Stress levels increase (up to 40%) for working mothers !

As regular readers know, this blog brings a variety of articles, studies, thoughts, photographs, music and recipes! It is presented in a magazine style - we hope something for everyone. Our main focus is about the Low Carb Higher (Healthy) Fat lifestyle, LCHF for short, and you can read/find out more about that here

But we have something different today, and special mention to Dr Katharine Morrison at The Diabetes Diet Blog for this post ... 

Bring back the 50s ?

Mothers in full time work are significantly stressed.

"Being a working mother doesn’t just feel stressful, it alters your physiology. 

Researchers at the Universities of Manchester and Essex studied 6025 people. They collected information about their working and home lives. Hormonal levels and blood pressure were checked too. 

When 11 biomarkers of stress were tested, these were 40% higher in women who worked full time and were raising two children at the same time. One child raised the levels by 18%. Part time workers, job sharers and those with flexible working arrangements where fewer hours were worked had less stress. Flexible working or remote working with no reduction in hours did not lower stress levels. 

The authors said, ” Work-family conflict is associated with increased psychological strain, with higher levels of stress and lower levels of well being. Parents of young children are at particular risk of family-work conflict."

The above snippet taken from an article, which you can read in full here

Do please share your views on this. I think it can affect both mums and dads …

When I think back to my childhood, my mother did not work, there somehow seemed more time available. As a family we used to do things together, sit down and eat together (far more than families seem to do now), talk together. There was more structure to the day, more defined lines. So many people say to me that they struggle with finding a good life balance these days, and I’m sure it is having a detrimental affect on many people’s health. Another thought how do the children feel?

All the best Jan