Parents' Time at Work: Meeting Basic Needs and Luxuries - Essay Sample

Introduction

Every family needs to have their basic needs provided for, and if possible, then other requirements that are considered to be luxuries can also be addressed. Past research projected that parents would be spending more time with their children due to the less time that they would be required to spend at work, thanks to the technological advances that would reduce the need for much manual labor, but that is yet to be seen since parents are still spending more time at work and away from their children (Heinrich, 2014). This being so, this paper will address the adverse effects that have working parents, and then weigh them against the positive impact of having working parents and in the process justify the need for parents to work despite the adverse effects that come in the process, as well as suggesting ways in which the parents can create time to spend time with their children, even with the busy schedules that they have.

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The Negative Effects of Working Parents on Children

Lewis, Tudball, and Hand (2001) undertook a research project that sought to find the harmful effects of work on the relationship between children and their parents. Through vigorous research, the team was able to reach conclusions from the adverse impacts that work has on a family, by basing their answers on the results of the quantitative and qualitative research findings. First, there are adverse psychological effects on the children when their parents are working and spend more time away. Due to the adoption of the nuclear style of life, families have to move into the cities in search of employment opportunities. Therefore the parents are unable to spend as much time as needed with their children. Worse still, the children are left in the hands of babysitters, who are strangers to them, as opposed to when children were left under the care of their extended family as their parents were working in the less urban settings.

Secondly, work harms the behaviors and coping mechanisms of both the children and their children. Due to the continued absence of their parent and spending time with babysitters who may start imparting negative behaviors to them, it is common for children to develop negative behaviors that come from the restlessness that they experience while away from their parents and the lack of parental love or care. This way, children tend to throw tantrums when their parents are around as a way of seeking their parents' attention. On the other hand, work creates stress for the parents, and they tend to be distant when they get home and react violently to their spouses or children when they feel that they are adding to their stress. Therefore, work and stress have been cited by some as the causing agent for stress and cases of domestic violence.

Hayes and Kamerman (1983) also add that the development of children is at risk when parents are unavailable to them. While not all the children require close parental care and monitoring, some children are unable to develop the mental and emotional capacity to help them to grow and mature emotionally and mentally without the continued presence of their parents. Therefore, parents must create some time even with their busy schedules, whereby they can be there for their children to ensure their emotional and mental growth is assured. If this is not done, children grow up feeling adrift, unloved not connected positively to any relationship, and also had strained relations between them and their parents when they get older.

The Positive Effects of Working Parents to Children

Through research carried out by Stazdins and Colleagues (2012), it was established that there are more positive effects of employment to a family than the adverse effects that are reported. First, work enables families to lead comfortable and quality lifestyles. Through practice, parents have been able to provide for the basic needs of their children. When their works pay better, they have also been able to provide for other luxuries, such as private schools, annual family vacations, and even giving their children gifts on special occasions and when they perform well in the activities that they undertake, like in their education and also extracurricular activities. When parents are unable to provide for their children, they are accused of child maltreatment or child negligence, and therefore they must work hard to provide for their children's' needs.Secondly, when parents are working, they and their children get to collect experiences along the way that are important to the development of the children. For example, when the children are left alone when the parents are away, they develop life skills that are important to their growth and their future lives, with development of virtues such as patience, hard work, the need to be accepting of people and unwanted situations, and also developing skills in solving problems, since they can find solutions to the issues that they face without the help of their parents, thus getting to grow emotionally and mentally.

In some instances, parents have been able to develop better relationships with their children even in absence, since they can utilize the little time that they have more effectively instead of when they are available all the time, and they ignore each other (Stazdins et al. 2012). Additionally, children get to grow the appreciation that they have of their parents by reviewing the sacrifices that their parents make to provide for them. Therefore they also strive to be on their best behaviors as well as putting in more effort in their activities both in and out of school to make their parents proud as well as making the sacrifices worth it.

Additionally, parents' working has a motivating effect on their children. The parents who are working motivate their children since they get to learn from their parents the virtues of hard work and persistence in the endeavors that they undertake, reflecting them in their lives and perspectives, thus succeeding in their academic and extracurricular activities. When parents work hard in their work, the children will try to repay their efforts by working hard in their fields, in the way of rewarding their parents for the good deeds that they do for them (Lewis, Tudball, and Hand, 2001). Additionally, in some communities where women are still not empowered, the young girls in the family and the society will be encouraged to work harder in their education so that they can achieve even more when they become adults. Therefore, working parents have also been influential in helping children to break stereotypes that are placed on their races or genders since the parents work as an example of what one can be in the society if they work hard and stay away from situations that may cause trouble for them if they step out of line.

Independence is achieved by the children whose parents are working. When parents are away at work, they delegate duties to their children, and the elder ones have to take care of their younger siblings, thus creating a sense of responsibility in the children. When children are taught responsibility from a young age, they can organize their activities so that they can address their expected academic duties as well as taking care of their younger siblings. Through taking care of siblings, virtues of responsibility, concern for others, and the other ethical practices and ideologies that will be handy in their lives as adults.

Tips on How Working Parents Can Raise Their Children

There have been cases where parents have been accused of child negligence or maltreatment due to their absence from their children on account of being busy at work, and therefore unable to attend to the needs of their children (CPS, 2020). When there are excessive complaints of maltreatment and neglect, the Department of Child Protective Services, which is responsible for ensuring that the welfare of children is looked out for, will be involved in protecting the vulnerable children. Therefore, to avoid losing their children to the state, parents need to come up with practical ways that will help them to ensure that their children are taken care of, even in their absence.

First, parents can try to adjust the timing of their jobs and their entire working lives so that they can have time for their children. Parents must fit their work schedules so that they can have workable solutions to enable them to spend more time with their children. Additionally, the parents can seek ways in which the members of an extended family can live with them, so that even though they may have to pay for the babysitting services, they will be assured of the children's safety and that they will be taught only positive behaviors from the family members since they care for them.

Furthermore, if the parents are unable to get the members of the extended family to join them and help them raise their children in their absence, the parents can go for the option of hiring nannies or babysitters who will help them in taking care of their children. However, parents should carry out due diligence to ensure that their children are under the supervision of certified and competent babysitters who have no history of crime or child abuse. When parents are unable to find a babysitter that they can trust, they can go for the option of sending the children to boarding schools where their safety is assured. However, the parents should ensure that they let the children know the reason behind their being sent to boarding school, as well as sending children who are old enough and emotionally and mentally able to handle the challenges that may come with going to boarding school. Also, the parents should visit their children when they are in boarding school, so that they still get to enjoy the parent-child relationship and also ensure that the children are not being bullied or developing any unwanted behaviors when they are in school.

Finally, parents should invest their free time in spending it with their children. When parents spend little time available with their children, the children get to create memories of happy times when they got to spend time with their parents. Therefore it will help to take the children through the times when they feel lonely and miss their parents. They will also be able to understand why their parents cannot be there for them at the moment and also, they will be reassured that their parents will be available for them whenever they can find time to spend with them.

References

CPS. (2020). What is child protective services? Stop It Now. https://www.stopitnow.org/ohc-content/what-is-child-protective-services

Hayes, C. D., & Kamerman, S. B. (1983). Children of Working Parents: Experiences and Outcomes. National Academy Press, 2101 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20418.

Heinrich, C. J. (2014). Parents' employment and children's wellbeing. The future of children, 121-146.

Lewis, V. J., Tudball, J., & Hand, K. (2001). Family and work: the family's perspective. Department of Family and Community Services.

Strazdins, L., Lucas, N., Shipley, M., Mathews, B., Berry, H. L., Rodgers, B., & Davies, A. (2012). Parent and child wellbeing and the influence of work and family arrangements: a three cohort study. FaHCSIA Social Policy Research Paper, (44).