Friday

Moms Work More Hours Than Anyone Else, and They Deserve the World

About 75% of mothers with children under 18 are employed in the US. If you’re a working mom, it literally means that you have 2 jobs. You have to take good care of your children and be a productive and energetic employee at the same time. Well, it’s no wonder that modern moms may feel constantly tired and like they don’t have enough time for themselves. Researchers counted how many hours moms actually work per week and the results were pretty unexpected.

Bright Side admires all the efforts mothers invest in their families and how they work hard to build their careers. So we’d like to take a chance to once again remind all the working moms why they’re real superheroes.

An average working mom has a 98-hour work week.

A study conducted by Welch’s and the Market Researchers OnePoll surveyed 2,000 American women who had children between the ages of 5 and 12. The researchers wanted to find out how working mothers plan their time and manage to be productive.

They discovered that an average mom starts her day at 6:23 AM and doesn’t finish her work or family duties until at 8:31 PM. This means she spends about 14 hours every day fulfilling her obligations and not spending time on herself.

And some mothers may feel like they’re running in a never-ending loop with all these duties. 4 out of 10 mothers confirmed that sometimes their lives look like a long chain of tasks that seem to never end.

Mothers only get to spend about an hour and 7 minutes per day on themselves.

The same study showed that with all this work stuff and taking care of their family, working moms are left with not enough time to devote to themselves. They usually only get about an hour and 7 minutes of me time.

The problem is that working moms have to give up many things in their lives to find a healthy work-life balance. For example, they may not have enough time to visit their childless friends and sometimes just going to the bathroom alone can become a real challenge if they can’t even leave their child for a minute.

But having some time alone is important for psychological health. It helps to clear the mind, boost productivity, and allow for you to figure out your real wishes and aspirations. It may also contribute to your relationships with other people, including family members, making them deeper and stronger.

Women underestimate the cost of motherhood.

Although career-oriented women know that going back to work after maternity leave will be pretty hard, a recent study showed that many women didn’t anticipate that motherhood would have such an effect on their career and personal life. Many women feel like they’re under constant pressure to be the perfect mother and the perfect employee at the same time.

They may feel overwhelmed and frustrated because of the lack of support, constant stress, and the desire to prove that they can have it all, without any sacrifices. Working mothers are expected to be available 24/7 for work and household duties, which can become quite the challenge if a company doesn’t offer flexible working hours or if a mother doesn’t have anyone she can delegate some of the household chores to.

But women shouldn’t feel guilty.

Some working mothers may feel some guilt because, despite doing their best, they still don’t have an opportunity to spend as much time with their kids as stay-at-home mothers do. The good news is that, according to research conducted by Harvard Business School Professor Kathleen McGinn, children don’t suffer the consequences of their mother’s decision to go back to work.

The study showed that children of working mothers show the same levels of happiness when they grow up, as the children of mothers who stayed at home and dedicated themselves to raising their kids. Daughters of working mothers also tend to show higher work performance and are more likely to be employed.

Have you ever been in a situation where you had to work and take care of your family at the same time? How did it work out for you? Share your story in the comments.

Preview photo credit FaceToFace/REPORTER, face to face/FaceToFace/REPORTER

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