More Tennessee Working-Age Moms Choosing to Stay-at-Home

Times are changing yet again for Tennessee families. In Memphis and across the country, fewer women with minor children are working outside the home. A recent study shows the number of stay-at-home Moms in 2012 matched that of the mid-1980s for the first time.

The Pew Research Center recently released its trend analysis of U.S. stay-at-home mothers raising one or more minor children (After Decades of Decline, a Rise in Stay-at-Home Mothers).

What’s best for the children? Pew Research Center study on increase of stay-at-home Moms in U.S.

Relying primarily on data from the U.S. Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Pew Research Center based its social and demographic trends analysis on those mothers between the ages of 18 and 69 who were raising their biological, adopted, or step children (under age 18). Some of the women had a working husband, others were cohabiting, and still others were single.

Pew authors D’Vera Cohn, Gretchen Livingston, and Wendy Wang indicate the increasing number of stay-at-home Moms as being:

“[D]riven by a mix of demographic, economic and societal factors, including rising immigration as well as a downturn in women’s labor force participation, and is set against a backdrop of continued public ambivalence about the impact of working mothers on young children.”

The group of mothers who did not work outside the home was broadly identified by the authors. Stay-at-home Moms included those who chose not to work outside the home, were unemployed and could not find jobs, were enrolled in school, were disabled, or perhaps had other circumstances that resulted in their home status.

Here are some of the 2012 statistical highlights:

● 23% of all mothers were stay-at-home Moms in 1999. In 2008, that number had increased to 26% (considered to be the peak of the recession). And by 2012, the number had grown to 29%.

● 51% of stay-at-home Moms were caring for a newborn to 5-year-old child. Comparatively, only 41% of working mothers were caring for such young children.

● 33% of stay-at-home Moms were immigrants. (“The overall rise in the share of U.S. mothers who are foreign born, and rapid growth of the nation’s Asian and Latino populations, may account for some of the recent increase…”)

● In 1970, 40% of the men married to stay-at-home Moms were employed. By 2012, the number of working husbands had dropped to 20%.

● 20% of stay-at-home Moms are single. In 1970, only 8% of single mothers stayed home to raise their children.

● In 2012, only 28% of all minor children were raised by stay-at-home Moms (representing a 4% increase over the year 2000). That is still a long way from where U.S. families were in 1970, however, when the number of children raised by stay-at-home mothers was 48%.

● And sadly, yet not surprisingly, 34% of the stay-at-home Moms were living in poverty.

Financial Issues for Divorcing Stay-at-Home Moms

For the Memphis stay-at-home mother considering divorce, the three biggest financial issues will revolve around the equitable division of marital property (and debts), child support, and spousal support in the form of alimony. Take a couple minutes to watch attorney Miles Mason’s YouTube video on the Top 5 Tennessee Alimony Strategies in Divorce for some pre-divorce planning.

What was once considered to be the traditional Tennessee family has changed over the decades. And is changing once again.

Alimony Lawyer in Memphis TN Divorce

To learn more, read Tennessee Alimony Law in Divorce | Answers to FAQs.  Also, for legal updates, news, analysis, and commentary, see our Tennessee Family Law Blog and its Alimony category.  A Memphis divorce lawyer from the Miles Mason Family Law Group can help.  To schedule your confidential consultation, call us today at (901) 683-1850.