Circleofmoms.com recently published a study on mothers who stay at home with their children and mothers who work. The study found that the “average” number of kids in a family with a stay-at-home mother is 2.2 while the average in a family with a working mother is 1.9. The study also found that 32 percent of stay-at-home mothers have more than three children while that number drops to 22 percent in families with working mothers.
There are many more statistics in the info-graph, but the section that I found interesting was “About Their Children.” According to the study, a working mom’s child on average learns their ABC’s earlier and learns to read earlier then a stay-at-home mother, while a stay-at-home-mother’s child on average will learn to swim and ride a bike earlier then a working mom’s child.
The infograph also included thoughts from both working and staying-at-home mothers and I think Wendy N. put the decision into context best saying, “Working or staying at home one has to make sacrifices and it is hard either way. The trick is balancing and finding peace within yourself and your decision.”
I would be very interested to hear from mothers on how they came to the decision to work or not while raising a family. What were some of the factors in your decision, and how do you or did you balance work and family life?