Julie B. Beck and her Talk "Mothers Who Know"

[Palerider]

You got to hand it to June Cleaver for always being home to help take care of Wally and the Beaver, and make sure they had cake and milk after school.

It was Ward's job to bring home the bacon and June's job to fry it up in the pan. Later on they might turn on the TV and watch Eisenhower say something really important. Of course, none of that on nights where the Cleaver family huddled around the fire and enjoyed Family Home Evening.

aw come on....why do we have to eat cake.....can't we have milk and cookies

[Moksha]

Perhaps this video might help explain things:

[Cherrybrook]

I also know women who try to do everything, home, children, career ...... and try to fit 48 hours into a 24 hour day.

Yes, and I know even more fathers that do that and nobody sees anything wrong with that. Actually in some countries if the mother stays at home it means that the father needs to work around the clock to make a living. I don't see how this is in the best interest of the family.

If you can fit your working life around your children and your husband does the same and you share the housework between you then it can work. Unfortunately in many cases it doesn't because the mother ends up doing far more than she should and wearing herself to a frazzle,

Exactly! In my family both of work and both of us take care of the kids and both of us do housework. In a lot of "stay-at-home-mum-families" I know the women really are worn out since they do everything but the money-earning. The reason I don't like the emphasis on the stay-at-home-mums is that I think the kids need mummy AND daddy just as much. Not mummy more than daddy. I go to work because it is the best interest of the whole family. The parents' sanity usually is.

How do working mothers cope with children's illnesses? Do they take time off when their child is ill or has an accident?

Why do some people think that working mums don't prioritize the family? I've noticed that I make a lot more effort for my kids than some of the stay-at-home-mums I know do. If my kid is ill or has an accident then of course I'll be there for them! Why wouldn't I? And quite honestly I don't care what my employer thinks about it. I'm lucky to work in a job that has a big shortage of employees.

What about school holidays? Are there employers who accommodate their employees taking time off for school holidays?

They plan and schedule with the husband, or take leave unpaid or resign during the school holiday to start again after it. or...whatever works for them? Why make it sound like it's a huge problem when it doesn't have to be? I could start about things like "How do stay-at-home-mums go see a doctor? Do they take like 5 screaming kids with them or what??" It's exactly the same thing! You plan!

That's another point. If you hand your small children over to day care how do you know what they are being taught in their most formative years? It's bad enough having to send them out into the big bad world when they start school but at least by then they can have had a solid grounding in the gospel from a stable upbringing at home to give then an anchor.

In my country the kids start school when their 7 and most of the LDS mums stay home at least until then. And they think if the child goes to kindergarten say in the age of five it must be really really bad for the child. Then again, a child in the age of five en England spends most of the time in school and the british stay-at-home mums have no concerns about that whatsoever. So in one country a five-year-old is better off staying home with mummy than in another country. Interesting.