Experts: No right choice for women about work, being at home with kids

JoAnne Boyle says she thinks women should stop worrying about child-rearing choices they make and stop criticizing other women’s choices.

Boyle, president of Seton Hill University in Westmoreland County, raised six sons and a daughter — now ages 37 to 50 — while working full-time. She said she “often felt like I wasn’t doing a very good job at anything, but I did the best I could and I made my peace with it. I accepted that I wasn’t perfect.”

She knows both sides of the issue. Her daughter is a stay-at-home mom with three sons who “is such a full-time, hands-on mom,” but a daughter-in-law has four children, a full-time job and attends graduate school. She also appears to “always be with her children and involved in their lives,” said Boyle, who respects both women’s decisions.

“Be comfortable with your choice and understand who you are and what is personally fulfilling for you,” Boyle said. “There are rewards and drawbacks to each choice. But own your decision. And don’t judge someone else because they made a different one.” —Experts: No right choice for women about work, being at home with kids – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.