London, Oct. 9: Working mothers with young children are put under terrible strain by “macho” employers who judge them on the hours they put in and not the quality of their work, says the government’s unofficial “happiness tsar”.

Lord Layard, 72, the Labour peer who is leading the inquiry into the true state of childhood in Britain, said the increase in working mothers — full and part-time — was an irreversible social trend.

While the jury was out on the effects on children, bosses should be sympathetic to mothers’ needs, and not destroy the careers of women who choose to work 2½ days a week and spend more time at home, he said.

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Lord Layard, who has four step-children and seven step-grandchildren, also criticised pushy parents whose anxieties about holding the most lavish birthday parties were being “absorbed” by their offspring.

“These competitive birthday parties are absolutely awful,” he said, “where every child comes home with a present and there is a comparison of whether the present was as good as one they got from another party.

“And the idea of having a commercial entertainer was unheard of in my time.”

He added: “A lot of parents are trying to make their children into something they are not.”

Too many saw their children like consumer items — “just a source of entertainment and pride”.

Lord Layard’s inquiry will take evidence from every sector of society in an attempt to understand what is seen as an increasingly pressured and complex world for the nation’s 12 million children.

Set up under the auspices of the charity The Children’s Society, the Good Childhood Inquiry will also be guided by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.

One recent study claims that British children have the lowest quality of life of any in western Europe, despite the UK’s increasing wealth and prosperity.

Lord Layard, emeritus professor of economics at the London School of Economics and author of the best-selling book Happiness, said there was never a golden age of childhood.

He said he did not agree with children having television in their rooms, and he supported a complete ban on advertising aimed at children under 12, as there is in Sweden.

Asked if he was in favour of mothers returning to work full-time when their children were young, he said: “One of the huge problems for mothers is that in order to be successful in a career, you too often have to work long hours. We need to get away from the macho culture where your performance is judged on how long you work rather than the quality of your work.”

It was a “very important issue” for the inquiry.