Working Mums - By Your Chubby Kids We Shall Know Thee

More parenting bollox in the news to try and trip up those of us doing the working mother mambo.

As reported by BBC News, a study from the Institute of Child Health claims that children of working mothers are more likely to be obese.  So add that to your list of stuff to feel guilty about - then burn it.

The study's researchers are reported as saying: "Long hours of maternal employment, rather than lack of money, may impede young children's access to healthy foods and physical activity.  For example, parental time constraints could increase a child's consumption of snack foods and/or increase television use."

Note the use of vague, wobbly language in that quote - mothers working long hours "may" stop their children having healthy food and "could" lead to increased snacking & TV watching.  Not that they definitely do, just that they might have an effect.  Just as paternal working hours, location, other priorities and the man in the moon may also have an effect. 

This study appears to take a very all or nothing approach, contrasting the full time working mum (she bad, she eat chips and watch TV) with the stay at home mum (she good, she make nice food).  But what about the increasing numbers of women who adopt a mix and match variation of this - the part-timers, the flexible-shifters, the self-employed?  The trouble with these sorts of surveys is that they tar all working women with the same brush, even when you've done your best to find a working pattern that also gives you time with your kids.

The Kellogg's Family Health Study (of which I'm a panel member) showed that parents are their children's greatest role models.  So if you have a generally healthy and positive attitude to food and exercise, then your kids are likely to adopt this also.

There probably are some good lessons to be learned from this study - it's quite an indictment of the UK's culture of presenteeism and long working hours.  I hope it doesn't become another stick to beat working mothers with, though I suspect it will.  The Daily Mail are probably raising their cudgels with glee already.