Well, we have seen the data on the situation of mothers in Spain and the possible solutions to our vital needs and desires, quite different from the absurd and dangerous idea of schooling newborns to achieve greater equality and work-life balance for mothers
Looking to find out what mothers want I dare to throw you a question.
The solution to motherhood in today's world is that we give up spending more time with children, raising our babies and enjoying the unrepeatable childhood of children? I do not think so. Is the solution to shorten maternity leave or encourage mothers to give up on them? I do not think so. The solution is to institutionalize children? I do not think so. The solution is to make thousands of nurseries for newborns? I do not think so. Or at least it is not the solution that all mothers want to be imposed even if it goes against their wishes, their needs and, what is more important and it seems that we forget, the wishes and needs of babies.
And the Global Mothers Movement survey seems to indicate that the majority opinion of European mothers is in this line. I will continue to reflect on this subject.
Being mothers changes the way we see life
Being mothers changes our lives and the way we see the world, our priorities. Even for those who develop a satisfactory career, their children become the engine of their lives and giving them a healthy and happy childhood is their priority.
Without generalizing, understanding that each family has its needs and its way of seeing the world, I believe that applying a single model, that of absolutist egalitarianism, does not respond to the real wishes of most mothers, who, without giving up work or to stability, they wish they could spend much more time with their children. What do mothers want? This is the question.
Nurseries for everyone
Nursery schools are a valid and respectable option, but today more than an option that women can freely go to, they have become a necessity and something almost inevitable. But is it generalizing, making childcare inevitable and almost obligatory what mothers want?
Working mothers cannot today decide if they stay at home raising their babies, they have to take them, whether or not it seems the best option for their families, to a daycare center.
And these, although in many cases they are places as respectful as possible with babies, can not replace the presence of the mother that is what babies really need and what best helps them to develop fully.
Children adapt to everything. Women and men too. But few would like to, if they could really choose, leave their babies in daycare and less full-time or at very early ages.
Mothers want to be able to spend more time with their children
If we could make a decision in this regard, freely, without the fear of losing my job or without the imperative economic need derived from ridiculous maternity leave and insufficient complementary measures, few would be the moms who separated so soon from their children And so many hours a day. Mothers want to be able to spend more time with their children.
Many specialists claim precisely that to improve the physical and emotional health of children: More time with children.
This is my opinion and that of the survey of World Mothers Movement that I am reviewing at the same time that I am writing this to you. I would like to know if our mother readers and their partners want to spend more time with their children, really what they want, not what a minister who seems to have the Spartan model of society wants, as well as the psychologist Ramón Soler has described in Magazine Free mind or perhaps, simply, that platonic educational and social model that already dreamed of channeling children to serve the State and never leaving their ranks.
I am tired of reading and listening to mothers torn by leaving babies in daycare and who relate the emotional suffering that produces them and their children this unnatural separation.
What we want most mothers
As I say, we adapt to everything, we survive, we compensate with love in abundance, but we still think that is not that what we really want as mothers. I do not say it, I do not say it for the experiences of many years with groups of mothers, so does the survey that I have quoted and that I encourage you to analyze in more depth.
Just look at the way Sweden takes care of their children, as they tell us in the Alternative Blog, so that we feel envious and a logical desire to improve our system, stopping listening to those who have educated us in the "can not".
According to this survey, 63% of mothers would choose to work, yes, but part time, to be able to spend a lot of time with their children without giving up their own remuneration and work development. Only 11% would like to work full time and 26%, a figure that is not negligible, representing a quarter of the mothers, would rather not work and dedicate themselves to their families full time.
We will see later what these figures mean and what they reveal to us about what mothers want.
