Love, bubs and life on our little farm

So its been a little quiet on the blogging front lately for me. I am adapting to working three days a week now and it does take a lot more balancing. So of course its my time on the internet that suffers (as it should!). However my boss did point this article out to me the other day and I liked finally seeing a positive article on working mothers and wanted to blog about it.

The study supports something I have felt recently - that Elka still gets just as much quality time with me when I am working as I put so much more effort into our hours together in the morning and evening. I found on my "Stay at home Mum" days I am much more likely to get distracted by housework, farm chores, trips out etc and in some ways she doesn't get as much one-on-one Mummy play time.

I really love picking her up from daycare and hearing about her day, chatting in the car and then coming home to have some playtime with her toys (which are extra interesting since she has had time away from them!). It really is quality time, made even more so by the fact that I am fresh and eager to soak up some time with her, since I have missed her all day.

So chins up working mums! We can do it all (or at least do our darndest trying!)

xoxo

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25710533-23289,00.html

WORKING mothers can shed some of their "mother guilt", after a new study found their babies received just as much time being nurtured as the babies of stay-at-home mums.

The groundbreaking research reveals little difference between how much time the babies of full-time working mothers are held, cuddled, read to and talked to compared with babies of mothers who do not work.

The report's co-author, Jennifer Baxter, a research fellow at the Australian Institute of Family Studies, said: "This may be through mothers working hours that allow them to maximise the quality time they spend with their child. The other factor is the extra time the child spends with their father, or other relatives, or carers.

"When mothers work full time they spend about 83 minutes less per day with their child compared to a stay-at-home mother, but the child spends an average 81 minutes more a day with their father."

The study, Breastfeeding and Infants' Time Use, draws on diary data kept by the parents of 3000 babies aged between three and 14 months.

AIFS director Alan Hayes said the research offered significant insights into the question mothers so often asked, about the effect on their child of returning to work. "Given the pressures on Australian families today, this study presents encouraging signs that they appear to try and manage the responsibilities of work and raising families in a way that does not negatively impact on children," Professor Hayes said.

Melbourne mother Belinda Quinn, on parental leave from her job as a commercial property manager to look after four-month-old Harvey, said her brief experience doing a little work from home had made her realise how resourceful working mothers became.

"Your day revolves around getting the work done so you can spend that quality time with your baby," 30-year-old Ms Quinn said. "I think working mothers probably outsource those things that stay-at-home mothers have to do, so both get that important time with their child. If I was working I'd have a cleaner and spend the time with Harvey. Through my own guilt I'd probably try and spend as much time with Harvey as I could rather."

The report also looked behind the positive correlation between breastfeeding and enhanced development, finding breastfed infants often did more activities than those who were not.

"Breastfed infants were more likely to have been reported to have spent some time crawling, climbing or swinging arms/legs, and some time colouring, drawing and looking at books or puzzles," the report found.

Breastfed children also spent significantly less time sleeping, eating other food and watching television.

Dr Baxter said: "We aren't condemning non-breastfeeding mothers, rather trying to explain that breastfeeding is not the only element to the development and nurturing of children. There are many other things that happen in a young child's day."