Name: Utari

Student Number: 1202040138

Class: 3D/EED

To Work or Not to Work? A Mother’s Dilemma

To work or not to work? Every mother faces this dilemma with every newborn baby. I had
three kids, each born in a different place in the world and each in different circumstances, and
I had the same dilemma each time.
When Eden, my 25 year old, was born, I could not really choose. I was still studying for my
degree and working for a living. I had to go back to college and work a month after I had
given birth to her. Fortunately for me, I could leave Eden with Gal, who was juggling his
studies and his work to care for Eden. It ended up being the most wonderful experience both
for Eden and for Gal.
When Roof, my 18-year-old, was born, we lived in California, USA. This was far away from
our families after we had lost two kids. When he was 4 months old, we moved to Thailand.
When he was about 10 months old, I felt like I was going nuts staying at home and we got a
nanny. This allowed me to go to work, have adult conversations and keep my sanity.
When Noff, my 13-year-old, was born, we lived in Melbourne, Australia. I started a business
and she went to a family day care twice a week. This allowed me to fulfill my obligations to
my clients.
The topic of being a working mom or a stay-at-home mom is a very common discussion
among pregnant mothers and mothers of young babies. Most mothers prefer not to make a
decision ahead of time, and let circumstances decide.
Financial concerns are a big issue in this decision process. A family’s financial future is
often a reason for uncertainty and fear for pregnant women and mothers of young babies.
Another common topic of the discussion whether to work or not is the impact it is going to
have on babies’ educational and emotional wellbeing.
To justify their position in this matter, women often bring their personal examples from their
own mothers. Unfortunately, this can be very misguided. Choices made 20 years ago are very
different to the choices today. Circumstances change.
A study done in Boston College and published in the APA Journal of Development
Psychology shed some light on the dilemma of working moms. In this longitude study, which
examined 10,700 children born in the United States in 2001, babies were followed from 9
months to 4 years and when they entered kindergarten. The study examined the impact of
their mothers’ work time, stress and income on their development, cognitive skills and
behavior.
Mom’s reported the child’s age when they went back to work, how many hours they worked,
their stress level and time availability. The kids cognitive abilities were examined through
standardized tests. Cognitive skills measured their vocabulary, literacy and numeracy, and
their behavior was measured though attention skills and interaction with other kids.
The conclusion of the study was that children from lower income families whose mothers
went to work performed similar and higher in their cognitive skills than children whose
mothers stayed at home. They also found that children from low-income families
had fewer behavior problems if their mothers went back to work when they were between 9
to 24 months old.
This survey was different from similar surveys done 20 years earlier and the lead author of
the current study, Caitlin McPherran Lombardi, Ph.D., of Boston College, said that “Different
cultural attitudes, more readily available and higher-quality child care and more fathers
participating in child rearing are possible reasons for the difference.”
I have had this discussion with many parents I work with. There are some skills that the best
mothers in the world cannot teach because they require other kids to practice and develop
with. Sharing, caring, consideration, flexibility, attention span, emotional stretch, exposure to
different teaching strategies, decision making, friendship, and collaboration are just some of
the skills that a good early childhood center can expose kids to easily that others will never be
able to do.
So, if you have to go back to work when your baby is 9 months old and you are worried
about how this might affect them, rest assured. A good child care can work wonders for
children. If you are waiting for circumstance to dictate your decision on whether to work or
not, now you can make a conscious decision to send your kid to a good child care knowing
that it is definitely going to benefit them.
Happy parenting,
Ronit
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:
1. What is the text about? A solution for mothers who is in a dilemma about her decision to
work or not when she has a newborn baby.

2.     What is the summary of the text? (1 paragraph)

Many mothers in this world face a dilematic case of going to work or not going to work when
having a newborn baby. Financial issue is one of the reasons of they have to go to work.
However, they also think that going to work or not will impact to babies’ educational and
their emotional wellbeing. It makes them dilema. The author discusses this topic in her text
by showing her experience, researches, and a recommendation approach of dealing the issue.
Her experience shows the way she overcame the issue by doing various approaches to make
her allowed to go to work. The researches she provides cointains two contrast arguments
towards the issue. The first one shows that children from lower income families whose
mothers went to work performed similar and higher in their cognitive skills also
had fewer behavior problems than children whose mothers stayed at home. However, the
second one shows differences. Therefore, the author takes a way-out for the dilema mothers
to allow them to go to work by sending their babies to a good child care. It is because there
are several skills that babies can gain from than stay at home and a good child care will
benefit them.

3.     What is the author’s purpose? Explain. 

I think the purpose of the auhor is to convince the readers to have a way-out that she
delivered in the text. It is because the author provides a way-out of the issue by sharing her
view using “I” indicates personal purpose such trying to convince the readers, “I had a same
dilema..”, “I had discussed...”, and many more. She also convince the readers that the way-
out is good to follow by saying “... rest assured”.

4.     Who do you think the author is? Explain.

The author is a modern mom. It is because based on my prior knowledge, traditional mothers
or old mothers mostly spent their time at home and did not go to work. Meanwhile, only their
husbands did. So, this issue’s probably not happend back then.
5.     When do you think the text is published? Provide textual evidence.
Actually, I have read this text before. Based on the website, it is written that the text was
published in September 4, 2014 by Ronit Baras. On the text also provided by years of the
studies that the author uses like the first study used data of children who born in 2001 and the
second one states “This survey was different from similar surveys done 20 years earlier and
the lead author of the current study...” It’s showed that the text is written in above 2005 or
above 2010.

6.     Who gets benefits from the text?

In my opinion, mothers who get benefit from the text. It is because, the way-out that the
author conveys is more give mothers benefit than others which allow them to go to work
while they are having a newborn baby.

7.     Who is silenced from the text?

The baby and husband. It is because, the author does not explain the baby’s position from the
issue. She only shows the positive things the baby will gain from their mom’s decision but
not included the negative impacts the babies will get if they are sent to child care instead of
taken care by their own mothers. I also said husband. It is because, the text does not mention
that women also has responsibilty as a wife to taking care their husband besides taking care
of their babies.

8.  Who do you think the target readers of the text? Explain

I think, the text are targeted to every mothers who have the same dilematic issue towards
their decision of going to work or not when having a newborn baby especially mothers
nowdays. It is because mostly who have that kind of issue is mothers who live nowdays or
modern mothers, old-mothers usually taking care their children by theirselves since they
spent thier almost time at home while their husbands only who take such financial
responsibility.