Affording to Stay at Home

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-01-2007
Affording to Stay at Home
1968
Wed, 12-12-2007 - 12:20am

Ever notice that those moms that SAH are usually (although not always) more well off than mothers who WOH? It seems to me, based on what I have seen, that while most women enjoy working their jobs and having a professional life outside of the home, some women prefer to stay home with their kids for a certain amount of time - whether it be 1 year or 10 years - and those women have the option to do so, while other women wouldn't even consider the option because they feel they can't afford it.

Well, it has been my experience that most women who do stay at home have

1) husbands who support the idea

2) Husbands who probably earn enough (or almost enough) to support the family.

3) Enough money to support themselves without working.

**Now I am not talking about people who get help from government agencies, I am speaking about women who do it with no outside help - just seems like most women can't because of financial reasons. So, is being a SAH mom now an "upper class" phenomenon - in general? Of course there are many SAH moms that are middle class, but if they chose to have paying jobs, they'd probably move right back up into that higher income bracket.

Blythe

http://beaworkathomemom.blogspot.com/

Working on being...Supermom!

Blythe http://beaworkathomemom.blogspot.com/ Working on being...Supermom!

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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-17-2005
Thu, 12-27-2007 - 2:21am
A virtue? How did you get that?
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-17-2005
Thu, 12-27-2007 - 2:39am
Toddlers can be sweeter than the older crowd and offered more laughter/smiles than we had when I did only after-school. They are so funny because all their new discoveries and the cute faces they make when it happens. It was a lot of hard work though!
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-17-2005
Thu, 12-27-2007 - 2:49am

I don't control other adults but I have asked, begged and pleaded to no avail. I did make my Mom return a video game a few years ago but I gave in this year and now my kid has hibernated in his room with a Wii. The fight was bigger than the time I had to spare.

My kids are not in private or public school but according to your rules we do have a high SES because they are in all kinds of clubs and educational activities as well as the usual scouts and physical activities. We do go on vacations but have not been outside the USA due to cost so in my opinion and from what I've read here - that lowers our SES.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-17-2005
Thu, 12-27-2007 - 2:51am

Our state has some sort of program where she gets her groceries paid for or mostly paid for. The equipment she got when her kids were little was also paid-for by the state through a grant.

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-26-2007
Thu, 12-27-2007 - 3:07am
I didn't write that. Why are you responding to me?

~~~~~~~~~

Kitty

"I think Noonan is at least eight years too late when she laments that faith now trumps competence in GOP politics. It didn't seem to bother her much when a candidate she supported -- the catastrophically underqualified GWB -- was running and citing Jesus as his favorite political philosopher...It's like the old saying: When you lie down with dogs, you wake up with Hucka-fleas..."--Gator


Click on the Virginia Rescue Center and search for Roxey, VA5165

~~~~~~~~~

Kitty

"BTW, I hate Lifetime. Their movies will suck you in and all of a sudden you've watched 3 in a row, used every tissue in t

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-29-2004
Thu, 12-27-2007 - 9:42am

"Middle class" and "apartment" are both very broad, very elastic terms that mean entirely different things to different people.

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-29-2004
Thu, 12-27-2007 - 9:47am
I don't like to engage in the sort of bashing where one poster calls another's posts "snobbish".
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-29-2004
Thu, 12-27-2007 - 9:50am
Sorry, but I'd rather see my kids go into some sort of profession other than auto mechanic.
iVillage Member
Registered: 12-29-2004
Thu, 12-27-2007 - 9:52am

Who said anything against poor people, or hanging out with them?

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-29-2004
Thu, 12-27-2007 - 9:54am
IME, there's really no such thing as an average middle class neighborhood.

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