According to a recent Australian study, mums working part-time nurture healthier children than their colleagues who stay at home or have a full-time job.

The study, ‘Do Working Mothers Raise Couch Potato Kids?’ shows that kids of part-time mums have less junk food, watch less TV and are less likely to be overweight or fat. The study group carried out face-to-face interviews with mothers and measured their child’s height and weight at age’s four to five, and again two years later, at six to seven years of age.

The study of over 4,500 Australian pre-schoolers found part-time mums let their children watch about an hour less TV each week than both stay-at-home mums and full-time working mothers. Their kids consumed fewer snack foods, had more time to exercise and were exposed to less junk-food advertising.