Comment by rdtsc
7 years ago
> I am a former homemaker and full-time mom.
My wife who is also a homemaker and stay-at home mom. She has heard remarks from family, acquaintances and even random parents playing with kids at the park how she was throwing her university degree down the drain and how somehow she doesn't "need to stay home" and can do whatever she wants. They don't seem to understand that what she wants to do currently is to raise kids.
There's impolite people everywhere. If your wife worked outside the home she'd get impolite comments from family, acquaintances, and random strangers about working outside the home instead of being home with the kids.
Women who work outside the home get rude comments, women who stay at home get rude comments and you can't even avoid it by opting out of childbearing entirely, those women get rude comments too.
I fail to understand what that has to do with feminism or much anything else.
BTW, staying at home is the more socially acceptable choice.[1]
[1] http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/04/08/after-decades-of-d...
If your wife worked outside the home she'd get impolite comments from family, acquaintances, and random strangers about working outside the home instead of being home with the kids.
In this day and age? Does that still happen? Asking because honestly that’s so far from my personal experience.
Ha! Yes, of course. I get this all the time. Shocked reactions from people when I tell them our baby is in daycare. Sometimes it's more subtle and framed as "oh, it's too bad you can't afford to stay home with him," as if it couldn't possibly have been my choice.
Which is to say, I have the highest respect for SAHM moms because it's a damned difficult job.
Yes, absolutely, it happens a ton. The Duggars even turn it into "wholesome family TV."
There is some statistic showing that every dollar invested in our small children saves multiple dollars down the line for things like the prison system.
Any feminism that cannot honor, respect and support the importance of full time parenting is an ideology I want no part of. To my mind, the only good feminism is one that insists that full time parenting should be an equally legitimate choice for either parent, not just the mother.
"To my mind, the only good feminism is one that insists that full-time parenting should be an equally legitimate choice for either parent, not just the mother."
I love this quote.
A university degree costs much more to provide than one pays for it, so she is throwing a commons resource down the drain. I don't think it's implementable, but I'd support a fine for dropping out of the workforce that makes stay-at-home moms and dads with advanced education have to pay back the full cost of their education.
Children are a resource that creates our future. It would be super nice if society stopped acting like investing in our children is a waste of resources while wondering why the world is going to hell.
Investing in children isn't a waste but getting a graduate degree to do it is.
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