Dear Gurgle: Do One.

When I was busy baking The Dylanosaur in my belly, I signed up for just about every 'hey you! chick with bun in oven, we have information you NEED!' style website & newsletter on the whole entire internet.  And trust me, that's an awful lot of emails.  Which I still get flooded with on a daily basis.

I know, I know, I should unsubscribe, but I never find time (funny that, 2 year old running wild and all), so generally, they get deleted unopened, over and over.

Today though, I had one from Gurgle, entitled 'Is it better to have a working mum?'. 
Now admitedly, the good people at Gurgle don't know that I'm a stay at home mum, but I'm going to guess that at least quite a few people they sent that message to are also stay home mummys, so frankly, it's a dangerous little game.

The article goes on to discuss the findings of a new study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ECRC) on maternal employment and child socio-emotional behaviour in the UK. (Yeah, I thought it sounded like a bunch of gobildeegook too, or at best, a pointless endevour to justify a bunch of research assistant salaries.  Anyway...)

In short, the 'ideal' scenario for a child, is to grow up in a home that both parents live in, with both parents in full time employment. 
Dr Anne McMunn (who sounds SUPER!), the principal researcher in this study said:
"Mothers who work are more likely to have higher educational qualifications, live in a higher income household, and have a lower likelihood of being depressed than mothers who are not in paid work."

Well, Doctor, that told me then, huh?
A few points though, if I may...

-If I had gone back to my full time job, after paying for childcare, my household income would not be a great deal different than it is at the moment.  I would effectively have been working to pay someone else to look after my son, which was a massive part of the decision to stay home.

-I have excellent educational qualifications, slightly better than those of my employed full-time fiance, actually.

-I am in general a very cheerful sort of person - utterly content with my little life.  In fact I'm pretty certain I am much happier as I am than I would be if say, I was holding down a full time job, then more or less giving my salary away, whilst hardly ever seeing my son in the process.

Granted, I'm not a doctor, I'm not even a research assistant.  However, I am living proof that perhaps, just maybe, these 'studies' that the news is choc-full of everyday, are quite possibly, a massive waste of time.

Anyone with any common sense knows that the best environment for a child is one where they are loved, safe, and cared for.
Over and above that, it's all down to personal choice and circumstance.  If being a working mum works for you, fantastic.  If you love staying home, that's brilliant too.
So long as your child is happy and healthy, you're doing fantastically at the hardest, most important job there is: Parenting.

How about you?  Do you work/stay at home/somewhere inbetween? Do you think these studies actually hold any merit?  Would love to hear your thoughts.

Now, I may go do some email unsubscribing ;)