The Second Shift/ Nanny or no Nanny

Summary:

I read an article that talked about how nowadays women have created this new entity called the second shift. It is when women have a professional that they work seven to eight hour days like a man would, but instead of coming and sitting down and reading the paper they have more work to do. Women basically have created themselves a second job. They spend eight hour at their professional job and then come home and start their unofficial job as nanny, cleaning lady, grocery shopper, etc. While women have made significant gains in the workplace itself, the gender division of labor at home endures.

Even now that husbands contribute more to tasks at home now than ever before, the primary responsibility for running the household among married couples with children continues to rest with women. A recent trend to hire household help is opening possibilities to redefine this aspect of women’s lives, but even when families hire people to watch their children or clean their homes, women tend to take on the burden of managing the work that is done in the home and the care of the children. As such, mothers feel the pressure of managing their homes and families along with long hours at work, and as we’ve noted, one response for many of these women is to downsize or quit their jobs. Women’s professional lives can be detailed by unequal burdens of housework; husband's travel schedule, husband’s mobility, and the need to care for family members who are ill or aging.

The second shift led to exhaustion, depression, and more frequent illness. Current statistics show that while men do spend more time now on tasks at home women continue to shoulder the burden of household work. A solution most people come up with is to outsource the jobs in the house hold. This would be easy if someone else could actually hire the worker other then the women who is looking for a replacement. Women have a few problems with this in the fact that they want to have control and domain over their house and that they may not be able to trust people with their kids. Here are some videos clips of nanny cameras and what may happen to your children who are babysat. The videos are really disturbing so some may not want to watch. I was really disheartened to see that anyone could do this to a baby.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRpMet_pP5M&feature=related

Questions:

How much time do you think is spent on household chores on average?

After watching the videos would you think twice about hiring a sitter? What is your reaction to the footage?