Unique contributions to society

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-06-2006
Unique contributions to society
1504
Thu, 10-19-2006 - 4:12pm

In another thread, the "unique" contributions of SAHM's were alluded to but it wasn't stated what they are. Let's play a game and find out what they are. First, pretend that as of tomorrow, all moms SAH and detail what will be missing from society then pretend that all moms go to work and detail what will be missing from society. I'm really curious as to what people think a world without SAHM's orWOHM's would look like.

If all the moms who SAH went to work then the library would move story hour to the evening and summer vacation bible school would be held in the evenings so that all kids can attend and not just the kids of SAHM's. Banks would likely shift their hours to later in the day and you'd see more 24 hour stores. I think there would be more home cooking style restaurants too. I think day care centers would improve because of increased demand.

If all moms who WOH suddenly SAH, you'd see fewer service industries around because moms could do things themselves instead of paying for them. The nursing shortage would be more of a shortage. We'd probably have a shortage of teachers too. There'd be fewer government services because there'd be less tax dollars to pay for them. I can't think of anything else right now.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-14-2003
Wed, 10-25-2006 - 12:39pm

well, then, i guess this one is just flying over my head. i can't argue that woh is inherently a "unique" contribution to society, though i do find it hard to imagine many cases where it creates zero social benefit. (maybe i should repeat my question, whether it is possible for me to argue a point without being held to every radical concept that everyone else has raised in the thread.)

in the way that you are framing the debate--requiring that something be a "unique contribution to society"--i can't imagine a single thing that i would describe in those terms, with the possible exception of a personal genetics. is there any meaning to this term you are holding me to--can you identify anything that fits this description--or are you just trying to craft a rhetorical dead end out of a meaningless concept?




Edited 10/25/2006 12:44 pm ET by chimaira
iVillage Member
Registered: 06-27-1998
Wed, 10-25-2006 - 12:48pm

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So is the wohm.

PumpkinAngel

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-27-1998
Wed, 10-25-2006 - 12:51pm

That's easy.

PumpkinAngel

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-27-1998
Wed, 10-25-2006 - 12:53pm

<<My point was that each does something the other doesn't do--the wohm woh, and the sahm takes care of her kids during the time the wohm is working. That you can find an exception to that rule isn't the point, but feel free to belabor it. >>


Only if the children are home....if they are at school, then what?

PumpkinAngel

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-27-1998
Wed, 10-25-2006 - 12:56pm

<<Sahps, imo, help those who woh by not providing more competition for jobs and dc services.>>


The number of jobs and daycare services is not finite, however.


PumpkinAngel

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-31-2005
Wed, 10-25-2006 - 1:56pm

IMO, the SAH/WOH debate becomes moot once the children are in school. Is anyone really arguing that SAH is better once there is no need for childcare during the day?

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-14-2003
Wed, 10-25-2006 - 2:09pm

sure. there is one poster who seems to pop up only to hammer away at the horrors of latchkey and how being a sahp is the only way to avoid them, and before-and-after-school care and activities and access to them are regular topics of discussion. there are several posters who say that they have no intention of returning to work before their children are adults. and, for that matter, who was it who was saying that she and the other saphs in her neighborhood are "helping raise" the school-aged children of the wohps, by providing them transportation and childcare?

there are several aspects of this that are regularly discussed--i'd hazard to say as often as infant daycare, now that many regular posters have been here so long that our "babies" are in school.

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-27-1998
Wed, 10-25-2006 - 2:13pm

<>


I have seen it, yes.

PumpkinAngel

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-14-2006
Wed, 10-25-2006 - 2:19pm

>>So why only for the first 5 years? What's the magic that happens when a child starts school?<<

Well, from my point of view... the child is not *home* for about 6 hours-ish... there isn't as much of a mess created at home, so personally, i wouldn't see the point... The cleaning in my place would probably get done real fast and I would have nothing to do the rest of the day. If i wasn't working, I'd be out volunteering somewhere, anywhere, everywhere for sure.

I think that is why women who stay at home go back to work when the children are in school, there isn't the need to babysit an empty house. Some women I've known stayed at home because day care costs ate most to all of the income they could have brought in... So once the children are in school, there isn't the need to pay for that day care so the income they bring in now goes towards the family instead of to a day care providor.

But that's how i see it...

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-27-1998
Wed, 10-25-2006 - 3:06pm

So the magic isn't in the child, it's in the mother because she doesn't have to clean or babysit anymore?


PumpkinAngel

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