職場媽媽依賴“親友團”平衡工作與生活

In I Don't Know How She Does It, Sarah Jessica Parker just about manages to juggle a job in a financial market firm with being the Mother of two children. But she does it with a lot of help from a nanny。

Many modern working mothers can't afford personal childcare, though. Instead they rely heavily on a close-knit circle of up to ten close friends and family to juggle their busy lives。

Moms call on their support network, dubbed 'Team Mom', to help out for around ten hours a week as they try to fit everything around their office hours, a survey found。

Their own mothers are the first port of call in emergencies, while friends, neighbours and other children's moms are also likely to be on hand when needed。

The study, carried out by Tesco Baby, found that 67 per cent of mothers believe they would have to give up work if they didn't receive help from Team Mom。

Having a close support network saves the average mon £140 a month in childcare costs. That adds up to a saving of £1,680 per year。

The trend was revealed in a study carried out among 2,000 moms by Tesco to launch its 'Help a Mom' campaign。

Spokeswoman Lorna Dickinson said: 'Moms work incredibly hard and it's only natural that they rely on other people to help them out。

'Juggling work, meal times, housework and various appointments can be difficult so having a trusted network of reliable people can make a difference.'

The study found moms typically enjoy ten hours of support from their network of friends and family, but one in 20 women has 31 hours of help every week。

Two thirds those who took part in the poll said their own mother was the one person they could not do without, and one third of women said their mother babysits their kids while they are at work。

Tesco's survey also revealed one in ten relies on their mother-in law's child-minding skills while five per cent get granddad to muck in。在影片《凱特的外遇日記》中，莎拉•傑西卡•帕克扮演的女主角勉強能平衡好金融公司職員與兩個孩子的母親兩種身份。不過，她是在保姆的鼎力相助下才辦到的。

但很多現代的職場媽媽都沒有足夠的經濟實力找保姆照看孩子。所以，她們十分依賴親友團，需要多達10名親友來幫她們應付勞碌的生活。

調查顯示，職場媽媽每週要請 “媽媽團”來幫忙10個小時，才能把工作擺平。

遇到急事，她們會首先請來自己的媽媽，有需要時也會請好友、鄰居、和其他孩子的媽媽們來幫忙。

該調查由“樂購寶貝”開展，結果顯示，67%的受訪媽媽認爲，如果沒有“媽媽團”的幫助，自己就得辭職。

親友團的協助讓每位媽媽平均每月節省140英鎊的育兒開銷，每年可節省1680英鎊。

樂購公司針對兩千名媽媽開展了此項調查，以啓動其“幫助媽媽”的活動。

女發言人羅娜•迪金森說：“媽媽們工作非常辛苦，靠別人幫忙很正常。”

“繁忙的工作、用餐、家務事、各種約會都讓她們疲於應付，有值得信賴的親友團幫忙就會好很多。”

調查顯示，媽媽們一般每週得到親友團10個小時的幫助，但也有1/20的媽媽們每週能得到親友31個小時的幫助。

三分之二的受訪者表示，最離不開的是自己母親的幫助。另有三分之一的受訪者表示，上班時由自己的母親照看孩子。

調查還顯示，十分之一的受訪者得到婆婆的幫助，還有5%的家裏公公也會幫忙。