【做「專業家長」真累？】
兒童課外活動多 ～ 兼顧工作家務育兒
英國 Loughborough University 一項研究發現，中產家庭學童參與課外活動的比率，高於勞工階級子弟6.5倍，警告中產媽媽愈來愈自認為有「義務」確保子女天天參與課外活動，會使自己疲憊虛脫。
社會學研究人員採集了不同社會背景家庭樣本，分析他們的日常工作，發現中產家庭的孩子幾乎每週五天都參加各類課外活動，如芭蕾舞、音樂、外語、游泳等。每週參與5個以上課外活動的中產家庭佔42％，而藍領階級只有6.5％。而勞工家庭的子女即使參加課外活動，大多只是每週一兩次而已。
這項研究由英國經濟及社會研究委員會贊助，研究結果認為，許多中產媽媽就像是「專業家長」，精心為子女排各類課外活動，而且管接管送，把自己搞得不勝疲憊。
研究負責人 Sarah Holloway 教授說，越來越多中產媽媽在外要上班工作，需要不斷提升個人專業技能，在家裡要比先生處理更多家務，如今還要一肩擔起讓孩子擁有愉快童年，以及全面發展各種實力的責任，背負了越來越多的壓力。
Pressure to be ‘professional parents’ driving middle class mothers to exhaustion
By John Bingham, Social Affairs Editor, The Telegraph
Middle class mothers are driving themselves to exhaustion trying to hold down jobs while facing a growing obligation to ensure their children attend extra-curricular activities, a new study warns
Middle class mothers are driving themselves to exhaustion trying to hold down jobs while facing a growing obligation to ensure their children attend extra-curricular activities every day of the week, a new study warns.
Fears that it will be harder for the next generations to enjoy the lifestyle of their parents because of unaffordable property prices and the fact that a degree no longer guarantees a job are driving parents to ever more desperate measure to ensure they get ahead, it concludes.
But the study by social scientists at Loughborough University identifies a growing divide between the way children from middle class and working class families are being brought up – and their resulting life chances – even though parents have similar hopes for their children irrespective of background.
The study, which analysed the daily routines of a sample of English families from different social backgrounds, found that in some social circles parenting is increasingly being “professionalised” with mothers bearing the brunt of the extra burden.
It found that it is now becoming the norm for middle class children to go to after-school activities such as ballet, learning a musical instrument or an extra language, at least five days a week but still rare among working classes.
The study, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, found that middle class children are six and a half times as likely to go to extra-curricular activities every day of the school week than those from working class families.
Overall 42 per cent of middle class children who took part in her study did more than five extra-curricular activities a week, compared with only 6.5 per cent of working class children.
But most working class children did attend some extra-curricular activities. Half of the working class children involved in the study did so between once and twice a week.
It suggests that in an era when children have less freedom to play outdoors unsupervised, class is beginning to assert a greater effect on children’s outlook.
“Parents value enrichment activities in very similar ways across the class spectrum — seeing them as fun, healthy, and social opportunities,” it concludes.
“The ability to pay for enrichment, however, means that it is incorporated into, and transforms, middle-class family life in ways not open to working-class families.”
Prof Sarah Holloway, who led the research, said: “It’s partly the professionalisation of parenting that drives it, and partly fear amongst the middle classes about whether their own children will have access to the same kind of life as they’ve enjoyed.
“Parents want their children to do well in school because if they don’t there’s not a plan B any more. But degrees cost a lot now, not all graduates get jobs, and house prices are completely out of line with the average wage.
“So parents aren’t just supporting the work of schools by helping with homework, they’re devoting themselves to creating healthy, cultured, confident little people who are ready to take on the world.”
She added: “Increasing numbers of middle-class mothers are in paid employment.
“They are under pressure to deliver at work, they have to keep their own employment skills up-to-date, they still do more of the domestic labour than men, and they’re now under extra pressure to ensure their children have an enjoyable childhood and develop in appropriate ways.
“Parents want children to do after-school activities because they are fun, but there is more to it than this.
“Many mothers are encouraging children to do a sport as it will help set them on the road to a healthy lifestyle. Some kind of cultural activity – say learning an instrument, or a drama class – will help make them a rounded person. Lots of mums think uniformed organisations are brilliant for teaching children social skills.
“It’s about ensuring their children’s physical, cultural and social development alongside educational achievement.
“They are helping their children grow into successful people, training them to be able to move in different circles and have all the soft skills a worker needs in the modern economy.”