I have been dwelling quite a bit on women's rights. How women in the past fought so hard for a right to work at something other than a teacher or a nurse. I feel as though this plan has backfired negatively on the women who long to stay home with their children. Not only to stay at home moms have to deal with the stigma of a stay at home mom, they also often have to struggle financially to do so. Where our society considers a female doctor a hero almost, we stay at home mom's make so many sacrifices (socially, financially, physically) and are seldom recognized for our determination to give our children healthy and emotionally stable lives.
I feel that now that women can do almost all the same jobs as men, men are less valuable in the workplace than they would be if women were at home with their children. This meaning that men make less than I believe they would if there were half the available workers in the workforce. I feel that most blue-collar jobs that would have paid a sufficient sum for a household to live off of 40 years ago, now can make just over half. With two people working full-time as Nick and I found out last year, it is not difficult to live a very comfortable lifestyle. On one income it is exceedingly hard to break even with the bills.
I know for a fact since I stopped working to take care of Anastasia that I have never worked so hard at work, as I do at home. I used to wonder why women would choose to work rather than stay at home. Now I think I somewhat understand. I can see the appeal of wanting to have money instead of just a clean house and happy children to show for a days hard work. Its nice to be able to contribute to the family financially as well. Plus work almost always guarentees some degree of a social life. I know I had loads of friends constantly while working, and now I feel that I only have a few close ones. I also know that there are some incredibly career-minded individuals with rare gifts and talents for specific jobs. I feel though, that because of them, those of us with noble, family-oriented goals are the ones who suffer.
On a study of what stay at home mom's should make it is calculated that at SAHM should make well over $100,000. Now I think that is possibly a little extreme but I sure think it would be nice if we could at least write the cost of daycare that a working mother would, off on our taxes. I also feel that it would be wise for employers to recognize being a stay at home mom as excellent previous work experience as apposed to being laughed at or considered unworthy of being a real job. But they can do that, why? Because there are so many other applicants who did not take the road less traveled and worked! Because they can! Because our grandmothers and their mothers fought for the freedom we have today. A freedom that like all freedom, comes at so great a price.
Because I never run out of cute baby pictures to share
