Is the SAHM the new status symbol?
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Is the SAHM the new status symbol?
| Tue, 09-23-2003 - 10:36pm |
In the 70's and 80's women fought to get into the workforce (the whole Ms. magazine generation)...and then the tide turned in the late 1990's when more women started to stay home by choice. Now, it seems like being a SAHM is a status symbol....and superior to being a working mom.
Kat

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Iam not ignorant to the English language i have spoken english for years just not well like half the Americans in our country...i do at times have a difficult time expressing my self in the written word. for that iam guilty. Iam trying to better myself. :-/
Edited 10/5/2003 3:40:39 PM ET by silverunity
The thread has weaved itself into a large ball of yarn with misconceptions, untrue interpretations.
I want to put it on the line right now:
I don't live in a McMansion or anything close to it. We live in what we consider a modest home with a nice large lot. No iron gates, no rooms and rooms that are never used or seen. Yes, we have a pool. But we live in Florida, not uncommon for many people to have pools. Before we moved here we lived in apartments & townhomes in San Franscisco, Chicago, New York.
I have a daily housekeeper but she does what I would be doing. Picking up, changing sheets, laundry, general cleaning, loading or unloading the dishwasher & washing up the plastic dishes (I won't allow plastic to go in my dw). She does more in depth cleaning a little a long so that the windows or light fixtures don't get ahead of her. She doesn't do those type of things every day or even weekly. If we are entertaining or hosting something she does more & gets paid extra. We had a cleaning lady only come 1x a week up until we moved to Florida from New York 4 years ago. Dh's mother always had daily help, he wanted me to have it. Ok, who am I to argue? LOL
The guy that owns the company (real large, he has 4 employees & himself) comes 3x a week to keep up the yard & flowers. We don't live on an estate (when I said no animals on our property, I meant yard, driveway, or indoors specifically, didn't mean to imply more).
We have a pool. It needs to be cleaned daily. We hire a pool guy to come by every morning. Dh doesn't have to fool with it (like he'd have the time).
The lady that cooks for us is a sweet lady that use to cook at a local diner here & enjoys us as her "adopted" family. She loves to cook big meals & being all alone (she has no family close) we give her that opportunity plus our paying her gives her some spending money. We take cooking classes, cake decorating classes, etc together. She has taught me so much as I adore cooking myself. We pay her whether or not she cooks & does the grocery shopping every week. She is like a grandmother to my girls. It isn't like we hire a chef to walk in here to cook meals for us.
I think in the line of debate about lifestyles and my expressing I do have such staff (not on a grand scale of a McMansion) as we were talking about these things it became misimplied. I feel at fault because I didn't elaborate on specifics I just said I have a cook, housekeeper etc. within the context of the debate about sahms having these.
The nanny has a degree in childcare. We pay her whether she works or not for a set amount of hours. She has gone back to college & enjoys the work. It isn't like we see her every day. Some times not every week (although she still gets paid).
While my dh's family is "old money" they just don't live extravagantly (Dynasty style they aren't. They've got the money, but they don't go in for all the jazz). My dh's family may have the wealth but they are very down-to-earth people who are hard working & expect hard work. An admirable trait.
Because when you look at the board you ladies (or lady) have all been here at the same times (or closely) and you share the same viewpoints.
And I thought there were really were quite a few contributors to this board. The things we learn.
Iaudrey has been on here longer than me, but less than the other 2 ladies. She & I probably post near the same times b/c we're both on the West Coast so we're at work at the same time.
But I'm honestly flattered to be put in the same category as these 3 women. Thanks!
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