If You’re a Working Mom You Can Stop Beating Yourself Up

If you’re a working mom you can stop beating yourself up. A new study says your kids won’t do worse in school or be any more likely to have behavioral problems than kids whose moms stayed home. According to Time Magazine, a group of female psychology professors examined nearly 70 studies, spanning 50 YEARS. They specifically looked at how well kids did in school and whether or not they exhibited any aggressive behavior. What they found is that toddlers between one and two, with working moms, actually rated higher academically than those with full-time moms. They also tended to have fewer problems with anxiety and depression. The big thing is though, once children reached three years old, everything evened out and neither group was on top.

The outcome of this study was totally unexpected. Many working moms are overwhelmed with guilt when they drop the kids off at day-care every day, and conventional wisdom is that they’re doing damage by having to go to work. The truth is, most moms don’t have a choice. They have to work to support themselves and their family. Here’s the bottom line: Whether you go to work or stay home, the most important thing to be loving and affectionate to your kids.  Another new study tracked a group of children from when they were egith months old, all the way to adulthood. They found that, working or not, kids with the most affectionate parents handled the stresses of daily life the best.