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Is This The End Of The Stay At Home Mum? Only One In 10 Mothers Are Choosing To Look After Their Children Full Time

It’s a tough decision – stay at home to spend time with your children, or return to work to further your career and spend most of your earnings on childcare

In an age where women are holding off starting a family to further their career, it’s not hugely surprising that once they do become mums most opt to return to work.

Working mums are on the rise - as less mothers are staying at home [Rex]
Working mums are on the rise - as less mothers are staying at home [Rex]



Stats released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that only one in 10 mothers are staying home full-time – a figure that’s dropped by more than a third in the past two decades. At the moment, there are around 14 million women in work and only two million that are full-time mums or homemakers.

But while it’s great that women are keen to return to the world of work, it does mean that they could be missing out on key moments in their child’s life. It's a tough decision for many parents to make.

And fathers aren’t choosing to stay home either – in fact, stay at home dads are just as rare a breed as ever. Only one man in 100 brings up his child full-time, the report shows.

Just one in 100 dads stay home full time with their child [Rex]
Just one in 100 dads stay home full time with their child [Rex]



The ONS figures show that the number of women aged 16 to 64 who were ‘economically inactive’ (not earning) in 1993 was 15.9 – a percentage that fell to 10.1 last year.

And the amount of women who were Stay At Home Mums (SAHM) dropped from 15 per cent in 1995 to below 10 per cent last summer.  

But the amount of Stay At Home Dads (SAHD) has stayed low with only 1.2 per cent of men in 2014 staying home to look after the home or their children.

There are negatives and positives to being both a stay at home mum and working mum [Rex]
There are negatives and positives to being both a stay at home mum and working mum [Rex]



“There are many reasons for economic inactivity, such as study, looking after the family or home, sickness or disability, or not needing to work,” the report states.

“However the main reason for the decline in female inactivity rates over the longer period has been a decline in the share of women staying out of work to look after the family or home.”

Whether it’s a nanny or a nursery, a huge amount of parents are opting for a form of childcare.

But it comes with a price – typically costing around £177 a week for a child younger than two to attend nursery in the UK. Of course this amount differs from area to area.

Critics argue that there’s a huge amount of support for working mothers now, but limited support for SAHM.

Working mothers have the option of the upcoming childcare voucher scheme, maternity leave pay that’s better than ever before and even the talk of paid breastfeeding breaks at work.

But women who choose to stay at home full time don’t have any of those financial benefits or incentives – nor are they as emotionally supported as they should be.

If you’re a SAHM, you can use websites such as Mums Meet Up to connect with other mothers in your area or get in touch with organisations like Mothers At Home Matter for help and advice.

Are you at SAHM? Let us know in the comments.

[New Mummy Blog; Going Back To Work Made Me Feel Guilty]

[Victoria Beckham Talks About Being A Working Mum, Admits ‘Anyone Who Says It’s Easy Is Lying]