Attached Mamas Working Outside the HomeDo you face the unique challenges of balancing your career with your children? Come on in and talk with other moms who find ways to make their situation work for the whole family.
yes, i am a wahm, BUT i also am a master's student as well as being employed by the university (as a graduate assistant), so i spend about 15 hours a week or so away from my family working for pay.
i am glad this forum is up and running! i actually enjoy the part time that i am out of the home, and dh and i are talking seriously about him staying home to homeschool (perhaps taking rowan with him for some freelance horticulture work) and me working part-time (20-25 hrs) when i graduate.
i don't do well home with the kid/s full-time and am so used to having latt as a wah dad that i get frustrated easily and spend too much time on the computer when i am home full-time (as i was this summer).
so all in all, i enjoy the work i do out of the home and hope to be able to continue doing so part-time for some time to come--it works well for me and the kids.
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joy, wahm to j, newly 14, r, 5.5, and s, 7/03!
Hi Joy. I could not agree with your post more. I love the fact that my kids don't have to do daycare, and that I get to see all the "firsts", but I totally get sahm burnout. I love being out with adults and conversing about things other than poop and Wiggles. I also find that when I get burned out on staying at home, I spend too much time on the computer. I think if I could find the clients (once Miranda does not nurse every two hours) working 15-20 hours a week would be great.
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Kari, Mama to 2 beautiful angels earthside
and one waiting for me on the other side.
Welcome Joy! Ironically I was thinking about you and this the other day and wondering what your postgraduate work would be.
And, I hear both of you. I do - honestly and truly - value the role of a very involved parent with the children, however, it is very hard for me to do that without a break for some other type of work.
For me at least, I like doing both - I love part-time work.
Oh, Joy, I was also thinking about you last night in the middle of the night when the baby was not wanting to sleep and I was occupying my mind. I was thinking about - somewhat seriously - applying for a grant to study differences in attachment in children raised with the primary tenets of attachment parenting and children raised in "mainstream" families.
So, I'm going to run with this and just babble more: I was thinking about a longitudinal study where I would look at not just the immediate attachment style, but the manner it develops over the years. Of course, being a clinical psychologist, I would also want to look at how that ties with the development or prevention of psychological disorders.
But, I was thinking 1000 newborns - 1/2 from families committed to attachment parenting and 1/2 from non-abusive (i.e., healthy) families that do not practice AP. Interview parent, observe child, and observe parent-child interaction every year. Then build a large database which could be used to look at a TON of different information.
Okay, I need to shut my mind off.
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Rebecca, wife and mother
Jonathan (3), Lauren (6), and cousin Corey
Jamestown, Kentucky
P.S. Didn't change my siggy due to any other reason than I only intended it to be up for one day. I still stand by each and every word and am happy to repost whenever requested.
I love your idea, how would you define AP and mainstream in your study (it seems like people who consider themselves AP don't always askribe to the same ideals)?
fascinating idea...don't know why i haven't seen these replies before today.
there are established scales for AP.
leigh bar-yakov tested an AP inventory and had good results. i am using her scale in my thesis.
rebecca, you garner some funds and i am so ready to work on your idea! i have 1500 responses from self-selected american families, a few hundred of which have already agreed to be followed longitudinally. i gathered their data in 2002. you'd be welcome to use some of my conclusions/data in your grant proposal to demonstrate the need for this kind of research!
did you know there is nothing in the published literature re: AP families/children? only dissertations!
Hi Joy. I could not agree with your post more. I love the fact that my kids don't have to do daycare, and that I get to see all the "firsts", but I totally get sahm burnout. I love being out with adults and conversing about things other than poop and Wiggles. I also find that when I get burned out on staying at home, I spend too much time on the computer. I think if I could find the clients (once Miranda does not nurse every two hours) working 15-20 hours a week would be great.
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