Dust bunnies, babies and workplace flexibility
The morning light filtering into my kitchen illuminates the dust bunnies scampering on the floor amid the fragments of fallen leaves that get tracked in the back door. Luckily, I'm pretty good at ignoring it, because my husband usually makes sweeping the kitchen floor his first order of business. But, an ability to ignore housekeeping tasks appears to be prevalent among working mothers.
Dust bunnies, babies and workplace flexibility
Jane M. Von Bergen, Inquirer Staff Writer
The morning light filtering into my kitchen illuminates the dust bunnies scampering on the floor amid the fragments of fallen leaves that get tracked in the back door. Luckily, I'm pretty good at ignoring it, because my husband usually makes sweeping the kitchen floor his first order of business. But, an ability to ignore housekeeping tasks appears to be prevalent among working mothers.
A University of California researcher who studied time diaries found that as women participate more in the labor force, they shed hours of housekeeping, but do everything they can to protect their childrearing time. Suzanne M. Bianchi, who has been a longtime scholar in this field, presented her paper at the Focus on Workplace Flexibility seminar held in Washington last week. Interestingly, maternal time spent in childcare is the same as, or more, than in the 1960s, when fewer women worked, according to her paper titled "Family Change and Time Allocation in American Families."
So what are working women giving up (other than housework)? They are giving up leisure and sleep, Bianchi found. No surprise there. But regardless of whether they are working or not, most mothers say they have too little time for themselves. Working women with young children, if they can, attempt to cut back on work hours, even though this has long-term negative consequences for their own financial wellbeing, especially if marriages dissolve. That outcome is also not surprising, because another place where corners are cut, her study shows, is in time that spouses spend together as a couple.
The way I see it, one of the best reasons to have children is so you can have less guilt about housekeeping. With any luck, you'll have enough time to build up your no-guilt muscle so that even when the kids leave, you don't mind those dust bunnies on the kitchen floor.
Which is why I spend the time at work to earn the money to pay someone else to clean! I'd rather spend my precious 45 minutes per night of child-free "me" time reading or relaxing rather than cleaning.- Claudine, very admirable. But there are MANY MORE women working 60 hour weeks at minimum wage (which comes to $435 per week), and with health insurance ($1000 mo/family), rent/mortgage, food, utilities, who even after working 60 hours, still do not have the money to pay someone to clean.— CiceroSpuriousDeodatus
- Maybe the trick (which I unfortunately only somewhat mastered) is to clean with the kids. My mother made my sister and I clean every week. Why should the kids get to avoid cleaning? They live in the house too!— Jane Von Bergen
- I seriously don't think there are many women out there who make minimum wage who work 60 hour weeks. And pay their own health insurance, etc. and take care of kids & clean? I'd like to meet these martyrs.— ilovesalad
- Jane, you are right on the money. My two oldest sons, ages 12 and 9 know that they are expected to pitch in with chores during the week and on Saturday morning. It's part of being a family. My little guy is only two but he knows how to put dirty clothes in the laundry basket. Sometimes we race with a timer and sometimes we fit it in as a 5 minute blitz. They made the mess, they can help clean it up and yes, they would have to do it even if I was a stay at home mom.— 3boysmom
