The Nightmare of Motherhood

The Nightmare of Motherhood

Family and parenting is a critical factor towards realizing children rights as well as promoting social well-being among United States citizens. Parents who are heads of families carry the responsibility of ensuring their children’s care. Either there has been a looming crisis on ways to support families. Most middle-class families face hard times as they have little resources to facilitate the well-being of their families.

Schulte (2014) stated that there exists many bosses believe that there exists a zero-sum relationship between family life and work. From Schulte’s illustration, some women are heavily hit when it comes to balancing work and family issues. As a middle mother, creating a viable balance between attending to the children and going to work turns out to be a critical employment issue. From this perspective, Stone and Lovejoy (2011) suggested that some mothers would prefer to stay out of the labor market until their children grow old enough. The tag of war between family and career is a critical issue affecting middle-class mothers. Gender discrimination in the workplace is also another issue. Although Slaughter’s ideas were dismissed with several individuals, she believed that a middle-class mother could cope up with work and family demands by practicing substandard parenting as well as a substandard commitment to the job. Slaughter also argued that marrying the right person can also help one beat the employment and family balance crisis. Either, Stone and Lovejoy (2011) suggested, some mothers have also succeeded by looking for a part-time job. By doing this, they solve the menace of working 60 hours a week. In the same context, these mothers are also able to create some quality family time. Mothers who have decided to take sacrifice their career time so as to take care of their children have found it costly regarding their career progress. On most occasions, just as Stone and Lovejoy have illustrated, these mothers sometimes feel marginalized in their workplaces. Furthermore, they are less likely to be promoted in their job positions. It is, therefore, evident that women who take time for their families are less likely to succeed in their careers. However, Slaughter had argued that by reorganization the United States economy, then this woman can succeed.

Although the economy of the United States hums at a quite favorable pace, it is apparent that a segment of low-income workers in the country is earning low wages, making their livelihood vulnerable. On the discretion of deep poverty, which is mainly experienced by low-income earners, Desmond depicts that in 2018, almost 5.3% of the United States citizens are living in deep poverty. It means that almost 17.3 million United States citizens have income, which is below half of the poverty threshold for their family composition/size. Most mothers suffer the scourge of low income. Mothers are usually in a tug of war between attending to family and fulfilling their career objectives. Coontz and Folbre explored on the family wage of the 1950s. From their assertions, it was clear that mothers were entirely responsible for raising children. This makes them not have the ability to explore a higher wage job. In order to make ends meet, they have no option but to seek public assistance. Coontz and Folbre suggested that in the 1990s, the TANF program had cost more than 0.5% of the GDP. The essence of the TANF is that since its establishment, the program has enabled families’ access to cash assistance in order to finance their basic needs as well as maintaining stability. Most middle-income mothers have benefited from this program as it has helped in solving the harsh financial strains they go through. The inadequacy of these public resources has been seen to inflict psychological as well as social distress to children as they face the scourge of living in poverty (Desmond). The inability to access school by children living in poverty is the top contributing factor of generational poverty. As a result, the government should ensure it provides adequate public resources so as to alleviate families living in poverty.

According to Kefalas (2005), Marriage among the poor turns out to be another war on poverty. Most United States citizens believe that having a child while poor and unmarried is not the best way to do things.  Despite having various institutes that facilitate resource allocation among the poor, the United States still seems not to be doing enough to help poor families. Desmond illustrates how families living beyond the poverty line are characterized by scarcity of vital resources coupled up with marital hardships. In his illustration, he suggests that there exists no reach democracy that can be compared to the depth and expanse of poverty in the United States. In his argument, almost 50 Million Americans live below the federal poverty line. Desmond highlights that the primary reason for the inadequacy of resources to alleviate the poor is due to the changed social policies. In his argument, Programs like Earned Income Tax, and Nutrition Assistance programs tend to benefit only individuals immediately below and above the poverty threshold. It turns out that individuals living far below the poverty line benefit less from this initiative. Public policy priorities have also seen to it that the poor in society do not benefit from public resources. Furthermore, most programs in the United States are not well designed to improve family life. This program is are not linked with other programs like public health programs or building health insurance programs that will benefit the poor (Coontz and Folbre). This has seen to it that poor individuals are not able to be provided by adequate public resources from the United States Federal Government.

The ability to switch and effectively balance career life with work has been proven to be quite a hard task for many Working-class parents. Caretaking and looking after a family has made many working-class mothers opt-out of their careers in order to take care of their children. The same situation faces the poor mothers who are held in limbo as they told hard to look for a living while at the same time trying to look after their children. Just as Stone and Lovejoy write, although most women have the education capability to work, the rate at which they drop from their career is high.  Some of them are forced to quit their jobs to look after their family. As Stone and Lovejoy further added, the costs of quitting a job is quite high since it translates into missing salaries as well as a slowdown career advancements. To middle-class mothers, it is apparent that their family usually comes first. The costs that come along with career and family balancing has seen to it that middle-class parents are winning. Working-class, as well as the poor class mothers, are mainly concerned about how their children can stay out of trouble. The cost of this is that they usually end up raising lazy and less innovative children. The prices of not seeing how one’s children are growing can play a significant role in influencing a child’s future behaviors. On the flip side, middle-class mothers end up socializing with their children teaching them essential life lessons that will enhance creativity among children. From this perspective, it is apparent that the working class mothers do not lose not only in their career persuasion but also in parenting. Either, despite having a good parenting strategy, middle-class parents also undergo entirely since they usually end up sacrificing a lot to provide for their children.

Denigration of caretaking work is a factor that is significantly contributing to poor parenting. Poor parenting has a significant effect on society as a whole. Lack of proper upbringing has seen to it that children are engaging in criminal activities at younger ages. Robbery and other associated crimes are on the rise in the rise as compared to past decades. Its believed that parental negligence is the primary cause of this increasing violence. Parents have been blamed for not having time to monitor their children’s behavior; thus, they are seen not to be able to instill values on them. According to Crittenden, the quality of early care turns out to be the vital determinants of an individual’s emotional capabilities as well as intellectual capacity. Research in child development has seen to it that care, coupled up with effective guidance is among key factors in a child’s development. It lays the essential groundwork for establishment human knowledge, creativity as well as entrepreneurship skills. Just as Crittenden further argues, human capital is among the key factors that help in determining a country’s riches. In this context, it is apparent that by raising a child in an appropriate environment, then he/she shall be a great asset to the nation as a whole. As a result, overseeing caretaking work does not only pose a threat to the security of a society but is also a contributing factor to the loss of an essential mind that will help society in terms of economic development.

It is apparent that balancing career life and family life can be a hard task. Either, the United States needs to re-evaluate its policies regarding public resources allocation as well it policies on sick leaves. The policies put in place should ensure that women don’t face a hard time looking after their family while at the same time pursuing their career ambition. Proper parenting is good to society as a whole, and the government should ensure this is achieved.

References

Crittenden, Ann. The price of motherhood: Why the most important job in the world is still the least valued. Macmillan, 2002.

Coontz, Stephanie, and Nancy Folbre. “Marriage, Poverty, and Public Policy. A Discussion Paper from the Council on Contemporary Families.” (2002).

Desmond, Matthew. “Severe deprivation in America: An introduction.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 1.1 (2015): 1-11.

Stone, Pamela, and Meg Lovejoy. “Fast-track women and the “choice” to stay home.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 596.1 (2004): 62-83.

Schulte, Brigid. Overwhelmed: How to work, love, and play when no one has the time. Macmillan, 2015.

Slaughter, Anne-Marie. Why women still can’t have it all. OneWorld, 2015.