Stay at Home Moms or Career Moms?
What Care Giver is Better for your Infant's Mental Health:is it Mom?
Being a stay at home mom has always been a controversial topic for professional woman, especially, in a time where woman are flourishing in the workforce. More career woman are taking the powerful step of choosing to stay at home and take care of their infants because they feel that a mother can give the best care for their child. Is it better to stay home with your newborn or go back to work?
Raising an infant is also a job. Infants need an attentive, sensitive and responsive caregiver in the first months of life, which is important for good physical and mental development. This can make mom the perfect candidate, however, the care giver doesn't have to be mom. Psychologist Dr. Jean Mercer, Ph.D. and Board Member Emeritus of the New Jersey Association of Infant Mental Health said in a May 2008 interview via e-mail, that any caregiver that will meet the baby's needs is fine. Infants are learning about communication with other people and are picking up on the sounds of the languages they will learn, so they need an adult that spends time playing, interacting and talking to them according to the doctor.
If mothers decide to go back to work they should consider one care giver. " Adults needs to have a lot of experience with a given baby before he or she understands the baby well-- too many caregivers means too little time for each person to spend with the baby," said Dr. Mercer.
When Staying Home Can be Beneficial for Moms and Infants
The decision to stay at home is mainly for the mother and infant's satisfaction- it gives the mother and infant bonding time, while reassuring that the infant gets the proper care. A time when staying home is recommended is right after giving birth. It is a tiresome period and is difficult to work. Dr. Mercer suggests that a good time to go back to work is before 7 or 8 months. The transition from mom to babysitter should go smoothly before then, because the baby will not be old enough to be afraid of strangers.
Make Money from Home while Caring for your Infant
Bills do not disappear into the dust when you stay at home with your infant. Good home based professions are freelance writing, running a culinary business from home, running a web site and etc. "My son and daughter-in-law ran a subscription web site from their home while their two children were infants, said Dr. Mercer. "They had to summarize court decisions for the web site, do billing and other business aspects." Baby sitting other children is also a way to stay home and make money while caring for your infant. Also, try filling out an application on Arise.com. It offers flexible hours- you can choose your own schedule and work from home. Substituting at your local daycare center will also provide a small pay check and extra time with your infant.
