Life in Britain is expensive.As a result many mothers have to work to Essay

Life in Britain is expensive.As a result many mothers have to work to pay the bills. This has caused the break-up of family life and had a disastrous effect on - Essay Example are for under 2 years of age has gone up by 33% in the past 6 years (Easier Finance, 2008) and the cost of electricity and gas is up by 16% compared to last year (The Times, 2008) to quote a few. This situation has resulted in more people in a family especially mothers going out to work in order to make ends meet as revealed by a recent study that 1 in every 3 parent’s work (Easier Finance, 2008). There has been a substantial increase in the proportion of married mothers going to work since the mid-1960s according to an article published by McRae, S. According to a recent survey, the number of women going to work as increased by 18% since 1993 (Easier Finance, 2008).A major reason identified for this is the increasing cost of living and in addition work also provides women confidence in themselves, a way of exposing their skills and also increased social contact (Orr, J, 1997). The publicly funded childcare mounts to only 2 % of children under 3 years of age. While earlier on mothers took up part-time jobs now they prefer to go for full-time jobs in order to make ends meet (Orr, J, 1997, Reynolds, T, Calleder, C, Edwards, R, 2003).This trend of both the parents going to work has affected the quality time they spend with their children (Easier Finance, 2008). A study conducted has revealed that children of working mothers showed lesser educational achievement due to lack of ma ternal care (Orr, J, 1997). The study also showed that among working mothers, children of mothers who worked part-time fared better in examinations compared to those whose mothers worked full-time reflecting the fact that the amount of time spent on children by the mother had an influence on the cognitive development of the child. Another new trend that is fast growing is the atypical working hours taken up by mothers. This includes working at weekends and in shifts during weekdays in order to manage both home and work. A Recent study has revealed that children get to spend less time with