Nursery World - Working mothers more likely to feed children ready meals

Children whose mothers work full-time have an increased risk of becoming obese, according to a new study.

Researchers, led by Cornell University, examined data on almost 25,000 families from a yearly survey of how Americans spend their time.

They found that mothers who worked full-time spent roughly three-and-a half fewer hours per day on chores related to their children’s diet and exercise, such as cooking, food shopping and play with children, compared to stay-at-home and unemployed mothers.

The more hours worked by mothers, the less likely families were to eat meals together or at regular times, or have family rules about the amount of television watched.

Lead author Professor John Crawley from Cornell University in New York said that male partners and husbands of working mothers do little to make up the deficit, with employed fathers devoting just 13 minutes daily to chores related to their children’s diet and exercise, and non-working fathers 41 minutes.

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