[net.women] Children and working mothers

3391dms@hogpc.UUCP (D.SCHMID) (09/21/83)

**FLAME ON**

I was going to avoid entering this discussion (since I have
no children of my own), but I'm sick and tired of reading
(over and over again) that children of working mothers are
1.) neglected (emotionally/physically/whatever), 2.) unsocial
brats, 3.) screwed up for the rest of their lives, ETC., ETC!

It just so happens that my mother worked, full-time, from
the time I was 4 months old.  (She recently retired, though!)
Since there weren't such things as day-care centers in those
days... we had a baby-sitter (7AM - 5:30PM).  

Yep, it really screwed up my life, and the lives of my two
brothers!  My one brother owns his own company, the other
brother is a police officer, and I'm a member of the technical
staff of a large corporation.  Both brothers are happily married
(2 children each), and although I'm still single, I hope for the
same in the future.

None of us has ever had troubles with the law, we're NOT
alcoholics or drug addicts, we vote every election, and
(granted, I am a bit biased on this point) I feel that we
have all turned out to be NICE PEOPLE!!!!!!

C'mon, people, there are no cut-and-dried answers about
the effects of working mothers on small children.  I've known
an awful lot of families where Mom has been home all day, and
the kids have turned out... well, let's just say that you
wouldn't want to meet up with them in a dark alley...  That
doesn't give me the right to state, unequivocally, that mothers
should NEVER choose to be homemakers... 

**FLAME OFF**

Donna M. Schmid
AT&T - Consumer Products, Engineering Design & Development
Holmdel, NJ
hogpc!3391dms