A Survey Found That Staying At Home With Kids Is Harder Than Working Full Time

Oct 18, 2018 by apost team

The next time someone makes light of you being a stay-at-home mom or tells you that you have it easy, there's a good comeback. According to a recent survey, it's harder to stay at home with your kids than it is to go to work.

This holds especially true when the parents are new and quickly become overwhelmed by their responsibilities.

The survey was done of more than 1,500 participants. It was commissioned through a baby skincare company.

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The skin expert for the brand, Rebecca Bennett, says that the company wanted to understand more about what parents experience during the first few years of parenthood. They were also curious about what new parents wish they'd known going in, and how parents can best be supported.

Fifty-five percent of the respondents said that having a child is hard work, no matter whether there's help available or not. In fact, thirty-one percent of respondents said that being home with children is more difficult than going to work. Twenty percent stated that parenting was very difficult.

Another aspect of the survey was finding out how parents perceived parenting prior to having kids, and how that perception has changed now that they actually have kids.

Twenty-five percent of respondents said they believed breastfeeding would be easy. Twenty-eight percent previously thought it would be easy to bring their children anywhere. In addition, forty-three percent of the respondents said that they weren't expecting it to be so difficult to leave the house.

Parents all over the world will relate to other realizations recorded in the survey. Thirty-eight percent say that they can no longer use the bathroom in peace, and thirty-three percent of people indicate that they eat their meals one-handed. Thirty-nine percent say they constantly feel tired, while seventeen percent say their back constantly hurts.

The survey also shows some truth to the saying about it "taking a village." Forty-five percent of women who responded say that they needed advice from their mother and that most of their survival is due to the guidance of their moms.

In addition, millennial parents say they feel increased pressure due to social media. Seventy-one percent of millennial parents say social media seems to turn parenting into a competition, while twenty-two percent say they feel like they have to be a perfect parent. Social media can also lead parents to worry too much about children.

Twenty-seven percent of respondents say they stress about child development, while twenty-two percent worry about eating habits, and nine percent are constantly watching the child's sleeping patterns.

Whether you're talking about what you feed your baby or what you wash them with, every decision seems to carry a bigger weight. Parents worry that making the wrong choice will harm their child or cause them to be judged by their peers.

Though the study indicated that parenting is a hard job, it also showed that raising a child is a very rewarding experience. Fifty percent of respondents say that raising a child has been a perfect experience. Forty-one percent say that their child brought them closer to their partner. Forty-two percent say that it was having a child that helped them to feel complete and unconditional love for the very first time.

This isn't the first survey that shows the touch realities of parenting. But it does show what immense difficulty stay-at-home parents go through. Don't let anyone judge you for staying at home. You're doing one of the toughest jobs, and not everyone can handle it.

Have you ever been a stay-at-home mom? Was it more difficult than an office job? Let us know in the comments and show this article to a super mom you know!