nonetheless, on average men have trouble making the transition from being a sole provider to social "co-parent" and (perhaps) "co-provider" (Coltrane, 1996). While men are dealing with the contradictions between old and new identities, their female counterparts (i.e., mothers) are pressured to maintain paid work in order for families to survive.

Second, since the median hourly wage of American employees (especially for men) has dropped since the 1970s and underemployment, as well as unemployment, has increased because of changes in the economy, the middle class is "shrinking" (Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 2005; Dill et al., 1998). U.S. families also have fewer health care benefits, paid vacation days, less sick leave and less discretionary income available to them when negotiating family and work roles (Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 2005). This means that many families who were once defined as "middle-class" in this country are now experiencing "downward mobility" and a declining standard of living (Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 2005; Newman, 1994; Rubin, 1994). These families that "fall from grace" must renegotiate work-family roles outside of stereotypical gender roles (Newman, 1994; Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 2005; Rubin, 1994). For example, a shift to dual incomes seems to be the most popular "coping strategy" for families (Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 2005). An increasing trend towards home-based work (especially among mothers) is another common coping strategy (Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 2005). Downward mobility in the face of economic changes and families' strategies for coping, then, contradict both "stay-at-home" motherhood and "working" fatherhood.

Finally, not only is the middle class shrinking but also poverty is increasing. This is especially true among households headed by racial-ethnic minorities and women (Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 2005; Edin & Lein, 1997; Wilson, 1996) due to gender and race gaps in pay, glass ceilings for women and other minorities, and the lack of high-paying low-skilled jobs in the service sector. Baca Zinn and Eitzen (2005) suggested that even minimum-wage jobs that were available after the 1996 welfare reform laws are no longer stable because these jobs were often in industries hit hard by the fallout from September 11th (e.g., travel, tourism, and retail) and an economy that continues to decline. Thus while racial-ethnic minorities and lower-income women have always worked (Baca Zinn & Eitzen, 2005; Benin & Keith, 1995; Collins, 1991; Kessler-Harris, 1983), their income-earning efforts are typically not enough to pull their families out from poverty. Particular groups of mothers therefore have no access to the "good" mother label, since they a) cannot uphold the tenets of stay-at-home mothering; b) work outside the home in stable jobs; and c) are poor. Furthermore, racial-ethnic fathers are automatically deemed "bad" due to their lack of connection to a secure, stable labor market.

Dill et al. (1998) cite a 1997 USA Today article that explains how "the traditional" family is being "destroyed by a modern economic system" . . ."[The] economic system simply won't allow families to exist in the 'old-fashioned' way, with a father who generates most of the earnings and a mother who does most of the nurturing. The one-earner middle-class family is extinct" (p. 10). This argument that class structure and changes in the economy undermine families today by taking mother out of the home is becoming more widespread within sociology and family studies (Dill et al., 1998). However, ideology ignores economic structural constraints and even reinforces or legitimates them. It becomes even harder to be a "good" parent (or a "good" worker, for that matter) when these constraints are present.

A Need to Reconceptualize Both Parents and Workers

If we continue to view parents and workers via the existing ideological dichotomies, we place monolithic, unrealistic definitions and expectations on parents and workers and overlook the lived experiences of individuals and families. Motherhood identities and behaviors vary and the literature needs to more fully reflect this finding. Paid work identities and behaviors also vary. Finally, fatherhood and men's work behavior varies. The polarized opposites bantered about in the "Mommy Wars" do not accurately demonstrate the realities in which women (and men) find themselves trying to negotiate. Yet it is from the ideological basis of the "Mommy Wars" that cultural discourse and most academic literature starts to assess the mothering experience. By starting with this dichotomy, we narrowly characterize women's experiences of family and paid work and altogether ignore men's current family and work situations.

Recently Newsweek (Quinlan, 2005; Warner, 2005) featured two articles on motherhood and the quest to balance the role of mother and role of worker with perfection. Each article's author, like other journalists and academic researchers, pointed to the problems that each side of the "Mommy War" faces: "stay-at-home" mothers feel the need to justify their station as equivalent to a professional career. On the flipside, "working" mothers feel they must keep their worker status and mother status from overlapping too much, so as to always be "good" mothers. These articles also go further by suggesting that both of these mothers are trying to complete a version of the "supermom" but have different ideas on what that is. This is similar to Johnston and Swanson's (2004) conclusion that the "supermom" image is internalized by all sides of the mothering debate, creating a negative divide between women based on a binary conceptualization of motherhood that does not exist. It builds on DeMeis and Perkins' (1996) argument that mothers are not creating simply their own mothering identities but listening to outside normative sources on what mothering is and what kind of mother they are. These news stories on the "Mommy Wars" and the academic literature on motherhood and paid work experiences therefore suggest that there are serious implications to promoting a dichotomous conceptualization of motherhood. Perhaps most importantly, it divides women into groups that compete against each other for the "good" mother title without enough weight given to the economic or social structures and everyday realities that are in place helping to contradict the "good" versus "bad" mother (or "mother" versus "father") divide. Secondly, fathers are left out of a discussion of the negotiations between parenthood and paid work, and this hinders positive identities and successful family-work negotiations in the current economy.

Instead of promoting a divisive ideology and contradictory dichotomies, feminist scholars, journalists, and lay parents and workers need to focus on the connections across mothering, fathering, and working experiences, and the common negotiations adults face as they engage in parenting and paid work. We have not addressed the ideas that mothers seem to universally share the home as their central focus and, regardless of employment, see activities within the home as a woman's responsibility (Garey, 1999). A redirection of the conceptualization of mothering and work would allow for women to see motherhood not as a competitive sport, but as a practice that needs support across the social and political spectrum. Not only do those shaping the issue in the public realm need to alter their conceptualization of motherhood, fatherhood, and paid work, but feminist and family scholars need to further document the realities of parenting and work and the continuum of identities and behaviors falling under each.

Defining child rearing as a mother-only, in-home activity also privatizes the parenting activities and parenting issues, isolating individuals in their efforts to care for children and engage in paid work (Hertz, 1997). This stops mothers and fathers from being able to negotiate and balance the roles of parent and worker in their everyday lives and receive social support for these roles. We argue that both parenting and work—along with the economic transformations that surround each—should be considered public issues that affect us all. Ultimately this will mean moving beyond the gendered ideological boundaries set for parenting as well as normative constructions of what it means to "work" Simultaneously we should rethink our notions about physical space and what it means to be "at home" or "at work" as one parents and/or earns income. As scholars, workers, and (in the case of many of us) parents, we have much reconceptualization and exploratory work to do.

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Home • Life and Relationship • New Parents

Stay-At-Home Mom: Its Benefits And Drawbacks

Acknowledge and appreciate these unsung heroes who work round the clock.

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The hard work of a stay-at-home mom (SAHM) is often overlooked, and an SAHM is not given the recognition due to her. SAHM is a woman who chooses to stay home to take care of the family. It is a full-time responsibility with no fixed timing, off days, or retirement. An SAHM manages a home single-handedly, from cooking to cleaning, arranging, and taking care of the children and her husband .

They sacrifice their career and ambitions and put the family before themselves. They understand that this time is precious and will not come back. SAHM Katlan Thomerson explains the reason behind her decision to quit working to be able to raise her child. She says, “One of the main reasons I decided to stay at home is because I realized this is the most time that I’ll ever be able to spend with my son. Life is so short. One day he’s crawling and the next he’ll be leaving for college. As such, I want to take advantage of this small time frame that I have with him. Once school starts, he’ll spend a minimum of eight hours a day away from me. Pile on after school activities and time spent with friends and you’ll be lucky if you get to spend 3 hours a day during the week with your child ( i ).” In this post, we talk about the pros and cons of being a stay-at-home mom and give you tips on being a successful SAHM.

What Are The Benefits Of Being A SAHM?

Image: IStock

Being with your children throughout the day and taking care of their needs gives you immense satisfaction . When they grow up healthy, it makes you feel proud.

Here are a few other advantages of being a SAHM:

You have a routine. Being at home helps you plan and organize activities and prepare a daily routine for both the child and yourself. You can give food to them on time, make them study their lessons, and take care of other basic needs.
You can focus on children. Your priority is nurturing them. You can closely track their milestones , take care of them when they are unwell, and ensure their safety at home and outside . Children, too, have the assurance that you are always there for them.
You get to interact with other SAHMs. You can expand your social circle, and build a network of SAHMs. This will help share your experiences with one another and come up with solutions for each other’s problems.
You will be free of job-related stress. You don’t have any targets to meet, you don’t have to request leaves and give an explanation every time you seek permission to work from home, and you don’t have to worry about leaving your child with somebody else.
You can cherish the precious moments with your little ones. You get a chance to have some priceless experiences with your children. You get to enjoy the sight of their innocent face while they are asleep, and the warmth of their hugs and kisses.
Spending time with children is de-stressing. If you can take meltdowns with a pinch of salt, then spending time with children can be de-stressing after a tiring day.
It is gratifying to be a full-time mother. Being a SAHM gives you the satisfaction of personally raising your child. You get an opportunity to teach them yourself and mindfully enjoy being a mother.

Image: Shutterstock

The choice is between being a SAHM or a working mother because that’s where all the difference lies. So, how are the two choices different?

Stay-At-Home Mom Vs. Working Mom

Below, we have listed the pros and cons of both the types.

Drawbacks Of Being A SAHM

If you thought that being a SAHM is easy, then let’s tell you it is not because you have to face the child’s tantrums for 24 hours a day! Here are the other problems of being a SAHM:

A sense of loss of identity: It might seem that the only job you are doing in your life is being a caregiver to your child and nothing else. Besides, your contribution to the family mostly goes unrecognized as your husband and others might feel that since you are a housewife or homemaker, you are relaxing by staying at home.
You feel isolated: Initial days of motherhood can be very daunting. You feel isolated, as you hardly get any time to come out, talk to people and know what’s happening in your neighborhood.
Life becomes boring: Routines get boring. You feel your life is mechanical. Doing the regular household chores can get monotonous.
No ‘me-time’: Contrary to the general belief, a SAHM hardly has any time to spend on herself. Your day begins and ends with the children and domestic chores. You feel trapped in the role of motherhood as you don’t have any personal space.
There is no time for hobbies: You may not be having a career, but even if you want to take up a hobby or do something constructive, you are left with no time or energy for it.
You are financially dependent on your husband: Being a SAHM makes you financially dependent on your spouse for all your expenses. You will have to manage your expenditure on a single income.
You may miss working: Having worked earlier, the change in your lifestyle can be very depressing. You miss going to work, getting a paycheck, and interacting with co-workers.
Miss out on working and learning time: You might feel like you are falling behind others. You might feel less updated once she resumes work.
Can cause conflicts with your spouse: Your spouse may have no idea what you are doing throughout the day. It might seem easy for him, but the reality is different, and the lack of understanding may cause conflicts.
No downtime: You don’t get any breaks, vacations or leaves. It’s a 24/7 job. You don’t have the luxury of sleeping late or waking up late, or going to movies or restaurants.

If you have weighed the pros and cons of SAHM and decided to stay at home, then you can make it work with some extra effort.

Tips For Being A Successful Stay-At-Home Mom

Here are some tips to help you play the SAHM role successfully,

Plan a schedule: Having a schedule helps you take a break in between the chores. Set a routine for your activities, household chores, and your child to manage your time efficiently. Leave some time for contingencies. How it benefits: Helps your child get used to ‘order’ in daily life. It helps you to be organized and saves time. It works for you, the child, and the family.
Connect with other SAHMs: When you interact with other moms who are sailing in the same boat, you get to learn from each other’s experiences. You get help from them, and your children too can play with each other. How it benefits: Helps you and your child to socialize and improve your parenting and social skills respectively.
Don’t try to be perfect: Nobody is perfect, but there is always room for improvement. Do the best you can for your child without getting overwhelmed about being the best parent. Being good is important than being perfect. How it benefits: Reduces the undue stress of being ‘perfect’ and helps your child to perform without any pressure.
Take help from family and friends: There is nothing wrong with taking help from extended family and friends. Take any help that is offered and give yourself a break. You need some ‘me-time’ too. Go for a movie, hang out with friends, or pamper yourself at a spa. How it benefits: Small breaks for two to three hours can help you energize and refresh yourself. They also help your child get used to staying away from you.
Hire a babysitter: If you have the budget, you can plan your day and baby’s activities by hiring a babysitter or nanny. How it benefits: Your baby will get used to being away from you, and socialize with others.
Join in some hobby classes: When you are preparing a routine, allocate some time for your hobbies . Enroll yourself in theatre, cooking, workout, dance or any other classes. Take up something that motivates you to step out of the house. How it benefits: It keeps your mind active and improves your self-esteem. Helps you maintain your identity.
Value yourself: You don’t have to get a paycheck to feel valued. Don’t feel inferior to others because you are doing the most valuable job in the world. Being a mother is priceless. Be positive and pat yourself for a job well done. How it benefits: Makes the journey of parenting fun , rewarding and fulfilling.

One big difference between a SAHM and a working mom is the extra money the latter earns for the family. As a SAHM, you can take care of that too. Let’s see how.

How To Make Money As A Stay-At-Home Mom

If you want to be a SAHM without compromising on your finances, here’s how you can do it. These measures may not cover your salary completely, but they will help you cut down on the expenses.

Be good with money management: When you are working you tend to spend more. But when you are a SAHM, maintain a monthly sheet of expenses. At the end of the month, you can analyze the unnecessary expenses and cut them down in the coming months.
You can save on taxes: When you are working, a considerable amount is cut as taxes. There are no taxes for being a full-time mother.
You can skip daycare expenses: You don’t have to spend money on a daycare or babysitter.
You can cut down on diapers and formula: When you are at home, you can use cloth or reusable diapers. You can exclusively breastfeed instead of spending on formula.
You can have fresh home-made food: Avoid the temptation of ordering food from outside or buying ready-to-eat frozen foods in the supermarket. Instead, cook meals at home at your convenient time – they are cost-saving and healthy too.
Transportation/ fuel costs: As you won’t be driving or commuting to work every day, you can spend less on fuel or transportation.
Find a part-time job or self-employment: Last but not the least, once your baby grows up and begins going to school, you can use your free time to take up a part-time job or a business that you can run from home. It adds to your family’s budget as well as makes you financially independent.

Creating A Safe Environment By SAHM

Stay-at-home moms know how important it is to provide a safe and nurturing home environment. Here are some things you can do to ensure your home is secure and healthy for your family.

Childproof your home: Secure your home’s cabinets, drawers, and electrical outlets to keep harmful substances out of your children’s reach.
Supervision and boundaries: Always watch your young children, particularly near water or the kitchen, and establish clear boundaries for your older children.
Emergency preparedness: Prepare an emergency contact list, first aid kit, and basic emergency procedures.
Healthy lifestyle: Consume a nutritious diet, exercise regularly, and get adequate sleep for your whole family.
Mental health awareness: Be aware of your child’s emotional and mental health and seek professional help.
Internet safety: Monitor internet usage and educate children about the dangers of online safety and sharing personal information.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What percentage of moms are stay-at-home moms?

The past decade has seen a rising trend in the number of dads who stay at home to look after the family. In the US, around one in five parents is a stay-at-home parent, which could either be a stay-at-home dad and mom ( 1 ).

2. How long should a mother stay-at-home with her baby?

Some women return to work when the baby is three months old, while others wait until they are ten months old. However, each mother should take this decision based on the family circumstances and the mother and child’s well-being. While deciding, remember that the education toddlers receive before they start school can have long-term impacts on their health and education ( 2 ).

3. How often should a stay-at-home mom take a break?

Being a stay-at-home mom can be exhausting since you must always be on your feet. One of the biggest challenges is finding time for yourself since your place of work and rest are the same. To prevent being overwhelmed, take a break whenever you need to rest your mind and body, and instruct your children and partner that they should respect your break time.

Being a stay-at-home mom, you can dedicate the required time to care for your children and witness each milestone they reach. However, the continuous work may be overwhelming and leave you feeling bored with a lack of motivation and identity. Though the contribution of a SAHM often goes unacknowledged, you should not consider yourself a financial burden to your family. Whether or not to be a SAHM is personal and depends on your family support and financial situation. If it is feasible for you to arrange care for your child and have a great career, you may wish not to stay at home.

Infographic: Understanding The Benefits Of Being A Stay-At-Home Mother

Illustration: Momjunction Design Team

Key Pointers

A Stay-At-Home Mom (SAHM) has to handle all household tasks and family responsibilities independently.
SAHMs may have to put aside their career goals to prioritize their family’s needs.
Choosing to be a working mom or a SAHM is a subjective decision that comes with its pros and cons.
Being a SAHM can be fulfilling as it involves raising healthy kids, planning routines, and cherishing moments.
However, being a SAHM also has its downsides, including loss of identity, isolation, financial dependence, and no personal time.

Image: Stable Diffusion/MomJunction Design Team

Choosing to be a stay-at-home mom is a big decision. Join Mayim Bialik as she shares her experience and advice on making this life-changing choice.

Personal Experience: Source

MomJunction articles include first-hand experiences to provide you with better insights through real-life narratives. Here are the sources of personal accounts referenced in this article.

Stay-at-home moms and dads account for about one-in-five U.S. parents. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/09/24/stay-at-home-moms-and-dads-account-for-about-one-in-five-u-s-parents/
Returning to work. https://www.pregnancybirthbaby.org.au/returning-to-work
Robert H. Bradley and Deborah Lowe Vandell; (2007);Child Care and the Well-being of Children. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/570794
Adrianne Frech and Sarah Damaske et al.; (2012); The Relationships between Mothers’ Work Pathways and Physical and Mental Health. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0022146512453929
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Shreshtha Dhar M.A, M.Phil

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Essay on How I Help My Mother aT Home

Students are often asked to write an essay on How I Help My Mother aT Home in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on How I Help My Mother aT Home

Introduction.

My mother is the busiest person at home. I always try to help her to reduce her workload.

Cleaning Duties

I help my mother with cleaning duties. Every morning, I dust the furniture and sweep the rooms.

Kitchen Assistance

In the kitchen, I assist my mother by washing vegetables and setting the table for meals.

Laundry Help

I also help with laundry. I gather dirty clothes, put them in the washing machine, and later fold them.

Helping my mother not only eases her work but also teaches me valuable life skills.

250 Words Essay on How I Help My Mother aT Home

Helping my mother at home is a responsibility I take seriously. Not only does it foster a sense of camaraderie and respect, but it also provides me with an opportunity to understand the intricacies of managing a household.

Sharing Household Chores

I partake in daily chores, ranging from cleaning to cooking. I ensure to maintain a clean environment by sweeping, dusting, and doing the dishes. I also assist in meal preparation, which has significantly improved my culinary skills. These tasks, albeit mundane, have taught me the value of discipline and time management.

Managing Finances

Being a college student, I’ve learned the importance of financial management. I assist my mother in budgeting our monthly expenses. This not only helps in maintaining a balanced expenditure but also provides me with practical knowledge about financial planning.

Emotional Support

One of the most important ways I help my mother is by providing emotional support. I make it a point to spend quality time with her, discussing her day, sharing thoughts, and sometimes, just listening. This emotional bonding helps in reducing her stress and strengthens our relationship.

Helping my mother at home has been a transformative experience. It has instilled in me a sense of responsibility, improved my practical skills, and deepened my understanding of the nuances of managing a home. It has also brought us closer, enriching our relationship. In essence, it is an experience that has contributed significantly to my personal growth.

500 Words Essay on How I Help My Mother aT Home

Helping my mother at home is an activity that I consider both a duty and a pleasure. It not only eases her workload but also provides an opportunity for me to learn essential life skills. I believe that the home is the first school, and my mother is the primary teacher. By assisting her, I learn to manage tasks effectively and also understand the importance of responsibility, cooperation, and empathy.

One of the primary ways I help my mother at home is by sharing household chores. I take on tasks such as washing dishes, doing laundry, and cleaning the house. These tasks may seem mundane, but they are essential for maintaining a clean and healthy living environment. By sharing these responsibilities, I alleviate some of the burdens on my mother’s shoulders, allowing her to have some time for herself.

Assisting in Cooking

Cooking is another area where I lend my hand. I assist my mother in meal planning, grocery shopping, and meal preparation. This not only reduces her workload but also provides an opportunity for me to learn about nutrition, budgeting, and culinary skills. Furthermore, cooking together strengthens our bond as we share stories, laughter, and create memories.

Providing Emotional Support

Apart from physical tasks, I also help my mother emotionally. Life can be stressful, and everyone needs a listening ear from time to time. I make it a point to have open and honest conversations with her, allowing her to express her feelings and thoughts. This emotional support can go a long way in reducing stress and promoting mental well-being.

Helping with Technological Challenges

In this digital age, I assist my mother in navigating the technological landscape. Whether it’s setting up a new smartphone, troubleshooting a computer issue, or guiding her through the use of a new app, I ensure that she stays connected and updated. This not only makes her life easier but also empowers her to be independent in a technology-driven world.

To conclude, helping my mother at home is not merely about doing chores or tasks. It is about learning, sharing, and growing together. It is about understanding the value of hard work, developing a sense of responsibility, and fostering empathy. It is about strengthening our bond and creating a harmonious living environment. I believe that the lessons I learn from helping my mother at home will be invaluable in my future endeavors, be it in my personal or professional life.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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My Home Essay

500 words on my home essay.

A home is a place that gives comfort to everyone. It is because a home is filled with love and life. Much like every lucky person, I also have a home and a loving family. Through My Home Essay, I will take you through what my home is like and how much it means to me.

A Place I Call Home

My home is situated in the city. It is not too big nor too small, just the perfect size. My family lives in the home. It comprises of my father, mother, sister and grandparents. We live in our ancestral home so my home is very vintage.

It is very old but remains to be super strong. There are six rooms in my home. Each family member has a unique room which they have decorated as per their liking. For instance, my elder sister is a big fan of music, so her walls are filled with posters of musicians like BTS, RM, and more.

Our drawing room is a large one with a high ceiling. We still use the vintage sofa set which my grandmother got as a wedding gift. Similarly, there is a vintage TV and radio which she uses till date.

Adjoining the drawing room is my bedroom. It is my favourite room because it contains everything that I love. I have a pet guinea pig which lives in a cage in my room. We also have a storeroom which is filled with things we don’t use but also cannot discard.

Our lawn in front of the house has a little garden. In that garden , my mother is growing her own kitchen garden. She is passionate about it and brings different seeds every month to grow them out and use them in our food.

The fondest memories I have in a place is my terrace. Our terrace is huge with many plants. I remember all the good times we have spent there as a family. Moreover, we play there a lot when my cousins come over. Thus, every nook and corner of my home is special to me.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Appreciation Towards My Home

I know a lot of people who do not have homes or not as big as mine. It makes me more grateful and appreciates my home more. Not everyone gets the fortune to have a good home and a loving family, but luckily, I have been blessed with both.

I am thankful for my home because when I grow up, I can look back at the wonderful memories I made here. The walk down the memory lane will be a sweet one because of the safety and security my home has given me. It is indeed an ideal home.

Conclusion of My Home Essay

My home is important to me because for better or worse, it helps me belong. It makes me understand my place in time and connect with the world and the universe at large. Thus, I am grateful to have a place I can call home.

FAQ on My Home Essay

Question 1: What is the importance of a home?

Answer 1: Home offers us security, belonging and privacy in addition to other essential things. Most importantly, it gives us a place with a centring where we leave every morning and long to return every night .

Question 2: Why is home important to a family?

Answer 2: A home signifies a lot more than a house. It is because we find comfort in our home as it contains memories and a place where our bonds strengthen. It is where we get plenty of benefits.

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500 Words Essay on How I Help My Mother aT Home Introduction. Helping my mother at home is an activity that I consider both a duty and a pleasure. It not only eases her workload but also provides an opportunity for me to learn essential life skills. I believe that the home is the first school, and my mother is the primary teacher.
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Stay-Home Moms and Full-Time Working Mothers: Indicators of Happiness Thesis

Significance of the Research

Statement of the Problem

Research Questions

Literature Review

Mothers and Patterns of Work

The Real Challenge: How a Working Mom Creates the Balance in Personal Life

Approaches to Women’s Roles

The Spreading out Women’s Responsibility

Multiple Competitive Responsibilities

Work-Family Convergence

Daycares and Everything Else

Working Moms are Healthier than Stay Home Moms, but they have to Pay the Mommy Tax

What’s Happening To Women’s Glee?

Gloomy Everywhere

“Happy Girl to Sadder Woman

Work-Family Conflicts

Children of working moms are 3 times more likely to get ill

Mom’s Still the Family Pillars

Mom vs. Mo m

What Do The Youngsters Consider?

Outlook crack broadens between working and stay home mothers

Pros & Con for mothers who work and those who stay at home

Research Methodology

Respondents of the Study

Data Collection

Instruments Used

Primary Research Tools

Treatment of Data

Data Analysis

Advantages for Working Moms

Conflicts for Working Moms

Method of Verification

Delimitations

Summary & Conclusion

Descriptive Essay About My Mother - A Guide to Writing

Descriptive Essay - What You Need to Know

How to Write a Descriptive Essay About My Mother - 8 Easy Steps

Step 1: Choose a Focus

Step 2: Brainstorm Descriptive Words

Step 3: Create an Outline

Step 4: Start with a Hook

Step 5: Descriptive Details

Step 6: Emotions and Memories

Step 7: Use Metaphors and Similes

Step 8: Show, Don't Tell

Examples of Descriptive Essay About My Mother

Why This Descriptive Essay Works

Tips to Write a Descriptive Essay About Mother

Keep reading

Why Do We Call Them “Stay-at-Home Moms?” There Must Be A Better Term.