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Balancing career and family
The role of grandparents in the life of children
Balancing career and family
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Parenting is one of the most important but stressful jobs. Fathers want to provide for their family and mothers find it to be very difficult to think about leaving their children for even a second. Therefore, many mothers prefer to stay home with their children when their husbands have a financially stable career, because mothers understand the different struggles of income, quality time, and the roles of parents in two-career and one-career families. Many families today have two parents with careers, which can put added stress on the family and especially mothers. With both parents working, one needs to consider the roles of the household. There are more husbands today that help with household duties such as laundry, cleaning, cooking, and caring for the children, but there are still many that don’t think this is a job for men, which can add more pressure and stress on mothers. Macionis (2015) claimed, with both men and women in the workforce, the majority of household duties are still …show more content…
Mothers have the daily struggle of making sure their children don’t get forgot in the day to day routines. It can be difficult to come home after a long, stressful day of work and still find the time and energy to spend with children. Mothers don’t want their children to come second to their career simply because they are too busy trying to keep up with all the responsibilities of a home, work, and not to mention all the unforeseen things that happen in life. Children are the most important people in a mother’s life and to find the appropriate amount of time to spend with them is very important. Unfortunately, many children of working mothers spend a great deal of time in daycare. And for some mothers, the idea of a stranger watching their children is simply dreadful, not to mention
College degrees, jobs, and income stream are all quantifiable items, however, a gauge on work-life balance, parenting abilities, and dedication at home cannot be measured by a number. In the past, men have been viewed as the backbone of the family. The typical day consists of getting up the earliest, going to work, coming home late at night, maybe missing out on trivial matters, but ultimately paying the bills. As time progresses, roles in households have shifted significantly. Now more than ever women are extremely active in the workforce, local communities, and politics. The obstacles faced by men and women are inherently different, but men seem to fall under an intensified microscope when it comes to intertwining family life with a career. Richard Dorment dives deep into these issues in his piece, "Why Men Still Can't Have It All." Although the argument may seem bias in favoring the rigorous lifestyle of men, the
Often viewed in several different ways, the division of labor of the home is never easy to assign. Willingly taking on their assigned roles, numerous families abide by these assignments, still; other marriages want equality in this division of household chores. Countless of these tasks can be strenuous and demanding. The responsibilities that come with these daily routines can also be life threatening if not carefully performed. A few of the duties in the day-to-day trade of maintaining a household include tasks such as cooking, cleaning, and caring for children. Division of labor among races is also different. These cultures influence how family roles come about and transpire. First, traditional Mexican American women undertake the
In Letha Scanzoni’s book Men, Women, and Change: A Sociology of Marriage and Family she observes that a wife’s duty was “to please her husband...to train the children so that they would reflect credit on her husband”(205). Alongside the wife’s duties Scanzoni provides the husband’s duty to “provide economic resources”(207).These expectations have long been changed, since then these have become common courtesies. Today, we see less and less of the providing father, homemaking wife and respectable children family structure. We are now seeing what sociologists call the senior-partner/junior-partner structure. Women and mothers are now opting for the choice to work and provide more economic resources for the family. This has changed those expected duties of both men and women in a family scene. A working mother more or less abandons the role of homemaker, to become a “breadwinning” mother, and the father stays his course with his work and provide for the family. Suzanne M. Bianchi in her book Changing Rhythms of American Family Life comments on the effect of mothers working and the time they spend in the home. “Mothers are working more and including their children in their leisure time” (Chapter 10), now that ...
Caregiving and homemaking are the primary roles given to women by society. And as Brigid Schulte stated in her article “Women aren’t the only ones trapped by gender roles”, “As long as women are expected to do the bulk of the caregiving and housework, and work cultures respect and reward people who don’t, women will remain at the disadvantage”. This quote simplicity sums up the effect traditional gender roles on the potentials of women. As long as these societal expectations are set in place, men will be the ones consistently given the rewards because their position in society is seemingly “superior” to women. According to an article from Forbes magazine entitled “The 5 Most Damaging Myths That Keep Women From Advancing and Thriving In Our World Today”, the second most damaging myth is the thought “that gender equality is just a workplace issue”(Caprino). Though this is a major issue surrounding traditional roles, the behavioral and physical expectations of men and women cannot be overlooked. “Social roles are the part people play as members of a social group. With each social role you adopt, your behavior changes to fit the expectations both you and others have of that role”(McLeod). Women are expected by society to be dependent, passive, emotional, and nurturing and look graceful and petite. Opponents to the aforementioned statements would suggest that
It is common knowledge that a parent is considered the most efficient caregiver for their children. It’s also known that with daily responsibilities of caring for a child financially, parents partake in full-time and/or part-time employment. While needing to do so, many children attend daycare/preschool facilities. Granted, it is the parent’s responsibility to cautiously select where they decide to take their children. This is because parents know that while they are away for numerous hours of the day, their children are in the hands of another care provider and that their care would have an enormous impact on their children. At a young age, a child’s social and cognitive skills are continuing to take shape and the amount of time spent in these facilities has a resilient impact on a child’s development. With proper and superior care no matter the time spent, such positive effects on a child’s development should endure in a child’s cognitive and social development. In other words, there is a great benefit of childcare/daycare attendance on a child’s development.
In today’s society the majority of households have a family dynamic where both parents need to work. It is nearly impossible for most families in America to survive financially without two incomes. This puts many parents in a situation where they have to find extra help to watch their children while they are away at work. “These days couples face complex negotiations over work, family, child care, and housekeeping. It becomes evident that where traditional marriage through the centuries has been a partnership based on mutual dependency, modern marriage demands greater self-sufficiency” (Hekker). Day care becomes a necessity for many families, and the main concern for most parents is if the day care will be a positive experience for their children. Day care can be a positive option for parents seeking help with child care as well as developmentally for the child.
Child care workers have have a “Service Orientation were their are always looking for someone to help.”( Onet) When with the parents I might have arrange childcare or educational settings to ensure physical safety of their children. I will need to make
Throughout history, the roles of men and women in the home suggested that the husband would provide for his family, usually in a professional field, and be the head of his household, while the submissive wife remained at home. This wife’s only jobs included childcare, housekeeping, and placing dinner on the table in front of her family. The roles women and men played in earlier generations exemplify the way society limited men and women by placing them into gender specific molds; biology has never claimed that men were the sole survivors of American families, and that women were the only ones capable of making a pot roast. This depiction of the typical family has evolved. For example, in her observation of American families, author Judy Root Aulette noted that more families practice Egalitarian ideologies and are in favor of gender equality. “Women are more likely to participate in the workforce, while men are more likely to share in housework and childcare (apa…).” Today’s American families have broken the Ward and June Cleaver mold, and continue to become stronger and more sufficient. Single parent families currently become increasingly popular in America, with single men and women taking on the roles of both mother and father. This bend in the gender rules would have, previously, been unheard of, but in the evolution of gender in the family, it’s now socially acceptable, and very common.
Today, in a vast majority of families, both the wife and husband have a job. Many working parents are under stress as they have to try to balance the demands of their work, children and relationship. Over the past 25 years, women's and men's roles have changed dramatically. In fact, the world of work and home are not separate, research indicates a profound impact on work and home life.
Children are the future of the world and need to be nurtured and educated in the best conditions. Thus, parenting is one of the most challenging and admirable responsibilities that people can experience. Parenting plays important roles in the development of children’s characteristics. Some people nurture children depending on their own ways. Others get advice from friends or books. Parenting can be divided into three groups: authoritative, permissive, and democratic parenting.
More and more women work outside and inside the home. The double demands shouldered by these women pose a threat to their physical health. Whether you are an overworked housewife or an exhausted working mother the chances are that you are always one step behind your schedule. No matter how hard women worked, they never ended up with clean homes. Housewives in these miserable circumstances often became hysterical cleaners. They wore their lives away in an endless round of scouring, scrubbing, and polishing. The increased strain in working women comes from the reality that they carry most of the child-rearing and household responsibilities. According to social trends (1996), women always or usually do the washing in 79 percent of cases and decide the menu 59 percent of the time. Picking up the children at school or doing grocery shopping are just a few of the many typical household-tasks a woman takes on every day.
Gender roles are extremely important to the functioning of families. The family is one of the most important institutions. It can be nurturing, empowering, and strong. Some families are still very traditional. The woman or mother of the family stays at home to take care of the children and household duties. The man or father figure goes to work so that he can provide for his family. Many people believe that this is the way that things should be. Gender determines the expectations for the family. This review will explain those expectations and how it affects the family.
Childcare is widely known as the regular non-parental care of children while parents are absent. Many reasons like work, studying or just having a break from raising children push parents to the use of child day care. But with the increase of both parents, especially mothers, opting to go back to work sooner rather than later after having children, demand for child day care is increasing accordingly. This increase has initiated much research into the short and long term emotional, cognitive and social behavioural patterns of children receiving non-parental care.
“Of the 41.8 million children under 15 who lived with two parents last year, more than 25% had mothers who did not work and stayed home, according to a Census Bureau report,” Genaro Armas writes. This is an increase of stay at home parents which maybe because of the economic boom. Many people are wondering why you would give up a job, and economic security just to raise your kids. What most don’t realize is that you are taking on another job when you take care if your kids. The Census Bureau also reported that 55% of women who gave birth between July 1999 and July 2000 returned to the labor force within a year of having their babies. This means that most mothers do not end up at home like old times. They are choosing there own economic safety over there child’s well being. They still have time with there children just while they are at work they just like to forget where there children are.
However, studies have shown that fathers could also be housekeepers. According to Glen Sacks, the author of “Stay at home dads” dispute that, “The freedom to switch gender roles has allowed each of us to gravitate toward what we really want in life” (Sacks 266). Despite that society looks at men as the primary breadwinner of the house, people tend to call men unmanly because of changing gender roles. Exchanging gender roles is beneficial for fathers because it gives them an opportunity to experience the responsibility that mothers have traditionally by taking care of the home. In fact, fathers could also be a positive impact in the family because they continue to be the warden of the house. It also gives them the chance to spend time and create a bond with their children. In today’s society it seems as though men don’t really take on their role of being a father. If fathers get the chance to step into their wife’s shoes, it could give them a possible way to understand the role that women have played for so long. Changing gender roles gives mothers the opportunity to find jobs, develop their interpersonal skills and broaden their horizon rather than go by the stereotypical perception which is cleaning the house, cooking or taking the a child to