Which came first, the title or the SAHW?
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Which came first, the title or the SAHW?
| Fri, 12-19-2003 - 9:04am |
Last night I attended my husband's work Christmas party. I sat with the CEO, CFO, CTO, COO (Chief operations officer, I didn't know that acronym, I had to ask), Creative Director, Marketing Director and their wives. Near the end of the evening it was just we wives chatting mostly about kids. I made the observation that even though all the wives were intelligent, educated and accomplished women, not a single one (except me), woh. They are all SAHM's.
Any thoughts on why that might be? I have my own opinion but I'd like to hear from everyone else first. Do you think they sah because of their husbands jobs or their husbands have their jobs because the wives stay home? Or doesn't it matter?

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so what? Who asked you to define MY breaks? As far as I'm concerned ANY mental down time from rewriting style formats is a break from WORK. Once I get my errands done, I can go back to my desk with a clear hear--one that hasn't been focussed on style codes for the past 30 minutes. Makes a huge difference. And why should I care if it doesn't meet YOUR standards of a break? The only person it has to serve is ME, last I checked.
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for you. Doesn't sound like much of a different life for me. Dishes aren't a chore I dislike, laundry is a matter of one Monday morning while I'm playing online, grocery shopping takes about 20 minutes every Tuesday morning on the way home from work, and I like making dinner. Glad you enjoyed it, but it wouldn't be much of a benefit for me. I'd miss making dinner and I only do 4 loads of laundry a week anyway (all of it Monday morning and all of it done by 11am.)
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Who would WANT to? Museums just don't change that often and we don't need that much reinforcement. Besides which, again you're presuming that WOHPs get off work at 5 or 6pm. hell, I'm just waking up then....if I have to get up early and be someplace in the evening, that is. But I go to museums, on weekdays, all the time. I've marched in protests in downtown DC on weekdays mornings. I go to the park every other morning. I could easily go to the beach for hours on end during the weekdays if I really wanted to piss away that much of my life, but since I don't see the point or the attraction, why would I?
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Um, no, a SAHP only makes life easier on all the other members if THEY happen to be lazy slugs. For the rest of us with family members who are expected to actually contribute to the good of the entire family, including anyone who happens to SAH, a SAHP doesn't make much of a difference in terms of chore load.
Susan
Susan
Looking in from the outside, you might think *well if mom worked, they'd be able to afford a newer car or take more vacations, or save more money*. But unless you are privy to their daily lives and finances, you dont KNOW whether or not that extra money would truly be beneficial.
Sometimes it is a tradeoff, with certain things being more important to a family than just more money or a higher standard of living. There are times when a family might deem having a sahp more important than having more money. Whether or not you understand that is irrelevent. The benefits of having a sahp have been explained to you time and time again, and when they are you insist that its only specific to the particular situation. But you have to understand that sah/woh is ALWAYS only specific to the particular situation. There are benefits and downfalls to EITHER decision-each family has to decide which would work best for THEM.
dj
Dj
"Now when I need help, I look in the mirror" ~Kanye West~
IMO, if you have a good person caring for your children, then a lot of the benefits of those activities is for the *parent* and less for the *children.* If a grandma or a nanny takes the children to the park, then are they missing *that* much by not having the *parent* be there? My nanny takes my dd to the park almost everyday and to My Gym couple of times a week. I have no question that my dd has a good time and that she's being well cared for. The major additional benefit that I will get if I SAH would be that *I* would enjoy going to the park with my dd.
And WRT museums, the zoo, the beach, etc... I don't think it's important that the kids go everyday or even multiple times a week. Dual WOHPs can do all that during the weekend. Actually, I think a couple of times a year at the zoo is plenty.
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