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50 IDAHO FALLS MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER2019 McCracken, who got a divorce six years ago, said it has been difficult to raise her children as a single parent, particularly since she grew up with her parents still married. The experience has been different than she imagined it would be, but she still does the best that she can to provide the same kind of support and attention that she grew up with. "My parents did the best they could and they always supported us in the things we wanted to do. For me having my parents be together, I never really knew what it was like to be divorced or have a divorced fam- ily, going from one house every other week- end," McCracken said. "My parents… had a loving house and I try to have the same concept here." Love at Home Expectations may be different, but some things about motherhood haven't changed. "I think that motherhood has been and always will be very similar because you have that enduring love for your child — the mental development you go through is probably timeless," Kelley said. "You worry, you love them… [and] you try to do the best for them in a changing world. My mom always said, 'You can't love a child too much; you can't spoil them with love. Love them and everything else will be fine.'" 15, has seen the shift in expectations and warnings first hand. "There's a lot of things you're supposed to do now that I never heard about when I was pregnant. It's completely different. There are so many things you [can] do to harm your baby, but I was never warned about those when I had kids," McCracken said. "I ate pretty much anything I wanted and there weren't all these warnings when I was pregnant. It's kind of weird how things change." The Evolution of Home Situations There's no question that the traditional home life—both expectations and reality— has changed for families in recent years. Women make up nearly half of the work- force today, with more moms acting as the primary breadwinner than before, accord- ing to Pew Research Center. Many homes rely on incomes from both parents, though it can be difficult for moms to miss out on the time at home with the children that their own mothers had. Long, Kelley and McCracken all remember their mothers working limited or no hours in their early years of growing up, but Long and McCracken both have full-time jobs. After she had her first child, Long said she spent the first year of her daughter's life as a stay-at-home mom, until she was offered a job as the Director of Operations at the Little Gym of Idaho Falls. While her daughter transitioned well to daycare, Long had a harder time with the change. "I think it was more of an adjustment for me to go from seeing her 24/7 to missing like, 'Oh, she walked today' or whatever since it was during that period," she said. "That was hard for me just missing those mile- stones because I was gone 8 hours+ a day." But even though the number of work- ing mothers has increased, many millen- nial mothers choose to stay at home with their children. "I didn't think I would be a stay-at-home mom. I actually tried to go back to work for a day or two and I just couldn't be away from her, there was just no way I could do it," Kelley said. "I was in a very lucky posi- tion with [my husband's] job that I could stay home with her and it's just been the best experience of my life." Another change is the number of single mothers: Pew Research Center reported last year that 25 percent of U.S. parents are unmarried, which is a significant increase from 50 years ago when 7 percent of U.S. parents were unmarried. "I didn't think I would be a stay-at-home mom. I actually tried to go back to work for a day or two and I just couldn't be away from her, there was just no way I could do it," Kelley said. IF