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Carrie Low is a second-generation working mom. Like her mother before her, she works full-time and relies on child-care providers to mind her youngest daughter.
Taking home a full-time paycheque makes her family more financially secure, and Amelia, who is 21/2, likes her daycare.
"They're really, really good. You feel comfortable leaving your kids with them," said Ms. Low, 38, who is a lawyer in Toronto.
More Canadian mothers are opting to work full-time than was the case a decade ago because they have the opportunity and the choice &em; and they are less reluctant than previous generations to put their youngsters in child care, according to a new Statistics Canada report on average hours of work.
Over the past 10 years, the proportion of mothers who work part-time has dropped and the number who work full-time has increased. The report said 68.5 per cent of mothers with children under age 16 worked between 30 and 40 hours a week in 2006, up from 62.1 per cent in 1997.
Today's mothers are "more attached to the labour market" than previous generations, Statscan said.
"A lot of them have a higher level of education coming into the labour market, they have more experience and they are having their children later in life," Statscan analyst Jeannine Usalcas said in an interview. "They are more likely to come back [full-time]."
As well, there is less stigma surrounding mothers who return to work full-time and make child-care arrangements, said consultant Nora Spinks, president of Toronto-based Work-Life Harmony Enterprises.
"Today's 30-year-olds are the first generation of parents who, themselves, were in child care. It's a generation that has personal experience with a range of quality [child-care] options," she said.
This was the case with Alina Chernin, manager of employee communications at American Express Canada Inc., whose mother was a doctor with a busy practice. Ms. Chernin recalls that daycare was "definitely a good experience" for her as a child.
"It makes you into a more independent person," said Ms. Chernin, who found a daycare centre for her son, Benjamin, when she returned to work full-time a year ago. Amex was not only supportive, she said, but promoted her to a management position shortly after her return.
Ms. Chernin's husband picked Benjamin up at daycare last evening, in keeping with another development that Statscan reported &em; working dads are playing a greater role on the family front than previous generations of fathers.
Men still put in longer workweeks than women, on average, but the proportion of men working extremely long hours &em; 49 hours a week or more &em; decreased to 13.8 per cent in 2006 from 16.7 per cent in 1997.
The younger generation of working mothers and fathers is more "dual-centric" than previous generations of employees &em; placing equal value on both career and family, Ms. Spinks said.
Tammara Pabon, an in-house lawyer at CIBC, said it is not easy to find good-quality daycare &em; she knows of people who put their names on daycare waiting lists before they even get pregnant.
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"After a year [of maternity leave] you are so excited to get back to work, and you are so geared up to get that piece of your life back."
Changing demographics and the impending retirement of the Baby Boom generation are pushing more employers to accommodate working mothers so they can work longer hours, if they choose.
Val Duffey, who dashed home early yesterday because her nanny was ill, said companies engaged in "the war for talent" are going to considerable lengths to attract and retain the new generation of highly educated young mothers.
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For Ms. Low, who is an in-house counsel at RBC, and her husband Brian Porter, a firefighter, daycare is the best option for Amelia.
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But child care is expensive, Ms. Low noted, with the cost for Amelia hovering around $50 a day. "We look at it like a second mortgage."
- reprinted from the Globe and Mail