Educated mothers

sir – How sad that Hannah Betts (Features, November 29) thinks it a wasted life for a woman with a PHD to stay at home bringing up her children.

I am one such woman. I have a BSC and PHD in Biochemistry, as does my husband of 37 years. I could have stayed at work and farmed the children out to a nursery – which would probably have made us considerably better-off – but I considered staying at home with our two small boys at least as, if not more, worthwhile and satisfying.

I was never “bored out of my skull” playing with bricks. In fact I enjoyed being involved in each stage of my sons’ development, both educationally and emotionally.

At times the routine feeding, cleaning, washing and cooking was monotonous, but does Ms Betts’s job involve endless excitement day after day?

The other great advantage of spending time with your children when they are little is that they are more likely to continue communicating with you as they grow up.

Is it a coincidence that mental illness among children and young adults has spiralled in the last 10 to 20 years, when more mothers have started to go out to work and spend less time with their children? Dr Catherine Keech

St Albans, Hertfordshire