Work Part Time If You Want Healthy Kids
The war between the stay-at-homes and the works-full-times just got thrown a loop. A new study claims neither of you is making healthy kids. It’s moms who work part-time who keep the pediatrician away.
The study out of the University of New England in Australia tracked some four thousand five hundred families and found moms who work just part-time were more likely to have kids who were a healthy weight and consumed less junk food.
Considering recent studies that claim daycares are just TV centers and granny daycare makes them fat and the back and forth over whether working moms are raising overweight kids because they’re not home to track their eating habits or stay-at-homes are letting their kids run wild with junk food, someone had to find a happy medium for us, right?
Of course, like most of these reports, they put the blame on mom instead of the situation.
The researchers told the Courier Mail that the moms who work part-time are “more conscientious” on their days off. Overall, they said the kids watched an hour less of TV in a week than their counterparts, ate fewer snack foods and spent more time exercising.
All because mom’s “more conscientious,” huh? Not because she has more time on her hands than the full-time working mother or because she’s not worn out being home all day every day doing the duties of a full-time stay-at-home mom? Not because she doesn’t have the funds for higher quality (less fatty) foods or because she doesn’t have the time to lead them all in group calisthenics? Did we really have to put this in terms of mom’s devotion to her kids?
Image: I don’t know maybe, flickr
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Someone can love their kids but still be not be as conscientious as they should be. It’s not about devotion and it doesn’t have to be taken as an insult. Maybe a wake-up call? The tone of the post is what I was bristling at in my comments on the Obama/marketing to kids post…it’s always *somebody else’s* fault, right? In my house, as the mom, I *do* control the food, entertainment, etc. of my child. Coincidentally, I am one of those part-time workers, but I don’t see why, if people are working full time or not working, they’d make excuses. That last paragraph is a ridiculous passing of the buck. Ladies, take control of your damn homes and children!
I doubt that Jeanne meant that devotion to your kids doesn’t matter. But if there’s a consistent result like this across a wide range of people, concrete explanations that are actually associated with work situation like the ones she suggests make more sense than some vague suggestion that there’s a correlation of level of devotion with working style. The latter implication is what I would find offensive.
Ok seriously?!?! THIS STUDY WAS DONE IN AUSTRALIA!!!! A country, that yes speaks English, but has different work/life balance, a different food culture and different health care system. Most of us don’t even have a choice as to which group we fall into…so how about we stop pitting mother’s against each other to say who is the best type?
I’m so tired of researchers telling me that’s what best for my kids is something COMPLETELY UNATTAINABLE.
Jeanne was linking conscientiousness with devotion. I say, one can be devoted in the heart, but still may not be making the most intelligent or conscientious decisions with regard to what goes on in their household. How is teaching your children good nutrition and supplying them with healthy foods unattainable? How is instilling the importance of exercise unattainable? The line “worn out being home all day every day doing the duties of a full-time stay-at-home mom” really makes me roll my eyes. I am a SAHM mom (work from home) and I will be the first to admit its a pretty nice life. People do what they want to do, especially middle class women of means who KNOW BETTER. Quit the whining!
I am a full time working Mom whose son is a daycare full time. I provide his lunch and snacks. Problem solved. Or is my kid going to be fat because Australia tells me so.
As GP and MAMA point out, it’s ultimately up to the parents to take charge of this situation. It seems like each group I’m around has an excuse: working moms say the daycare feeds their kids junk and the stay-at-home moms say you can’t get healthy snacks because we don’t have a Whole Foods nearby. The reality is you can provide your own lunch/snacks for daycare, and when parents have spoken up and made the effort to work with the daycare on food quality they usually see good results. Whether you work outside the home or not, there are plenty of healthy food options at plain old Kroger, and we have a farmer’s market and orchards in the area, as do most folks in the U.S. A healthy lifestyle can be achieved regardless of your work situation, it just takes a little work and discipline, like any other worthwhile persuit.
Oops. Pursuit. Sorry!