Psychotherapist warns of epidemic of working mothers producing mentally ill children

By Julio Severo

A leading psychotherapist in New York City in the last 25 years has warned that mothers who return to work too soon after having babies are damaging their children’s mental health.

In a video for the New York Post, Erica Komisar revealed how she’s seen an “epidemic level of mental disorders in very young children,” which she puts down to the “devaluing of mothering in society.”

The author of Being There, Why Prioritizing Motherhood in the First Three Years Matters explained that babies experience a rush of cortisol and a great deal of stress when they’re away from their mothers.

She argued that when working women return from work in the evenings they spend as little as 90 minutes with their babies before they put them to bed — and then find that they are unable to sleep through the night because they’re craving their mothers’ attention.

“Our society tells women go back to work, do what you want, they’ll be ok,” she explained. “But they’re not OK.”

“I was seeing it in my parent guidance practice. I was actually seeing an epidemic level of mental disorders in very young children who were being diagnosed and medicated at an earlier and earlier age.”

“I started looking at the research which backed up what I was seeing in my practice, which is that the absence of mothers on a daily basis in children’s lives was impacting their mental health.”

Referencing research that’s been done since the ‘60s, she said the only thing that reduces stress for babies is when their mothers return from work.

“I still say daycare is my least favorite option,” she said. “You’re taking a very young baby and exposing them to a great deal of stimulation and a great deal of fear.”

“When you take them out of their immediate environment and put them in a group with a lot of stimulation and a lot of people that’s not the natural environment for babies.”

“When we give mothers the option of being home in the first three years we increase the emotional security and reduce mental disorders.”

“On a societal level we need to recognize mothers’ work is valuable work. We emphasize material success and professional achievement, but there is no more valuable or more important work.”

Even though there is a high appreciation of mothers’ work in the homeschool movement, the voice of Erica Komisar, who is a psychotherapist outside the homeschool movement, reinforces the value of mothers’ presence in the lives of their children in their early childhood. She is a voice from the secular world confirming the same warnings that Christian homeschool leaders as Mary Pride have given for decades.

With information from DailyMail.

Portuguese version of this article: Psicoterapeuta alerta acerca de epidemia de mães que trabalham fora produzindo filhos mentalmente doentes

Source: Last Days Watchman

Recommended Reading:

The prophet Elijah’s return: what the Elijah anointing represents to families and the political world in these last days