Babylune

But Imagine their Childcare Dilemma…

by kate baggott on October 24th, 2006

Last week, I said that the only perfectly trustworthy babysitter is grandma.

Since my own mother is still deeply engaged in her own career, which is of huge value to the children she teaches, I obviously wasn’t suggesting that older women should quit their jobs to enjoy another generation of slavery caring for young children.

Nor, it must be said, was I passing judgement on older women who choose to spend their retirements raising children of their own. Meeting mothers in their 50s and 60s who are enjoying staying at home post-career is going to become a lot more common.
And, it looks like there might just be something to that formula.

Women in their 50s who give birth through IVF treatments don’t experience any greater difficulties than women in their 30s and 40s says a report in the Guardian.

• Anne Steiner, at the University of North Carolina, and Richard Paulson, at the University of Southern California, carried out surveys measuring parental stress and the mental and physical health of women who conceived over the age of 50 after treatment with donor eggs, and compared these women with others in their 30s and 40s who had conceived through IVF at the same time.
• In the stress survey, women were asked questions such as whether they found it harder than expected to get their children to behave, and whether they thought their children cried more than others. To assess the mental and physical demands of parenting, the women were asked whether they often felt isolated and friendless, and how far they could walk without discomfort.
• The surveys were completed by 64 women and showed those their 50s were no different in mental or physical health compared with those in their 30s and 40s. Parental stress was found to be lowest among women in their 30s and highest among those in their 40s, with those in their 50s ranking in between.

Imagine a world where women don’t lose their career prospects or income because they have had children. Instead, they’ve invested in retirement plans that can support a family of four instead of a couple who want to travel. Since business and industry have proven to be incapable of family-friendliness on a large scale, science and technology have cut them out of the work-life balance equation.
While I delayed child-bearing and rearing until my student loan payments were manageable (not quite paid off though), I can imagine it will be more and more common for future generations of couples will wait to have children until their mortgages are paid off!

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POSTED IN: Emotional Wellbeing, Finances, baby care