Can working mothers feel any more guilty?
Just in time for Mothering Sunday, scientists have blamed working mums for childhood obesity. The study of kids born between 2000 and 2002 claims to be the first to provide “causal evidence” linking a mother’s employment to the weight of her offspring. It seems that the effects are most pronounced for single mothers working full time, but also related to working mothers who have partners.
“We find that children whose mothers work are more likely to have increased sedentary behaviour and poorer dietary habits,” concludes one of the study’s authors, Prof Emla Fitzsimons, from University College London. “Maternal employment during childhood increases children’s body mass index [BMI].” If you say so, professor. Despite an appalling Jammie Dodger habit, a conviction that Doritos are a major food group, a reluctance to assume the vertical position before 2pm – combined with the violently held opinion that walks are “strange” – our resident teenager still manages to have the figure of a Biro refill.
None the less, I accept it’s a fact that working mothers are to blame for everything bad that ever happened, so who am I to question the science?
For me, the distinction between working and nonworking mothers is unhelpful. Since when has any mother not
worked? The man who sneered “If you can’t stand the heat, get back to the kitchen” had clearly never made spag bol for two offspring and their mates.
The kitchen is much more taxing than the office, which could explain why men don’t cop any of the blame in this study. While working women get it in the neck, researchers said they could not find “any significant effect” of a father’s job on BMI.
Funny that. It’s grossly unfair. When scientists hold working mothers responsible for tubby kids, what they are tacitly accepting is that working fathers (now when have you ever heard that?) cannot be expected to feed their children or drag them away from the TV.
Meanwhile, I suggest you brace yourselves, ladies, for the next piece of damning research. Climate change? Obviously, that’s down to too many working mothers asking for the heating to be turned up in the office. Knife crime? If only you’d stayed home chopping onions for casseroles, fewer knives would be available for stabbing.
Brexit? Offhand, I really can’t think of how working mothers are specifically implicated in that. But, oh, you can bet that we are. A working mother’s place is in the wrong.