|
Fact Box Level: 8.362 Tokens: 391 Types: 213 TTR: 0.545 |
Living with Children
Living with children is one of the few situations where virtue is rewarded. Though it sounds intolerably proud to say so, parents who think first what's best for the children really do have an easier, more comfortable life than those who do what they like and make the children fit in.
The key decision is: should both parents go out to work? Dr.Spock takes the standard line: if a mother realizes how vital her care is to a young baby, it may make it easier for her to decide that the extra money she might earn, or the satisfaction she might receive from an outside job, is not so important after all.
The evidence is, as usual, more confused. All research agrees on consistent loving care and a high level of stimulation as essential parts in best child development. But there's increasing doubt that the 24 hours a day, seven days a week mum is the best way to provide it.
Two recent, as yet unpublished, London studies have quite independently come up with the same result: 40 percent of mothers who stay at home with children under five are depressed, although the depression is not necessarily caused by staying at home. Dr. Michael Rutter of the Maudsley Hospital and Dr. G. Stewart Prince, among others, have shown that depressed mothers produce depressed children. There are many other mothers who, without being depressed, are oppressed by the unending repetitive task of caring for a young baby and so get less pleasure from their children than they might.
Extra money is not to be regarded as worthless. It buys automatic washers, tumble driers, dish-washers to make life easier and give more real attention-time to the children. It buys time off, excursions, holidays. It may make the difference between a town flat and a house with a garden, a better environment for bringing up children.
Short Answer Questions
(Keys.)