Working mums forcing even sick kids to school

September 8th, 2011 - 11:28 am ICT by IANS  

London, Sep 8 (IANS) Many working mothers in Britain send off their children to school despite sickness because they are unable to take time off looking after them, a study has found.

In a study, the researchers found four out of ten employed mums have sent their child to school when he or she wasn’t feeling well because they felt unable to take the day off, Daily Times reported.

A staggering 80 percent of mothers participating in the study said people don’t understand how hard it is to juggle things when a child falls ill.

And 23 percent of mums said they would rather send their sick child to school and receive a phone call to collect them than automatically take the day off.

The study also found around one in six mothers have been made to feel ‘guilty’ by their boss after taking time off to look after a poorly child.

The report also revealed 27 percent of the working mums polled said they were worried of losing their job if they took too much time off for child care.

One in five mums said they felt guilty handing over work to colleagues whenever their child falls ill during a shift. One of ten of the 2,000 working mums polled said they had received a written warning.

The statistics emerged following a study carried out by supplement brand Haliborange.

Spokeswoman Susanne Wright said: “Taking extra days off in term time can be a real struggle especially in the current economic climate when people may be worried about their job security.”

About one fourth of the women said they worried about their work load when they suddenly have to drop everything to collect a sick child from school.

Despite this, 86 percent of the females polled admitted that sick kids need their mothers around more than anyone.

Related Stories

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in World |

Subscribe