Photo: iStockphoto
Every working mom I know has done the math: ?If I weigh the costs of just going to work?parking, gas, daycare?versus the costs of staying home with my kids, is it even worth it"?
For some women, it?s a no-brainer; their salaries are too important to the family finances, or they just plain like working?they enjoy the break from their households and feel like they?re contributing to something significant enough that balancing work and home is a given. For others, the math is enough to prompt a career change to a work-at-home or stay-at-home situation, saving money on daily expenses and childcare and getting more time with their broods.
But the more I talk this issue over with my friends, the more I realize it?s almost a lose-lose scenario. The guilt eats us up, no matter the choice. In this day and age, where women are challenged to lean further and further in, those who want their kids to be their work?at least in the short term?may feel like they?re not living up to their own potential, while those planted firmly in the workforce feel like their kids are getting the short shrift. Last Tuesday, a piece by video producer Solana Pyne (with an accompanying video created by Pyne and her husband Erik German) published on digital news site Quartz called bullshit on a major piece of evidentiary science previously provided in the stay-at-home versus working mother debate. A major, eye-popping stat, supplied by analyst William Mattox of the Family Research Cou...