October 2009

Working Moms are Bad Moms

by MomGrind

BusinesswomanI didn’t say that. A new research did.

“British children whose mothers worked part- or full-time were more likely to have bad diet and exercise habits than those whose moms stayed at home, Catherine Law, of University College London, and colleagues reported.”

Then of course comes the backpedaling: “But Law warned that the results don’t imply that working mothers should give up their careers.”

I don’t get it. Who picks these research topics? Who is funding them? Why would you make the initial decision to perform such a study? Do you have a hidden agenda? Is it to show that working mothers are worse mothers than non-working mothers?

And even more questions: When you perform such a study, how do you balance out the results with the benefits of having a working mother? You don’t, right? You simply publish the results under an attention-grabbing headline and move on to the next ridiculous study.

Working moms unfortunately have to deal with a lot of guilt – unjustified guilt but nonetheless very real guilt – without these ridiculous studies. I realize this is purely anecdotal, but I was a stay at home mom for six years. I now work from my home office, sometimes part time and sometimes long hours (freelance work tends to fluctuate). My kids’ diet and exercise habits haven’t changed at all since I started working. My own habits haven’t changed either – I still make it a priority to exercise and eat healthy.

But what bothers me about this study is not its accuracy, but the underlying criticism of working moms. Moms have been working since the dawn of history while raising their kids. The privileged stay at home mom who takes her kids to the playground every day and dotes on them 24/7 is a fairly recent phenomenon. Who’s to say it’s the best arrangement for children – or for mothers?

Many mothers need to work for financial reasons. Many other mothers work to maintain an identity that is separate than their role as mothers, to keep their careers going, and to remain financially independent. Being a stay at home mom is a huge financial risk, and being a full time mom isn’t always the right choice for a woman or for her family. I wish researchers would respect that and leave working mothers alone.

Bloggers to be Fined for Not Disclosing Payments

by MomGrind

FTCThe FTC has updated its Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising for the first time since 1980. One of the changes: a requirement that “bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service.”

“Certainly, it seems like this is an update that’s time has come. While most well-run social media programs already include appropriate disclosure, there’s still no shortage of unscrupulous marketers using deceptive practices to sell products” says Mashable today.

But this applies to all bloggers, including anyone who might make an innocent mistake and post a sponsored review without disclosing that they were compensated. I can think of countless “small” bloggers who are not versed in social media and do not follow this type of news, who might publish a sponsored review without realizing that they should disclose anything.

Which is why I have mixed feelings about this new rule. On the one hand, it is indeed long overdue and there’s absolutely no reason why bloggers should not be required to disclose relationships with sponsors just as traditional media is required to.

On the other hand, unlike traditional media, blogging is accessible to anyone – but the rules of blogging are not necessarily found by brand new bloggers who could make honest, costly mistakes. Will the FTC go after a small blogger who published a soap review and received a $10-worth box of soaps in return? The new guidelines do say that “The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement,” so I’m guessing the soap review will not be fined $11,000.

Barbara Swafford recently said that bloggers can be seen as experts and thus have a responsibility to their readers to disclose the fact that they are not necessarily experts. I generally agree, but I do have to wonder if bloggers are not receiving a whole lot of responsibilities with very little training, and for most – with very little reward.

Update: in an extremely funny post, Robert Cringely of InfoWorld makes fun of the hopelessly unenforceable new rules, pointing out that “According to IDG News, the FTC says the guidelines are mainly targeting advertisers; bloggers themselves are unlikely to get fined, unless they continue to post bogus paid reviews after the FTC has scolded them for it.”

Just in case, he then proceeds to list all the free items he has received throughout his career, including the 1,237 boiled shrimp (with 157 ounces of cocktail sauce) he has consumed at various press functions, adding “I would gladly give them all back if I could.”

Cringely predicts that “In six months the Net will melt down after being overwhelmed by the volume of disclosures that are required.” Having just added disclosure paragraphs to my various social media accounts, I tend to agree.

Next Entries →