Earlier this week msnbc.com reported about a British study which concluded that children of working mothers spend more time in front of the TV and are more likely to eat unhealthy food. (You can read the msnbc article here.)
The results in the report sadden me. I feel like we working mothers get a lot of stuff thrown in our path that paints a bad picture of us. Much of what we hear is false accusations, but the findings in this study…I can see where it could be true. I’m not writing this post to make excuses, but to raise awareness among working mothers that this is the case and we can’t let it be this way. We owe it to our kids and to ourselves for it NOT to be this way.
I’m guilty of hitting the McDonald’s drive-thru on a weeknight with the kids because I worked a long-ass day and am tired and we don’t have much food in the house and the kids are starving and it’s 6:15pm and we’re on our way home from soccer and we still need to do homework and get everyone bathed. I’ve encouraged my kids to watch tv so that I could work in the other room on something that, if I don’t finish, will mean I have to be up until 2am doing. I do NOT do this all of the time, and, I’m sure you don’t either. But, if the study is accurate and the findings in England are representative of mothers in here in the US, we need to make some changes. It may mean working harder on the weekends when we do have time to prepare and freeze healthy meals we can heat up quickly during the week. Instead of parking the kids in front of the boob tube, maybe it means everyone goes out for a 15-minute walk around the block after dinner. I don’t know. As working moms, we are constrained in what we can do when, but I have to believe we can do better. We are smarter and better than this!
This study has got me thinking about maybe even starting a weekly post of one idea per week that we can implement to reverse the ‘kids-of-working-moms-are-less-healthy’ trend. What do you think? Is that something that would interest you? Got any suggestions?
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October 15th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Though my son is not quite two yet, I can forsee the challenges we will face in the future, rushing from one thing to the next and arriving home late, and facing the temptation of drive-thru food. Or not having enough time to play outside. I face many of these challenges already, I’m sure it is only going to get worse.
On the healthy meals front, I have been preparing meals Once a Month Cooking style for the past few months, and it has changed our after work routine immensely! I no longer rush home to make something that might be quick, but not healthy, and I am rarely tempted to go through the drive-thru.
Instead, when I get home, I put dinner in the oven (or already have something in the crock-pot) and play with my son for an hour or so while it heats up. While the weather was nice, that meant running around outside. Now that it’s cold off and nasty weather has moved in, we’ve had to be more creative. We play tag and run up and down the hallway, or we will take turns chasing balls around the house.
I think a weekly post to combat the negatives of less healthy kids is a great idea. I imagine a lot of us are already doing something that other moms would benefit from, and perhaps our kids aren’t quite as unhealthy as studies would have us beleive.
October 15th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Thanks for your comments, Stephanie. I love your ideas. It is challenging…and I find that gets harder as they get older. There just seems to be more to do – more homework, activities, laundry, etc – and less time to do it all. I’ll try researching some ideas to share…We’ll see where this goes.
October 20th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
I would love a weekly feature on this topic! I’m constantly weighing the advantages and disadvantages to being a working mom. Honestly, we could get by if I didn’t work. But I have made the deliberate decision to be a working mom and I need to be sure that my son (six months) doesn’t lose out on that deal. Looking forward to more!
(p.s. I found your blog via the Nest awards. Yay)
July 28th, 2010 at 2:02 am
I dont know what to say. This blog is fantastic. Thats not really a really huge statement, but its all I could come up with after reading this. You know so much about this subject. So much so that you made me want to learn more about it. Your blog is my stepping stone, my friend. Thanks for the heads up on this subject.
July 28th, 2010 at 2:03 am
As a Newbie, I am always searching online for articles that can help me. Thank you!Have you ever considered adding more videos to your blog posts to keep the readers more entertained? I mean I just read through the entire article of yours and it was quite good but since I’m more of a visual learner,I found that to be more helpful well let me know how it turns out!