Interview with working mother- Sam

Hello everyone, this is an interview with a working mother of 3 children.

1. How many children do you have?

Answer: 3, 4 including my husband. (meant as a joke)

2. Do you find it stressful having to handle your family and your carrer?

Answer: Yes, definitely!

3. Would you consider yourself a “Supermom”?

Answer: Yes.

4. Do you spend more, less or equal time at work as compared to non-mothers?

Answer: More, in my opinion, because everytime I leave my office, everyone is long gone!

END OF INTERVIEW

This working mother actually spends more time at work than most people in her work area!

 

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0511/10/sbt.01.html

#04 Paula’s personal reflections on Working Mummy (:

here i have posted a link to which i think is able to help you all understand more about Working Mothers through a boy’s blog. in his blog, he blogs about what he feels about his working mother and what he tries to do to try to help reduce his mother’s already-very-heavy burden. (: And all this are done in his 4 posts. (:
http://www.petoskeynews.net/supermom/page4.html

#03 Paula’s personal reflections for Working Mummy (:

Here I have posted the link to a website which i think might help in your understanding of working mothers better (:
http://www.mothersandmore.org/campaign/md04/finalists.shtml

 

I’m not sure where I got Transcript #03, sorry for the inconvenience.

Transcript #02

This is an interview with my mother, who was working as a lawyer.

Me: I’ve heard that working mothers have to balance work and life. How did you do it?

Mom: When I was working, I had hired domestic helpers to take care of you. I focused more on work than on taking care of you as being a lawyer was a challenging job and I had no time for family. Also, I asked your grandmother to help take care of you.

Me: So, what are some challenges you think working mothers face?

Mom: hm… I think that they have to give up many career opportunities as they have to tend to their family’s needs first. Also, time management is another challenge. Taking care of children and handling career at the same time is tough, you know. There are so many opportunities at work that I just could not give up. That’s why they have domestic helpers and childcare centres now.

Me: What is the biggest challenge faced by a working mother?

Mom: Time management. That was tough, for me at least. [sheepish grin]

Me: What advice do you have to working mothers out there?

Mom: um… nothing, really. Just want to say that being a working mother is tough, and um… to those who feel really stressed, they are not alone. Many working mothers feel a great deal of stress too. and good luck!

Sam- My personal reflections

I never new that being a working mother could be so tough, now I know. They are constantly working. When they are at work, they do office work. When at home, their children and husbands ask them to do many things for them. I have learnt that these Supermoms have an extremely hard time juggling all their activities. They not only have to worry about being able to juggle them, but they also have to put in a lot of effort to make sure that they can do all these things well.

I have learnt that we as children should try to understand all that our working mothers and make their lives easier. Do you always ask your mom to get you a snack or a glass of water when you are watching tv? Do you ask her to get you a pencil when you are to lazy to get it yourself? Try to put yourself in your working mother’s shoes. How would you feel after a hard day at work? So do something simple like get a pencil by yourself. It is not a lot, but it will make your mother’s life easier by that much. The Supermom will definitely be grateful.

#02 Paula’s Personal Reflections on Working Mummy (:

Under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) [in Amercia],  companies with more than 50 employees must allow workers to take 12 weeks of unpaid, job-guaranteed leave for childbirth. But what happens when your leave is up?

Even though the working mothers are at work, their minds and attention and concentration will be diverted as they will constantly be worrying about the child at home/school. Worried if anything worrying might have happened, worried that the guardian did not feed the child on time [if they even have guardians]. Not making things any better for them now, they now have a new thing to worry about. Now [if they have guardians], they would have to worry about whether or not the guardian is treating the child well, due to the recent news reports of cases of maids/guardians. In short, there never seems to be never ending new worries for the the mothers.  

ET #03 My personal reflections on working mothers

All mothers share the task of parenting their children, nurturing them and loving them. The term “working mothers” is really redundant. All mothers work! However, I’ll use the term “working mothers” to refer to those who work outside home.
Working mothers face an additional array of tasks and duties to be performed on a daily basis. Whether working mothers select in-home childcare by a nanny or babysitter or children need to be transported to daycare, working mothers must ensure all required supplies, equipment, clothes, diapers, etc. are ready, accessible and available for the day. Working mothers of older children need to pass out lunch money or pack lunches, double-check backpacks, be sure any required forms are signed and everything children need for the day actually make it out the door with the children.Working mothers not only have the challenge of getting themselves and their children up and dressed and out the door, every aspect of their working lives is impacted by their parenting responsibilities. If a child is sick, working mothers must arrange for emergency care or schedule a doctor appointment for the child. Working mothers also have to call out from work or negotiate with the child’s father to switch off at mid-day so neither parent misses a full day of work. Some employers don’t allow paid time off to care for children, so working mothers face the potential loss of pay when a child is ill or needs to have a regular medical checkup.Working mothers begin their second job when they leave the workplace every day. Dinner must be prepared, laundry done, children bathed, homework completed, dishes washed and children put to bed before mom’s evening activities begin! Cleaning, menu planning, grocery shopping, even filling the car with gas, picking up the dry cleaning and other errands must be completed by working mothers on the way home from work, after children are in bed or on the weekends. Working mothers face juggling errands, spending time with a spouse or children and having personal time alone or with friends. Working mothers may face career challenges as well. Working mothers must schedule time off work to take children to routine and sick visit doctor appointments, sometimes unexpectedly. Working mothers of school aged children may need to take time off work to attend school functions or after school athletics or other activities in which their children participate that take place during work hours.Working mothers may have problems if they’re required to work late without advance notice. Day care centers charge extra for picking children up late. It may also be necessary to make emergency child care arrangements in order work late. Working mothers who travel for work are challenged to arrange for 24/7 care for children while they are out of town. Even if the children’s father is available to care for children, there are many issues to be handled that normally take both parents. They also may miss opportunities due to the time taken to raise the child.In spite of the undeniable rewards and positive experiences of being a parent, working mothers constantly strive to balance work and family. It is next to impossible to have the “best of both worlds.” Working mothers constantly strive to find the next best option in order to provide for their children.

Sam- Working Mothers and Stress

An increasing number of women nowadays are faced with the task of juggling the roles of mother and employee. Incompatibility between work and family life arises due to a number of factors. For instance, a mother who would like to progress in her career and obtain a promotion may feel she has to spend longer hours at work like her colleagues, but this isn’t possible as she has to leave work at a specific time to pick up the child from childcare or school/nursery. Therefore, working mothers may have more stress and might not be able to choose which is more important to them- career or family?