Ok, enough socio-political rambling (is that what you'd classify this stuff as?)--on to much more interesting topics.
Such as my fixation with all things Japanese.
Why, you ask? Stuff like this is an example of just one of the many millions of reasons why.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Thursday, April 05, 2007
I read this article in the Washington Post a few weeks ago--“Despite ‘Mommy Guilt,’ Time With Kids Increasing” (March 20, 2007)-- with a feeling of déjà vu. I have read this same article at least once before in the Post--apparently there is more than one guilt-laden sociologist mom out there who has done this same study before. And as those articles made me laugh in the past, this article made me laugh yet again at the lengths to which women today go to reassure themselves that working outside the home does not deprive their kids of mommy time.
The basic premise of this study is outrageous—let’s bend the laws of time and space to prove once and for all that it is actually possible to “do it all.” It is a physical impossibility for a person to be both at work in an office until 7 pm and home with the kids during that same time. This is not a judgment, just a fact. What, now only time spent down on our knees playing Legos or teaching our babies sign language counts as actual time spent with them, and time spent cleaning the house or cooking doesn’t? Or the notion that evening and weekend hours spent exclusively focused on all things kid—ferrying them back and forth to sports events, spending “quality time”—does this mean that these kinds of hours actually count double compared to the mundane hours stay-home moms spend with their kids during business hours?
This is in no way meant as a judgment on working moms—I am one myself—but a plea for women to stop over-analyzing their decision to work outside the home. This is yet another instance of women today being obsessively competitive and perfectionistic, feeling they have to one-up previous generations prove that they are not only as good as the June Cleavers of years past but actually better. Mothering is not a contest and women need to get past the notion that there is some formula by which they can win.
The basic premise of this study is outrageous—let’s bend the laws of time and space to prove once and for all that it is actually possible to “do it all.” It is a physical impossibility for a person to be both at work in an office until 7 pm and home with the kids during that same time. This is not a judgment, just a fact. What, now only time spent down on our knees playing Legos or teaching our babies sign language counts as actual time spent with them, and time spent cleaning the house or cooking doesn’t? Or the notion that evening and weekend hours spent exclusively focused on all things kid—ferrying them back and forth to sports events, spending “quality time”—does this mean that these kinds of hours actually count double compared to the mundane hours stay-home moms spend with their kids during business hours?
This is in no way meant as a judgment on working moms—I am one myself—but a plea for women to stop over-analyzing their decision to work outside the home. This is yet another instance of women today being obsessively competitive and perfectionistic, feeling they have to one-up previous generations prove that they are not only as good as the June Cleavers of years past but actually better. Mothering is not a contest and women need to get past the notion that there is some formula by which they can win.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
