Merideth Markum

Independent Essay

April 19, 2002

The Bottom Line

The term "maternity leave" has lost its true meaning in today's society.  When maternity leave is not given or is given in an improper manner, division of labor becomes impossible.  Leave is now considered to be a quick six-week break from work, then a quick transition back into a nine-to-five workweek.  This is not what is needed for either mother or child.  True maternity leave is a minimum twelve-week break with a gradual transition back to work, or it could be taking several years from work to steer your child's development in the right direction.  Without a doubt, it would be extremely beneficial if employers provided paid family or parental leave for either parent.

The first twelve weeks of a child's life are crucial because the baby creates social attachments with its parents, which shape the rest of its life.  The need to put an infant into daycare during this time interrupts this development.  As the infant continues in daycare through the years, the family agent of socialization decreases in value and in time.  Childcare providers teach the child their own values, norms, and ideals, according to their beliefs and culture, regardless of the ethnic, religious, or cultural background of the child.  Gender-role socialization, which is taught from childhood through adulthood, is also taught according to the childcare provider's values and ideas.  A parent's child-rearing style is automatically chosen for them, once their child is placed into any childcare facility or system.  The cultural universal of the nuclear family is also disrupted because an extra person(s) is added into the rearing of the child, without the parent's full knowledge of the ideology being taught.

Charles Cooley, a renowned scholar, developed a theory known as the looking-glass self, which proposes a three stage process about how people develop a sense of self.  Cooley's theory of development supports the idea of a child's need to form social attachments with their parents, through social interactions at a young age.  This should be done primarily through the family unit during a child's early development years.  Socialization through peers, schooling, and the media is optimally added as the child matures.  Cooley believes that our sense of self, who we see ourselves as being, is ultimately the result of our childhood experiences.  With this in mind, what price can be placed upon a mother's importance, as a positive influence and impact upon the beginning years of their child's development and ultimately the child's future?

According to the norm of society, when a woman has a baby, she is automatically expected to be the parent who changes their role.  A stay-at-home dad is something rarely seen.  Mothers should have the opportunity to choose what is best, whether she should stay at home with her child or go back to work as soon as possible.  A woman can occupy several statuses or roles at one time, such as mother, wife, teacher, nurse, sister, daughter, and friend.  Yet a woman can experience role-conflict when her role at work cannot be fully accomplished, because of her role as a mother.

In the article "The Bottom Line," Ann Crittendin indicated that most mothers have no access to paid leave and must quit their job to stay at home with their baby.  A mother who stays at home not only looses potential incomes but also the security of retirement funds, insurance benefits, savings, as well as loss of career promotion or seniority advancement, because of being placed on the so called "mommy track."  Crittendin went on to say, "this costs all working mothers, especially the working poor, dearly."

Mothers and children from lower economic classes or from single parent homes are often victims of society's imperfections and government blunders.  Our nation's laws seem to work against mother's who choose to be the principle caregiver of her child, simply by not requiring equal pay rate and benefits for a job done whether full-time or part-time, by giving no protections against an employee being forced into unwanted overtime for job security, and by not allowing a shorter work week for mother's with young children.  Children become political pawns, since the government and/or employers often dictate what is best without any regard for the welfare of the mother and child.

Having personally worked within two different childcare systems within the past two years, I know the enormous influence daycare can have on a young child?s life.  Knowing first hand the type of people that are caregivers teaching children in day cares, I strongly believe that extended paid maternity or parental leave is desperately needed in America today.  Almost anyone can obtain a minimum paying job at a pre-school or daycare, no training or higher education is needed and little screening and minimal criminal background checks are being made.  Yet these caregivers shape the minds and emotions of the future adults of our nation.  Mothers should be able to stay home with their children and not be penalized for their decision.

With Cooley's theory in mind, another downfall of a child not forming the needed social attachments with their parent is the possible cause of deviant behavior in the form of juvenile crime, when the child reacts to not having been given adequate supervision and attention.  It seems to me that America has already received an urgent wake up call from its children.  With all the unexplainable violence in American schools, along with underage prostitution, drug use, and juvenile crime, as well as the alarming rise in child abuse and molestation at the hands of those who have been entrusted as child care providers, it is fundamentally important, if not critical, that our society return to the centuries proven and old-fashioned way of raising a child.

Perhaps society needs to take a long, hard look at what our children mean to us and to our nation.  These children, who are being raised by non-family related caregivers, are the future caregivers of not only the next generation, but also our nation and our world.  The basic social group in all societies is the family, this is where children are nourished, nurtured, and find a pillar of emotional support.  However, when babies and preschoolers are required to receive ten to twelve hours of their daily care from a daycare, the family unit is undermined, while children lose the security and the influence of their family unit.  This seems like and extremely harsh consequence for an innocent child, when things could be different if only changes were made in our nation's employment and family policies.  While America awaits better family oriented policies, it is my hope for mothers to fully embrace the privilege of being a working mother at home, weighing the cost not in dollar and cents, but in the value found within each young child.

Works Cited

Tischler, H. L. (2002).  Introduction to Sociology.  Fort Worth:  Harcourt Press.

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