I came across a blog called Working Moms Break, written by a mom who is journalist and content strategist. The post I stumbled on was about the stress that many working parents experience. In fact, according to her survey, 88 percent of working parents suffer stress related health problems.
The results, from 560 respondents who live in households in which all adults work, are as follows:
- 80 percent catch up on work nights and weekends
- 81 percent worry they will burn out
- 88 percent said they suffer from at least one stress-related health problem since becoming a working parent
- 59 percent have problems with anxiety
- 43 percent struggle with depression
Furthermore, while 82 percent of respondents noted that their employers offered a family-friend perk (think flexible scheduling), working parents clearly need more.
I recently shared the results of a survey on working moms, childcare and empowerment that found a majority of working mothers are empowered as role models for their children, have professional ambitions and feel like they are receiving support from their spouses and families despite a lack of childcare benefits offered by their workplaces.
While it may seem like these surveys are contradictory at first glance, I don’t think they are at all. The fact is that I love being a working mom and I wouldn’t have it any other way (I’ve also been a stay at home mom and I loved that, too, and it fit our families needs very well at the time). However, I most definitely experience stress as a working mom and I certainly catch up on work on nights and weekends!
So the key is figuring out how to reduce the stress. And, of course, if it were simple, we’d have all figured it out, right?
So, working moms, tell me: How do you manage stress?
