If you had Scandinavian bennies ...
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If you had Scandinavian bennies ...
| Mon, 04-19-2010 - 7:40am |
I am curious. If you had Scandinavian social benefits – 1 year of paid parental leave, free health care and dental/ortho for the kids, no future college costs as well as subsidized daycare and after school care – would it affect your decision about SAH or WOH, either way?
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Edited 4/19/2010 9:24 am ET by finally.me
I'd still work, but I imagine my taxes would be higher.
For us, we might have less disposable income, because we wouldn't be putting out as much (our health and dental insurance costs are relatively low), but our taxes would go up to cover the plan for everyone.
I'm not sure I understand the question. Are those things only available if I continued to WOH after the parental leave is up or would they go away should I decide to quit after having kids?
I can't really answer anyway as it would really be situation dependent. There were many reasons I decided to SAH, which happened after my second child was born, but the biggest influence in the decision is that my dh was traveling extensively for weeks at a time and the job that I had required me to work outside of normal business hours, such that my kids would have to be in child care for more hours than I was willing to use.
We also knew we wanted a large family which would be more difficult to manage if I were WOHFT.
In order to answer this question, it would really depend on the type of jobs that dh and I had, and how flexible they were.
Looking back, if dh and I had only wanted two (maybe three) kids and if we both had a different jobs after the second was born, I probably would have continued to work.
As your question is worded though, there are too many unanswered variables in order for me to answer it with a simple "I would SAH" or "I would WOH."
*^*^*^*^*
What would men be without women? Scarce, sir, mighty scarce.
Mark Twain
*^*^*^*^*
What would men be without women? Scarce, sir, mighty scarce.
Mark Twain
<Yes, your taxes would most likely be higher. Do you save for college?>
Yes, I forgot about that part.
Yes,
I would have been ecstatic to be home for a year after each of my kids was born. I found pumping to be a real pain in the butt. I don't think our SAH/WOH arrangement would change very much though.
ETA: But the subsidized day care (how much is it subsidized?) would be awfully nice. This fall we're going to be paying almost as much in child care as we do for housing.
Edited 4/19/2010 11:12 am ET by geschichtsgal
We always paid more for child care than we did for housing, even when we only had one.
To be honest, I am not sure how it would break down exactly. Basically, you get one set of degrees "for free," tuition paid plus a small living grant. If you are accepted for a PH.D you get a proper salary while you are in the program and writing your dissertation. If you decide later in life that you want to start over and that engineering just isn't you, then you do have to pay tuition, although the tuition is subsidized, so it is still cheaper than in the US for most things. That is for the strictly academic programs. If you train as a carpenter or plumber, that is also paid for by the state.
However, I really don't know what percentage of an average tax payer's taxes goes to pay for all this. The idea is that making education/training accessible contributes to overall productivity and affluence and is therefore in everyone's best interest.
*^*^*^*^*
What would men be without women? Scarce, sir, mighty scarce.
Mark Twain
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