Psychological and behavioral effects of both parents working on child
Introduction:
There is no one answer to whether it is good if both parents are working. Nowadays, it’s very common to see both parents in a family working. No, this trend is not just restricted to the families with tough economic conditions but is also seen among the affluent families.
Working parents are an inevitable trend and have their own share of advantages and disadvantages. The effects of both parents working on a child are inevitable and hence must find the means to keep a balance between the pros and cons of working full time.
Effects of both parents working on the child:
Earlier, when there was a joint family system, raising a child was not a difficult task; as there were multiple care-takers apart from the mother.
Aunts, uncles, and grandparents, everybody helped in raising the kids in the family. Since recent times, with the increasing trend of the nuclear families emerging in the country, the working class parents had no other option but to leave their kids alone. The effects of both parents working have their own pros and cons.
The positive effects of both parents working on the child include:
1. Providing quality lifestyle:
With both parents working, a high-quality lifestyle is more affordable for most of the households. This is a primary benefit when both parents are working. Thus, there is more money in hand for the parents to spend on their children for their education and other needs.
2. Valuing time:
Since both parents are working; they have very few hours to spend at home with their kids. This teaches the children that time is indispensable and doesn’t come back once it is gone. They understand the importance of valuing time why it is inevitable to make the most of it. All this is nurtured in the kid’s mind from a very early stage.
3. Life experiences:
Since both parents are at work and not available for their children during the day, so when they come back home they have plenty of life experiences to share with their share kids. Ultimately; this helps the child to become more mature and understanding towards life.
4. Making kids independent:
Kids of working parents become independent from a very early age. Because they realize that their parents are at work, they learn to take their decisions themselves making them good and confident decision makers.
Negative effects of both parents working on the child:
Though both the working parents have a significant positive outcome in the lives of their children, there are a few challenges and problems faced when both parents work.
Let’s look at the negative effects of both parents working:
1. Psychological Effects:
Couples have to move out and relocate in different cities for their jobs sacrificing their core families.
Mostly in India, even today, nuclear parenting has very little support from their own families. As a result, they have to hire nannies or admit their kids in daycare facilities. The child also often gets neglected because his/her parents are not able to give undivided attention.
2. Behavioral changes and mood swings:
For the working mums who leave their kids at the daycare, tend to suffer from restlessness and have a hard time managing their mood swings. As both parents are unable to spend enough time with their kids, there are chances that the kids may become more stubborn and aggressive.
3. Bonding with the parents:
Sometimes when both the parents are busy at their work and have very less time to spend at home with their kids, the bond that the children have with their parents suffer. As the kids grow up, this gap may widen.
Benefits/pros of both parents working on the child:
It is undoubtedly great where both the parents are working. It brings a lot of financial benefits specifically to not only to the kids but to the entire families in general.
• Working parents can be positive role models. Girls will learn that they need to think about a career, rather than just getting married and having children. Boys need to realize that household chores are part and parcel of family life. This will also influence them significantly and allow them to take up chores when they start their own families.
• Secondly, when a mother works, it means that she is helping to ease off her husband’s financial burden and stress.
• A stable source of finance is always a foundation of every family’s happiness. One obvious example is that traveling for a whole family annually, an excellent way of making families more close-knit is only feasible if the financial source of that family is strong and steady.
Disadvantages/cons of both parents working on the child:
- To begin with, in a family where both parents are working and not able to spend quality time, their children are often lacking necessary support and supervision.
- Over time, it will make them demoralized, and have serious effects on their academic performance.
- Without parent’s supervision, children will also be very likely to take on bad habits due to peer pressure such as addiction to games like PUBG, smoking, or even taking drugs.
- There is an alarming issue that less and less close conversation has been made between children and the other family members, many children feel lonely even at their own home.
Closing thoughts:
In conclusion, we cannot change the fact that both parents have to work nowadays. However, parents must find a happy medium to keep a balance between their work life and family life so that their children will be given benefits in both material and mental lives.
