WOH/Kids/Feminism: WDYT?
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| Tue, 02-08-2005 - 9:06am |
Okay, let's debate something else. One morning a few months ago, I was crabby to DH about having to get ready for work. DH said, "Well, if you don't want to go to work, quit!"
Later that day, I told him I was just venting, and then I told him some of the reasons I really do like WOH. One reason was something to the effect that I wanted to WOH as part of at-home feminism for our DD's. He said he had no idea what I was talking about.
I thought about it some and decided that although this is a heartfelt idea for me, it's still fuzzy. I suppose I meant that I want to show my DDs how to live independently of a man, in the sense of income, ability to make one's way in the world, and so on, even if they choose marriage & kids. My feelings of pride in my own mom, who was a WOH mom, come into it, too.
Caution: I don't mean in any way to suggest anything the least bit negative about SAH moms. That's not what this is about. Nor do I mean to suggest that anyone has to WOH to teach their kids feminist or gender neutral values. That's not what this is about, either.
Do you think there's any value in WOH as part of raising kids? Please help me clarify my thinking.
Sabina

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Mondo
Oh I agree - my next door neighbor married right out of college and had a baby 9 mths later.
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Yes, you're right. I was naive in thinking I could raise a topic about WOH and kids without implying anything about SAHM. I don't know whether you were able to read my OP. I can't get my computere to bring it up anymore. But I included something about not wanting it to be about SAHMs. Some posters "jumped on my case" anyway.
My OP wasn't supposed to be about comparisons. I raised a fairly modest, noncontroversial point about how I thought I might be helping my kids learn something about financial independence through WOH. So far, that has been my experience, and I was just wondering if anyone else felt the same way about their WOH or someone else's, perhaps. I thought it would be a tiny, short thread.
I do have a lot of respect for SAHPs. Especially because I don't think I would be capable of it myself. I've only been a SAHP for a total of about 2 years when my DDs were babies, so I have little experience with SAHP. But there are quite a few in my town, and they work very hard as SAHPs. They provide a great deal of enrichment at my DDs' schools, and my DDs benefit. I thank them for that whenever I can.
I think the problem might be my English is not good. English is not my native language. I have been speaking it for about ten years, but my written English is not idiomatic yet. So it's easy to misinterpret.
Sabina
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