What determines happiness?
What you do? Or where you are?
Who are you with? Or what you eat?
Gallup conducted a survey on happiness between working moms and stay-at-home moms to see who feel less worried.
The results may stun you.
Before I let you know the outcome of the survey, let me paint two scenarios that are likely to happen.
If you are a working mom, chances are you look forward to staying at home and wish you can play and watch your kids grow up.
On the other hand, if you are a SAHM, you miss the fun and adventures corporate world offers and hope that you can work again and get away from the little monsters that bug you at home.
Either one is possible.
No right or wrong answer.
That explains why this kind of surveys is a waste of time and useless. And it doesn’t add value to one’s life.
Moreover, putting aside the question of the accuracy of the survey (how it was conducted and who were interviewed and how results were compiled), will your happiness level be dictated by the results of such a survey?
Since every mother is unique and the situation in which she is in is different, there’s no way how each one of us feels can be generalized by one stupid survey – which it claims to have interviewed 60,000 mothers.
That said, are you still interested in the survey result?
If you are, here it is: Stay-at-home moms are more depressed and less happy than working moms.
Shocking?
I disagree.
Not on the result. But on the fact that it ignores the fundamentals of happiness – besides the survey is not relevant and not productive.
Can you use the survey result and advise SAHMs to work instead of staying at home if they want to be happier?
I don’t think so.
Should you stop working mothers from quitting because the survey says SAHMs are less happy?
Absolutely not.
If you want to be happy, there’s only one way to go about it. And you don’t need to let someone else to decide for you. You decide.
Are you ready?
Live in the moment. Be less judgmental. Appreciate what you already have. Focus on things you can control and let go of those you can’t.
This works no matter what situation you are in – working or stay-at-home.
No doubt environments can change how you feel. But having the right mental attitude is as equally as critical, if not more.
No matter who you are. A working mother or SAHM, The Nonconformist’s Guide to Parenting can help you to be a stress-free and happy parent.
Get the full scoop here:
The Nonconformist’s Guide to Parenting
Throw the survey out the window.
