How will the economy affect WOH/SAH?
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How will the economy affect WOH/SAH?
| Wed, 02-11-2009 - 1:09pm |
How do you think the economy will affect decisions by women to stay at home versus work? With so many people losing jobs, do you think more women will be forced back into a job to help out (or take over) family finances? Is SAH parenting

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I didn't say there was a need, so we agree.
PumpkinAngel
by coincidence,i received a chain email over the weekend that was so interesting.
I switched schools many times and don't recall being harmed by it. I wasn't thrilled by it and wouldn't want my kids to go through that many changes but harm, no.
"And you may think your children turned out great. Maybe another parent would disagree."
You are absolutely 100% correct. But then I never said that absolutely every person who has met my children thought they turned out great. There is no way for me to know that.
I never said that any of my children were not sad I said that they were not harmed and it was not a traumatic experience. It is big leap from being sad to being harmed by something.
Actually the only move that any of my children expressed sadness was the last move. It was following the high school freshman year of my DD1 and she did not want to leave her friends and her experience of being a cheerleader.
I suppose that some people would call it "burden" to have to take a day away from the office to attend to a parenting responsibility or privilege. It never even occurred to me to do so, but I am quite blessed when it comes to my job. The hours are very flexible, so if I need to take a kid to a doctor's appointment, or serve the luncheon during teacher appreciation week, or sit in on classs for a day (tho' I never sat in for more than half a day -- I watched the literacy block and the math classes, for instance -- I am able to do so, usually.
I don't think I would ever dismiss a school because I witnessed a fight breaking out. It would be interesting to see what followed though. I think you can watch childrens'reactions and get some sense of whether this is a rare event, or whether they are used to things like this happening in a classroom. When I visited the school that my younger son ended up going to for elementary school, one of the things that sold me was how well integrated a couple of special needs children were into the classroom community. One was a little girl with cerebral palsy who could barely communicate verbally yet the children all seemed to know what she wanted or needed as if by instinct. It was clear that she wasn't grudgingly accepted, or treated like a burden. I liked a lot of things about the school before that, but seeing the classroom atmosphere there and the way the teacher (and students) went about their business absolutely sold me.
As far as my older son's situation is concerned, I have explained that I am not thinking of "moving him" He is thinking of moving himself, with my blessing. If he doesn't move, but stays where he is, that will be my blessing as well. Both are good alternatives. There is no "unhappy" here.
I'm honestly confused by what you are asking here.
I grew up all over the country because my Dad was in the military and seldom was stationed anywhere for longer than two years. We went to some really great schools, and we went to some really awful schools. I don't know exactly how that has influenced my attitude toward my own kids' education, although it can't help but have done so. Reflecting on it, maybe it's just remembering how a really great, committed teacher in a program/curriculum that somehow "clicked" with me shaped my life. It happened twice, in 6th and 9th grades. As far as the public schools in my area not being good enough for the average household, no, that is not the case. There are a couple of elementary schools in my district where I would have really *not* wanted to send the kids, but we never lived in neighborhoods where my kids would have been assigned to those schools. My first school decision came when DS#1 was getting ready for kindergarten. He was very young for grade and I was thinking of holding him back a year. When I took him for he kindergarten evaluation, the local K teacher informed me that not only was he "ready," but she thought he would thrive at the local (public) arts-intensive magnet school and recommend we try to get him in there. I didn't send him to the magnet school because the local alternative was "bad." I sent him there because for his particular situation, the magnet school was "better."
I *know* that our local high school is a fine school. Most of my sons' friends go there; a few transferred over there from the private school when they were in 10th grade (high school is 10-12 in our community). My son wanted to stay at his private school in 10th grade to finish his Latin sequence with the teacher he has had since sixth grade (he will have had four years of high school Latin and take the AP test this spring). We said yes -- the private school is a good school. If he stays there for his junior and senior years, we will be happy. If he goes to the local public school, we will be happy.
And yes, I absolutely agree that by high school, a lot of the social problems that seem to go along with the young teen brain --bullying, cliques, whatever -- do seem to have sorted themselves out for the most part. I find being the mother of an almost 16 year old ever so much easier and more generally pleasant than I did being the mother that same child as a 13 year old.
Do you agree with any of that?
Oh i DREAM of going to Discovery Cove - did you swim with Dolphins??
It freaking SNOWED in NH today -- I want warmth, sun, beach!
It was the most amazing day! The older kid is in Italy with his AP Latin class this week, and DH is at the University of Florida for thre days with work-related stuff, so at the last minute I decided to come on down to the Orlando area with Viola Boy for six nights. DH will join us sometime tomorrow for the rest of the vacation.
We got to Discovery Cove early in the morning and got our wetsuits and snorkel stuff. I cannot believe I waited until I was over fifty years old to try snorkeling. We played around in the lagoon until we thought we could handle the "coral" reefs, but then went in and spent about three hours. The fish and other sea creatures have exactly NO fear of humans, you swim right up next to them, and they are SO beautiful. God really went to town with the paintbox with fish and flowers!
We had a 1:45 "dolphin encounter;" our group of eight was us, a middle aged couple from New York and two college-aged girls and their parents from Germany. We were introduced to our dolphin and they taught us some hand signals to get him to show off for us, and then we had a lesson in dolphin anatomy. Our dolphin,Capricorn, is the alpha male for the pod, and it is springtime and he kept swimming off over to the next group where the alpha female was doing her thing. Evidently they are courting, and while it was unscripted and the trainers were a bit embarrassed about it, it actually added something to our encounter. One of the younger males, just past adolescence, kept coming up trying to take over the limelight, so we go to watch a lot of dolphin social interaction, and our encounter ended up lasting about twice as long as it was supposed to which almost made us miss lunch because they stop serving at 3. We made it though!
The food there is not like an amusement park, it is more like an all-inclusive resort, so you just got to eat what you wanted when you wanted. I wanted a beer with lunch but thought it might make me sleepy so I refrained. I had grilled salmon and an amazing grilled vegetable medley with key lime pie for dessert. Viola Boy settled for a burger and cherry cheesecake.
After lunch it was back in the reef until almost closing and then a quick visit to the aviary and then we came back to the condo in time to catch the second half of the Mizzou-Marquette game.
Discovery Cove AND Mizzou made it to the Sweet Sixteen. I'm thinking it doesn't get much better than this....at least with DH out of town.
They got some good photos while we were there and I bought the CD so I will share some on the other board when we get back. We are headed to Universal Studios tomorrow; Tuesday we are going over to Space Coast to watch a rocket launch and tour the Kennedy Space Center; Wednesday we'll be back at the Space Center and we have tickets to a Washington Nationals Spring Training Game; Thursday we are going to Sea World (part of the package with Discovery Cove)...and Friday we are meeting Baby Einstein the airport and going home.....
Good thing I am teaching summer school this year! This is an expensive week Chez BordMom, but worth it, I think.
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