Abstract
Purpose: Women raised in the present generation grow to adulthood without seeing mothers raising children firsthand or actual contact with young children, and so it is easy for a discrepancy to occur between child-rearing as they had imagined it and as it really is. We aimed to clarify the effects that mothers' emotions can have on the discrepancy between the imagined and real. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted of 15 mothers of 10-month-old first children. Results and Discussion: The mothers perceived a discrepancy in that the extent of changes in their life from having a baby, and the level of the accompanying physical and mental burden, was greater than they had imagined. It has been indicated that the emotions women feel when they become mothers, as well as the emotions that accompany the burden they experience in actual child rearing, are difficult to imagine from short-term contact with other people's children. When a woman loses her mental latitude, negative feelings toward her husband and child-rearing may arise even while she maintains a generally positive assessment of her husband and child-rearing. The findings suggest that the emergence of dissatisfaction with one's husband and negative feelings toward child-rearing affect the mental state of the mother. They also suggest that, by comparing the pluses and minuses of child-rearing, a mother will feel she has gained more, and positive feelings toward child-rearing will dominate in the mother's heart.
