In modern social relations, the problem of the motherhood of a working woman is often raised. Working outside the home distracts the mother from the child and forces her to leave her child in the care of another person for part of the day. The fact that the mother’s presence is unusually important for the proper psychological development of the child leads to the conclusion that a woman who is the mother of a small child should not be employed.
After infancy, the child no longer needs to physically experience its mother, but it still needs to feel a maternal relationship towards itself. The mother can be away from home for a few hours a day, but only if she has found a suitable replacement for herself. Another person is capable of this, such as a grandmother or a third party, if they are a healthy, emotionally settled person who knows how to treat the child in a natural way.
It is wrong to think that caring for a small child can be entrusted to anyone, such as an elderly person who can no longer do anything else, except to look after a child. A child is not an object or animal to look out for, but a subject who actively experiences its environment, so an active attitude of the environment towards it is needed as well. A small child needs to be dealt with in a positive way and that can only be done by someone who can properly play the motherly role.
Motherhood in the first two years of a child’s life should be recognized as a full-time job for which the mother would receive the same reward as if she were working in her job. This does not mean that the mother should completely abandon her real job for two years. After stopping breastfeeding, she could return to work, but with reduced working hours, so that the child would not be without her for too long.
In the preschool period, the mother’s employment outside the home cannot impair the child’s psychological development. Urban school-age children whose mothers are employed show fewer mental disorders. In the countryside, our respondents were equally prone to mental disabilities, regardless of whether their mother was employed or not.
Children of mothers who are employed outside the home do not suffer from maladaptation, according to T. Moore: their personality is more expressive. They are more balanced, they have more confidence in themselves. In other countries (France, Denmark, Austria, USA) it was concluded that the employment of a mother outside the house has a positive effect on the mental development of children.
An employed woman feels more equal with her husband than a woman whose activity is limited to housework. It has a beneficial effect on her mental state, making her calmer, happier and more cheerful. In such a mood, the mother can treat her child in a more calm way and direct its development in a healthier direction. A woman’s sense of neglect towards her husband also damages her sex life.
Since she is the most important of all the people who influence the shaping of a child’s personality, that child is particularly sensitive to its mother’s actions. The educational mistakes made by other educators do not leave in its personality as profound damage as the educational delusions of its mother.
Other influences on the child may to some extent correct a number of parenting mistakes that the mother may make. When a child comes in contact with more educators and with different environments, it becomes more independent and gains more confidence in itself. These are all processes in the child’s psyche that make it healthier and more resilient. Such an educational procedure inhibits the emotional maturation of the child.
A mother’s employment outside the home can be detrimental to the child’s psychological development if, in addition to her job, she is equally burdened by the household. It makes her dissatisfied, irritable, grumpy or aggressive, and takes this mental tension out on the children as well, so she inevitably turns into a bad educator. But its overload is usually not only due to employment but on the one hand, it is the insufficient development of institutions and services to help households.
Men need to be trained to realistically accept a woman’s equality and to put it into reality in their private lives. Knowing that her husband considers her equal and that he cooperates with her in the household will fill her with pleasure that will prevent the occurrence of any neurotic disorders in her behavior. Then it won’t matter how many women work in their household when they return from work.
