Happy Mother's Day!

Sunday, May 12 is Mother’s Day. Here at alive, we’ve experienced a baby boom with three of our employees giving birth to beautiful babies (a boy and two girls) over the past year. Our expectation is that our coworkers will return to work when their parental leave is over, but this is a relatively new concept.

Changing parental roles

The roles of moms and dads have changed drastically over the course of my lifetime (and I’m not that old).  A recent Pew Research Center survey titled “Modern Parenthood” presents positive—and negative—findings about the changing roles of parents.

The bad news

As most working moms experience firsthand, 56 percent say it’s difficult to balance work responsibilities with family responsibilities (50 percent of dads concur). For parents with kids under 18, 40 percent of working moms and 34 percent of working dads say they always feel rushed.

The good news

Although 33 percent of working parents say they don’t feel they spend enough time with their children, interestingly, research shows that parents spend much more time with their kids than they did in the 1960s. The amount of time dads spend with their kids has tripled since 1965. Moms also spend more time with their kids than moms used to, but less time than dads. (Before the advent of electronic games and awareness of pedophiles, parents used to force us out the door to play outside on our own all day until the streetlights came on.)

Less housework

One of the most exciting findings of the survey is that women now spend 18 hours a week doing housework, compared to 32 hours a week in 1965. Either moms were clean freaks in those days or, more likely, household chores took longer to perform back then. I remember my mom, aunts, and female neighbours baking bread and other baked goods, canning and preserving, using ringer washing machines, hanging clothes out to dry, and washing and drying all dishes by hand. They never bought take-out food or fast food; they made it all from scratch.

Of course, dads are helping out more too. They now spend 10 hours doing housework each week, compared to only four hours in 1965.

Life has changed for modern moms.  Tell us about your experience as a mom. Do you think moms today have it easier, tougher, or basically the same as moms in the past? Leave a blog or Facebook comment, or tweet us.

To moms of all eras, we salute you. We appreciate your hard work—at home and outside the home. And (if you need it) we give you permission to take a day off to do whatever makes you happy.

Psst, hey kids, here are a few alive articles to help you make Mom’s day special:

• Mother’s Day Celebration
• Meaningful Mother’s Day Gifts
• Mother’s Day on Less Than $20
• Fairness in Flowers
• Mother’s Day Meal