Work is good for your health?
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| Mon, 05-15-2006 - 5:25am |
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=43421
Working Mothers Healthier Than Full-time Housewives
Main Category: Women's Health / OBGYN News
Article Date: 15 May 2006 - 1:00am (PDT)
According to new research carried out in Britain, working mothers enjoy better health than full-time housewives. Despite the stress working mothers face by holding down a job, dealing with childcare, housework and striving to keep the family happy.
It appears that working mothers, when compared to full-time housewives, are less likely to become overweight, have a better level of health and a healthier relationship. The study also found that single mothers experience worse health than working mothers who have a partner and children.
You can read about this study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
Team leader, Dr. Anne McMunn, University College London, said that women who combine work with children and marriage do seem to have better health than full-time housewives. Even though they may experience high levels of stress sometimes.
It is not a question of chicken-and-egg either. Dr. McMunn said it is the experience of work plus having a family that brings on the better health, not the fact that only healthier mothers decide to carry on working.
The researchers examined data on women born in 1946 from the Medical Research Council's National Study of Health and Development. The data registers their health from 1946 until they are 54. Women's health was examined, with the help of a questionnaire at the ages of 26 through to 54. Every decade, the questionnaire collects data on each woman's work history, whether she is/was married, has children, her height and weight.
The healthiest women were the ones who had all three of the following:
-- A Partner
-- Children
-- A job
Those reporting the worst health were stay-at-home mothers, followed by childless women and single mothers.
38% of stay-at-home mothers were obese when they reached their 50s, for working mothers the percentage was 23%.
Written by: Christian Nordqvist
Editor: Medical News Today

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Jennie
At least someone with actual qualifications the pertain to the job versus
PumpkinAngel
I asked Felicia in a post if she was jealous of where I live, but I was joking. And then she asked me if I thought everyone was jealous of me. Don't know where that came. I've never bragged about anything on this board. So, this seems like it's totally out of the blue. The post about the 3 year exotic vacation was a joke (note the LOL icon). Felicia then posted back to me with an LOL icon.
I *know* people on this board have a sense of humor because I have seen it in posts between women referencing me. So, where is it when it comes to me posting with an LOL icon?
So I started reading this string at post 1, read a few and jumped around, then jumped ahead to 685, 684, 683 . . . whoa! What happened here? I don't have time to read all of them but it's interesting how the string went from WOH and SAH to Mike Brown and FEMA to W's tax cuts to some personal thing about who's jealous of whom. In grand summary, here's what I think:
1). I work because I have to (massive student loan debt). Because of federal law, we can't refinance student loan debt like we can home debt or credit card debt. It is also not dischargeable in bankruptcy. Fair? Not really. Will any elected officials do anything about it? Probably not.
2). I'd work even if I didn't have to. I had a six-month maternity leave with Willie (now 3) and was soooo happy to go back to my job and friends. Selfish? Not exactly. Happy Mommy who works is better for kids than a crazy Mommy who stays at home. Not that SAHM's are crazy, just that *I* would be if I stayed at home! Plus, it helps that we have awesome, awesome day care.
3). Fact: Most women who work can't afford not to. It's a tiny minority of people who actually have a choice. So the whole "Mommy Wars" narrative is a media-contrived myth.
4). The job I have actually enables my husband to pursue his career ambitions-- he is self-employed and I have a job that provides all the benefits. If I didn't have benefits, he'd have to go back to working at an agency and that would be bad for him. So despite my high education and my work outside the home for wages, I am NOT the career-driven, ambitious one in our family!
5). How would your life/career be different if you didn't have to worry about health care? Just a thought.
6). Truth: staying at home with an infant is difficult, mind-numbing work. Staying at home with a toddler can be crazy-making, too. Nothin but respect for moms who are able to do it and keep their sanity.
7). Another truth: I handle absolutely every domestic duty in addition to working full-time (no amount of nagging, threats, incentives, praise, or bribery can stir my husband from his absolute inertia). Stay-at-home moms often have all day to do the things I do in a few hours in the evening: cook (yes, I cook all our meals), shop, pay bills, clean house, volunteer, make social engagements, make other necessary appointments (e.g., doctor visits and hair cuts), and take care of our dogs. Oh, and chase my 3-year-old around! I wouldn't trade places with anybody. Working moms (which is something like 70% of women with school-age children) are ALL SuperMoms.
8). One little interesting story I read on msnbc a couple months ago said women today are spending more time with their kids than they did in previous generations-- at the expense of time for themselves.
That's all I got.
"1). I work because I have to (massive student loan debt). Because of federal law, we can't refinance student loan debt like we can home debt or credit card debt. It is also not dischargeable in bankruptcy. Fair? Not really. Will any elected officials do anything about it? Probably not."
You think it's not fair to have to pay back your student loan if you declared bankruptcy?
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Why do you think it's not fair?
PumpkinAngel
Thought this was about working or not? My specific comment about fairness was directed at the refinancing of student loans, not bankruptcy provisions. In other words, the free market allows us to find a lower interest rate for all other debts, including mortgages and credit cards, but for student loans, federal law suspends the free market and says you're only allowed to "consolidate" once. And that's not fair: many students were locked in at 7-9% interest rates when rates were high in the late 90s. Then they dropped to like 4% or something (I'm locked at 6%). Is it fair that someone pays literally tens of thousands of dollars more in interest because they graduated a year or two before me?
If the government allowed the debt market for student loans to work as other debt markets do, we'd be in better shape.
Stop hating on me! I gave everyone else nothing but respect. What is wrong?? I work because I have to. I respect those who can afford to make the choice to stay home.
Support for my statement that most women work because they have to:
"While the raw emotionalism of the debate is compelling, economists and sociologists who study women in the work force complain that books like "Mommy Wars" can obscure an important reality: most women with children work outside the home. Women who are most likely to stay home with their children are younger than 24 and have obtained high-school diplomas, according to the U.S. Census. Older, more educated moms are more likely to keep working. When women quit to raise kids, they rarely retire for good. According to a report issued in December by the Census, 75 percent of women with school-age children are employed or looking for work. By the time their children are 12 or older, that number rises to 80 percent. "The nature of the economy," says Kathleen Gerson, a New York University sociologist, "means that only a very tiny percentage of women—very wealthy ones," can afford to leave the work force entirely."
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11569327/site/newsweek/from/ET/
There's your support. What is controversial about saying that people have to work out of economic necessity?
Here's another fact: the cost of a college education DOUBLES every nine years. It increases about 8 percent a year. That means between the time you start and end college, tuition increases an average of over 25%. This fact, combined with the fact that federal and state aid is being slashed, means that many cannot afford a college education at the same time they are being told it is necessary is today's job market.
I went to law school. I pay $550 a month in student loans (and I got out of college with no loans at all). I will pay this until I am 58. I am not asking the government to pay my loans; I simply want the same opportunity on the debt market that people with say, $75,000 in CONSUMER debt get.
Here's a related fact about bankruptcy debt: more than half is related to medical debt-- a serious illness. Most of those people had health insurance.
"Costly illnesses trigger about half of all personal bankruptcies, and most of those who go bankrupt because of medical problems have health insurance, according to findings from a Harvard University study to be released Wednesday."
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6895896/
Soooooo, what is fair?
Stop, think, people.
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I don't know much about student loans but
PumpkinAngel
Oh, and I look forward to hearing your replies.
I don't mean to be controversial. Staying at thom with Willie for six months was the hardest job I ever had. He screamed for the first 5 months of his life (reflux). So I really do understand how hard it is to stay at home, and why SAHM's take pride in their jobs.
We WOHM moms often feel attacked by the constant talk about how we're 1). selfish and 2). unavailable and 3). oh, yeah, did I mention selfish? After all, we are told about ten times a day, it's better for your kids if you stay home!
Finally a study comes out that says it's better for us to go to work! Yay! Only, wait, are we being selfish again, because we work and stay healthy?
WHO CARES? My point is that for me and most women (see source!) it's not a choice. Sure, I could quit and we could live in a one-bedroon apar and get all of our clothes from goodwill and maybe get food stamps. But I want a house for my kid. And the opportunity for an education. And I grew up in a house that was always tense because of money problems. It affected me, and I want to spare my kid that if possible.
If you make a different choice, and if you are able to do it without food stamps, hey, more power to you. But don't hate on me for the choices I have to make for my family.
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