Until the middle of the last century, it was still very common for most mothers to be at home with their children. In fact, it has been very common for the married woman to stop working. This slowly changed in the 1960s. After all, women have more rights than the kitchen sink. Although this is absolutely the case, you see more and more women at home with their small children. Perhaps the reduced contribution to childcare contributes to this, but more and more mothers are consciously choosing to stay at home with their children.
Reasons?
If you ask some of the stay-at-home moms, there are usually several reasons for it. Yet it is striking that everyone actually gives the important reason that when you work outside the home you are away from your children for more than just those working hours. You hardly see your children growing up, because besides the working hours you have the travel time, shopping for dinner that evening and then you go into the kitchen. How much time is left with the children? Working full-time means that watching your children grow up is largely limited to the weekends.
As children get older, they may be up a little longer in the evenings, but then the evening after dinner is also nice to spend with friends. People almost unanimously indicate that they partly miss the specific things of growing up and that it is rather hearsay. Wanting to have children, have them and then send them to daycare from the youngest diapers on is what more and more mothers no longer want. The fact that the government’s financial contribution has disappeared may have contributed to this decision. Yet there are also many women who have already decided to stay at home for at least the last few years and to take care of the upbringing and growth process full-time.
Why the woman?
The woman has traditionally been the caregiver and although women are slowly but surely finding their way to top positions, it is still women who quit when one of the partners stops working after the birth of a child. Salaries are largely taken into account and men still generally earn more.
Yet more and more women are deciding to stop working for at least a number of years, even if the salary does not make much of a difference.
From the labor process
Besides the fact that people should still be able to decide for themselves, (temporarily) leaving the labor process not only has advantages but also disadvantages. This mainly relates to the backlog you encounter in the employment process and joining after a number of years does not make it any easier. This will not have the same impact on every profession, but a lot can happen in a few years.
In addition, the independence of the other partner plays a role. As long as a couple is together, there does not necessarily have to be much going on (unless not having their own income has psychological consequences), but given the fact that many relationships only last a number of years, problems may arise. problems in view.
Part-time
A variant of mothers who are temporarily at home full-time is for both partners to work part-time. Jobs must lend themselves to it and both partners must make good agreements, but it is a variant that you also see more often. The fact that as parents you simply raise your child yourself, watch them grow up and experience all the changes, makes this also an option that is gaining ground. In contrast, the group of men who are at home full-time is hardly growing at all.
Shortage
Do children grow less well if they spend a lot of time in daycare? The research that is being done does not show this. But that does not alter the fact that there are also parents who feel that they are failing if they are not with their child much. However, this does not seem to be the right motivation to quit. It can even frustrate you if, for example, you are (temporarily) not in the labor process. Ultimately, that doesn’t do your children any good.
Opponents
Of course, there are also opponents and others (mostly women) see it as a decline in women’s business development. It remains to be seen whether this is indeed the case; there will always be a difference between men and women, even in business matters. Despite all the rules, employers still consider whether it makes sense to hire women of an age when they could have children. After all, the same woman could easily be out of the workforce for another six months or so and then a replacement would have to be found, which costs time and money. Does someone say that he/she makes a decision based on that? No, because that is not allowed. But the decision maker always decides and finds a reason not to hire that woman, even if she is the best. So it is unlikely that there will ever be one hundred percent equality.
Fighting the odds seems fruitless. Continuing development and women who want to go for it with or without offspring seems to be the only thing that works for the time being. But the choice is free and no one is more or less a parent because of it.