Finally a working-mother study we can bask and revel in.

Working mothers produce higher-achieving daughters and more domestically useful sons. Hallelujah.

Did you have to cut short the Mother’s Day breakfast at school because you had to get to work on time?

Did you miss the note about the family history project that was due in last Thursday? Or did you have to skip the class morning tea so you could make that management meeting?

Do you, like me, live in a constant juggle of well if I go to the assembly then I can skip the museum trip and hopefully my kids won’t notice?

I DID go to the swimming carnival so hopefully he won’t mind if I DON’T go to the athletics one?

“Sure I will try my hardest to be there. I’ll see you tonight to finish that book. I promise.”

A virtual spreadsheet in your mind. Time put in, time missed out. Hopefully equalling a balanced child.

Hopefully.

It’s the classic working mother’s guilt so many of us suffer from.

You worry whether you have put your career first, whether you can afford the child care fees, whether you are giving enough of yourself, whether you are letting down the kids, whether you are letting down your employer or clients. You worry that you never see your partner anymore. You worry that you are doing the wrong thing by your kids.

You just plain old f*cking worry about everything.

Well finally, FINALLY there is a study for us. FINALLY a study showing that having a working mother can have economic, educational and social benefits for kids.

Did you read that?

Not just no discernible damage, but Benefits.

The study of 50,000 adults across 25 countries including Australia showed that daughters had the greatest benefits with daughters of working mums completing more of their education and more likely to be employed.

The study from the International Social Survey Program found 69 per cent of women who had a working mum ended up employed with 22 per cent employed as supervisors.

For stay-at-home mums – 66 per cent were employed, with 18 per cent at supervisor level.

It also showed that women who had mums who worked outside the home ended up being paid 6 per cent more than those whose mums stayed at home.

And the benefits filtered through to other women too as it turns out us working mums produce sons who are better husbands.

The study showed that sons of working mums spent an extra hour caring for children each week than sons of stay-at-home mums.

The lucky future partners of my two sons will also get an additional 17 minutes per week of housework from my boys, according to this study. (Shame they don’t do it now!)

The study doesn’t deny the benefits of mothers spending time with their kids, but it does help many of us out with the guilt a bit.

Did you see The Motherhood’s take on The Mummy Wars? Post continues after video. 

In Australia 59 per cent of Australian children have mums who are employed. Thirty-seven per cent of us full time and 63 per cent part time.

That’s more than 3 million reasons to feel guilty.

This latest study comes on the back of research in April which showed that there’s no direct correlation between the amount of time mothers spend with their kids and how well they fare in the future.

We liked that one.

And somewhere squeezed in between was another study (one best ignored) that showed that children’s test scores decreased as mothers’ work hours increased, but the working hours of the father were found to have no statistically significant impact.

And then there was that study once that showed growing up in a clean home can boost your kids’ exam marks…

So let’s face it, there will always be a study that we can twist and bend to either feed or ease our guilt.

But just before we do, let us working mothers bask in this piece of research for just a few moments. Let us finally assuage our own guilt, just until the next piece of research comes along to make us feel bad again.

Did you have a mum who worked? Do you think that had an impact on you?

Want more on working mums? Read these posts.

“I used to think working mothers were bludgers. Now I’m one of them.”

This woman judged working mothers. Then she became one.