American moms are the most STRESSED in the western world – find out why
It’s harder to be a mom in the United States than it is in any other western country, a new report has found these mothers are the most stressed.
According to sociologist Caitlyn Collins, American moms are finding their parenting gig more challenging than other countries, such as the U.K. and Australia.
Here’s why…
American moms are MORE stressed than those in other western countries
Collins studied the lives of American mothers and moms in other nations and concluded there’s a lack of supportive public policy for moms in the U.S., who have no paid parental leave and no standard time off work to take care of their child or time for annual leave and sick days.
She found there is also a higher gender wage gap in the U.S. as well as a lack of affordable childcare. These factors all lead to American moms feeling more stressed than they need to be.
American moms are twice as likely to be working full time
Collins study isn’t surprising. The Healthy Mommy put together a similar survey for World Healthy Mommy month, surveying over 5,000 moms worldwide in our global community and found that U.S. mommas are TWICE as likely to be working full time.
We asked moms about a range of topics including their family circumstances, lifestyle, physical and mental health along with their health goals and barriers to healthy living.
The mothers in our community are a diverse group that includes stay at home moms (30.3%), full time working moms (26%), part time working moms (25.2%), new moms on maternity leave (8.1%), moms who have their own business (2.7%) and moms who work from home (2.5%).
Thinking globally, it was interesting to see that moms in the US (38%) are twice as likely to work full time as moms in Australia (19.2%) with 24.9% of British moms surveyed working full time.
Highlights of The Healthy Mommy survey results:
- Less than 1/3 of moms say that they feel healthy
- Less than 17% of UK moms love their body
- Over 30% of moms get 5 hours or less sleep each night on average
- Almost half of moms experience a significant amount of stress
- 80% of moms think that healthy eating can be expensive
- Less than 20% of all moms said they had energy to exercise
- The main barriers to losing weight are lack of motivation and lack of time
- Over 50% of moms said their partner didn’t support them fully in living a healthy life
- 32% of moms said the area they needed most help in was will power
- Less than 15% of moms said they loved their body
- Body-love is higher in the US than the UK and Australia
- 95% of moms feel the media puts pressure on moms to lose weight
- 97% of moms feel good about seeing a range of moms with different body shapes in the media
The Healthy Mummy’s founder Rhian Allen says, “Mums are the gatekeepers to the family and the key person of influence for the health and longevity of her family.
“When mothers set a positive health example, it can have a significant roll on effect across her family and community.
“Our mission at The Healthy Mommy is to help mums all over the world to lead a healthier life by supporting and helping them make health a priority and set positive examples for generations to come.”
When it comes to weight loss, almost half of moms in the US have a goal of losing 30lbs or more with 1 in 10 hoping to lose more than 60lbs.
Whether their goal is 30lbs or 60lbs the moms we surveyed said that a lack of motivation (25%) and a lack of time (22%) were the two biggest things preventing them from reaching their weight loss goals.
If you are wanting to get that bit of extra support in your journey to better health come and join our community of like-minded moms!
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