A recent study in the journal Child Development indicates that children of working mother’s have an increased risk and incidence rate of being overweight and obese. It does not state it as causation, but simply as a clear association. It also states that the length of the mother’s employment is associated with an increase in children’s BMI. Not one single cause was found, but a small, yet significant increase in children’s BMI was.
Although the reasons for this positive association are unclear, there are many possible factors:
- Working mothers could be pressed for time, and turn to fast foods more often
- Some families are not able to eat together, and when this happens, diets are often worse
- Children with employed mothers watch more TV than children with non employed mothers
The lead author of this study, Taryn Morrissey stated that intent of the study is not to bash on working mothers, but to help them. “The bottom line is that families face many, many constraints and that policies and additional research are needed to help balance health and family life.”
This does make sense. i know if i had kids, worked, and the kids were old enough to be home alone, I wouldn’t want them outside running around because i wouldn’t be there in case of an emergency. Thus the kids, lay around more, snack on crap, etc.
It’s such a hard thing, because you can’t tell the women to stop working. That’s why GOOD after school programs and clubs are so beneficial for children. It gives them something to do. now we need to incorporate good nutrition into those programs
Thank you so much for this post! I have given a lot of thought to this correlation already, and I agree that there is an increased risk for obesity, or at least unhealthy eating behaviors, in children of working mothers. While there is a correlation, I don’t believe it is right to point a finger at working mothers. Most working mothers are working because they have to, not because they choose to be away from their kids. I definitely think that a greater focus on after school programs and extracurricular activities for kids will help immensely.
This is wonderful. It surprised me that even though this seems obvious many mothers don’t know this. I know when i have children i would want to take care of their health including weight and make sure that they are getting everything they need in their diet
I’ve actually seen this article before. I do agree that many working mother do not have the time to make healthy meals for their kids.
my mother worked my whole life and I have a 25 bmi… borderline overweight! Yikes!
This is so true. When mom’s are home they have more time to make healthy meals rather than just buying a lot of snacks for them to snack on after school and rushed dinners.
It’s so interesting how many problems associated with working mothers are coming up. I think that mothers need to be informed about the effects before just deciding to go back to work.