Last week on WomenCount Radio (the Blog Talk Radio show I host on Thursdays) I interviewed Sharon Lerner author of the new book, “The War on Moms: On Life in a Family-Unfriendly Nation.” I also got the chance to read the book before hand and it gave me a lot to think about it. The book basically is a look at how in the United States mothers face so many challenges when it comes to simply raising out children.
Take for instance,
- Only 42% of working mothers stay home for the first 12 weeks of their babies’ lives.
- The United States is one of just a handful of countries that do not offer paid maternity leave. Nations such as Germany or Australia dole out money just for having kids. And after infancy is over, there is free, high-quality childcare in France, Belgium, Denmark and Sweden.
- The average cost of keeping one infant in a child-care center is greater than tuition at public college
And that hardly scratches the surface of issues facing moms, and doesn’t even touch on the other side of the coin, women who stay home and the challenges they face. Personally I have been a working mom and a WAHM.
I gathered a handful of links to posts about the challenges mothers face in hopes of doing the same thing the book does, which is show that we are not alone in our challenges as moms. We’re all doing the best we can.
From Mommyhood: Next Right – Between Home and St. Elsewhere
From Mother Knows Less – Working Moms v Stay At Home Moms
From Just Mommies – 6 Things Nobody Told You About Being a SAHM
From Godsy Girl – The Top Five Challenges Facing Women in 2010
From The Queenof Spain: Make Me
From My Blogalicious – Just Call Me Sisyphus
I would love to add more links to this post so if you’ve written something about the challenges you’ve face as a SAHM, Working Mom or WAHM please leave the link in the comments.
And here’s to ALL moms!
Jul 29, 2010 @ 19:20:28
I agree there is a war on the family. I work outside the home and I would give anything to spend more time with my son. I feel so torn. I’m one of those who didn’t stay out 12 weeks when my son was born. I went back in 6 weeks but I was working from home on the computer after 2 weeks.
Jul 30, 2010 @ 04:23:48
It really is a shame. Other countries are much more family centered when it comes to careers. Not sure how we can inspire the changes needed, but we have to start somewhere. Thanks for this post!