Guest Post
The picture of the ideal housewife, with a baby in one hand, a broom in the other, and dinner boiling on the stove, is a little outdated to say the least.
Our parents and grandparents came from a different time when one income was enough to comfortably support a household, and women were only expected to be stay at home moms. They didn’t have to juggle a full-time work schedule with parenting duties and cleaning routines. Nowadays many women only wish they could afford to stay home with their kids all day.
Unfortunately, one average income just doesn’t cut it anymore. But what if you could afford to be a SAHM? Would you really want to do it?
Are Women’s Rights Taken for Granted?
Lots of mothers don’t know what it’s like to be a SAHM because they never had the opportunity to be one. They had maternity leave, but soon they were shuffling the kids to daycare in order to get to work on time.
These women often think it would be so much nicer to just stay home. What they don’t think about, however, is how hard previous generations of women fought to be able to work outside the home.
They were able to stay at home with their kids, but they weren’t satisfied with that. They wanted to have careers and prove that there was more to them than just being mothers. That maternity leave you got wasn’t available to them, but they eventually made it possible for you.
Letting Go of Your Career
It’s kind of ironic that now that women have earned the rights to work outside of the home, they’d prefer to be back inside of it. There is so much stress associated with having a full-time job and being a mother full-time that women would prefer not to have to worry about their family’s finances. For some reason, women think they would be content just being a mom and not having a career.
But if you were really able to stay home with your kids, wouldn’t you miss having your career accomplishments to be proud of? Would you ever long to be at work exercising the skills you have other than mothering?
The Grass is Always Greener…
We often want what we can’t have because we think it might be better. We can never know until we try it if it really is better or not. Perhaps many women don’t necessarily want to sacrifice their career; what they want is the ability to choose whether or not they are stay at home moms. If they had the choice, lots of women might continue working, even if only part-time.
Many, of course, would just choose to stay home. Every woman is different and places different levels of importance on their careers versus household and child-rearing duties. But the sad truth remains that with the cost of living so high and wages so low, most women just don’t have the luxury of making that choice for themselves.
Sarah Miles is a stay at home mother and avid writer who loves being a mom and taking care of her children. She realizes the toughness of the job and sometimes has to compromise with her time and when she can’t cook big meals she often resorts to quick dinners.
Photo Copy: dailyweekley
I am a college educated woman, and have chosen to stay home with my children while they are young. I will one day go back to a career. But I at least gave myself that option by getting a degree and keeping up with the fast paced working world that my husband works in, which is IT. I however am the lucky one. While at first going down to one income was hard, we’ve realized how much money we actually thru away and weren’t smart with. Funny, though, when we were both working, we were renters. Now my husband just works, and we own a home and have two new cars. We definitely aren’t doing bad. Of course this also depends on your spouse’s profession. I do count myself among the blessed, but I was smart to give myself option by getting that degree.