From the mid-1800s, women started actively involving themselves in businesses and work outside their homes. Today, due to economic, health, and family obligations, more and more women work outside their homes to provide financially for their families. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 79.7% of women with children below 18 years are working full-time. It’s not uncommon today to see mothers taking more leading positions in their places of work, such as CEOs, Directors, and even running their own companies, roles that involve long periods of daily work hours. As a result, mothers dedicated more time at the workplace than in their homes. Let’s not forget mothers who are housewives. By choice or circumstances, stay-at-home mothers also face challenges in taking care of their family needs.
Mothers face many challenges that affect them differently, from dealing with busy and demanding work schedules to outside social influences. Grouping these challenges under-recognized themes in no way overlooks the unique challenges met by different women.
Work-Life Balance
Mothers face the issue of how to balance employment and raising their family demands. Many say that raising a family is a 24-hour job. With this in mind, how will the employment hours, which typically require 7 to 8 hours at a minimum (for full-time work), fit within these 24 hours? Something has to give, which typically is time spent in raising the children that get sacrificed. The good news is that many companies have noticed the negative impact on their employees of not having a work-life balance and increasingly look for opportunities to create flexible working environments. The introduction of work-life balance programs such as remote work, hybrid work, and other programs assists single and married mothers face the hurdles of demanding needs. A study states that ‘90% of workers report that flexible work arrangements contribute significantly to their overall morale’.
Child Care and Housework
Many mothers find that to work outside their homes, a caregiver for their children is essential. Nannies and housekeepers contribute to the support mothers need in raising their families. Domestic machines such as laundry machines, dryers, and dishwashers have reduced the amount of time mothers spend on these cleaning duties. Even so, responsibilities such as helping their children with homework, cooking, vacuuming, creating and participating in social activities for their families, and spending time with their children need time. Mothers with valuable support from their husbands or relatives living close to them find it easier to manage these duties.
Social Factors
Due to higher economic demands, mothers find that to meet family financial obligations, whether their spouse is employed, longer working and commuting hours make it harder for them to spend time with their children. As more children get exposed to the influence of peer pressure, TV programs, and movies to take drugs, alcohol, engage in early sex, and reckless driving, parents need to spend quality time to counterbalance these negative influences.
Getting Enough Good Quality Sleep
Anybody can attest to the fact that when they have a good night’s rest, they wake up feeling rested emotionally, physically, and mentally, ready to meet the day’s challenges. Between work and family life, sometimes mothers spend less than the recommended time for getting quality sleep. Mothers especially require a sleep schedule that provides them with a good night’s rest. A contributing factor in achieving a good night’s rest is a comfortable bed with a firm or medium-firm level mattress that supports the body.
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Getting Personal Time
Mothers need to get their me-time or personal time to unwind and relax. Some say that not having personal time can make a mother go ‘crazy.’ Finding me-time requires mothers to ask for help from a spouse, friend, or relative. Having a support group is essential to help mothers get the needed personal time and rejuvenate them.
Challenges Every Mom is Facing
Being a mother in today’s time is a challenging task. We have to deal with the regular parenting issues like our children being fuzzy about nothing or asking thousands of questions. If that wasn’t enough, we are introduced to another level of complexity: Technology! Thanks to the advancement in technology, children these days are living a digitalized childhood and are growing up in a digitally saturated environment.
The definition of motherhood has become very different for us than it was for our mothers. The rapid-paced and hectic life is presenting itself with new and unique pressures for us, especially in the case of working mothers. Parenting was never an easy task, and challenges have always been a part and parcel of it. But we today have to face the combined demand of situations like technology, rapidly changing family dynamics, a round the clock information cycle, and a beaten educational system.
Below mentioned are some of the issues faced by modern-day moms:
Lack of Time
The life of a mother is never easy. We have to wake up early in the morning and go to work after being up with our toddler for almost the entire night. Then we reach home from work, prepare dinner, maintain the house, and do the laundry before we finally put our head to rest. We’re famished, stressed as we keep on switching between professional and personal life. As a result, children are left alone most of the time with complete access to almost everything. This results in behavioral changes, a feeling of insecurity, and loneliness in them.
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Technology and Entertainment
In the past, enjoying television meant watching scheduled shows on certain days & timings, when the whole family would come together and sat in front of the TV. Using PC was something we did rarely. Currently, we are parenting in the virtual age. Due to the digital age, current parenting techniques have given birth to a new wave of hi-tech issues to cope with along with other fears wherein children have unlimited and unrestricted access to all kinds of content on the web.
Struggling to Teach Good Values
When we were growing up, we had our grandparents by our side to look out for us and instill good values, when our parents were away. Then, we were introduced to the nuclear family concept, where families these days do not have grandparents, and children are by themselves. With unrestricted access to almost all media and content, children start assuming that it’s ok to consume and imbibe all the content and replicate them in their daily lives. This results in us failing to teach moral values to them once they grow post a certain age.
Keeping Our Children Healthy
Unlike us, children these days don’t play cricket or outdoor sports with other children in the neighbourhood. The entire blame for this situation has to be taken by us. We have hooked them up with TV, video games, and computers. This has resulted in them preferring to be indoors than outdoors, which results in low immunity, social isolation, obesity, etc. apart from other health hazards. Staying indoors for an extended period curbs the development of the natural immunity of children, hence making them more vulnerable to germs and illnesses present in today’s polluted environment.
Prevalence of Evolved Germs
In the last decade, not only has the pollution and the dust particles gone up, but the germs present in the environment have evolved alarmingly. These microbes are more resilient, multiply quicker, and are difficult to get rid of, which makes curing diseases caused by them a daunting task. These environmental issues are really frightening, especially when it hampers the health of our children.
Being a mother is one of the most challenging and rewarding roles a woman can take on. In today’s society. In today’s society, being a mother presents a unique set of challenges, from balancing work and family to navigating technological advancements, but mothers continue to rise to the occasion.
