Part-Time Employed Mums Have Healthier Kids

The part-time working mothers raise healthier children than the counterparts who stay at home or having a full-time job. Generally the kids of part-time employed mums have less junk food and hence, less likely to become overweight or obese. These kids also become less sedentary too.

The part-time employed mothers let their children watch the TV about an hour less, than the stay-at-home mums and the full-time working mothers. So the consumption of snack foods become less as they are less exposed to junk food ads, too. The researcher say that such types of ads play a crucial role in increasing the obesity among the children. So the researchers say that full-time working mothers are likely to have unhealthier children.

A study about the children of working mothers, also conducted face-to-face interviews with the mothers and measured the height and weight of their children.

"Although employment reduces the time parents spend at home, mothers go to considerable lengths to insulate time with their children. They reschedule activities, sleep less and allocate less time to personal care and leisure to ensure that time with children," says the associate professor Jan Nicholson, principal research fellow at Melbourne''s Murdoch Children''s Research Institute.

But the reasons for the stay-at-home mums having less healthy kids, is not yet understood. The researchers think that a closer examination of household dynamics is required to find it out.