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This is becoming increasingly popular nowadays...women who stay home and "keep up the home" but who do not have children.
Thoughts?
I'm one right now. I'm a full-time graduate student, changing careers. I left my previous career to go back to school FT. My husband is on board with it, in fact, it was his idea, to allow me to complete my program as quickly as possible, rather than stretching it out going part-time. We don't have kids, but may by the time my program is over.
I have been employed FT about 99% of my life, from 1999, when I graduated from undergrad, to present. My husband is in the Navy, and due to military-related moves, I've had a couple of several-month stretches between jobs, so I've had a small taste of the stay-at-home role, usually right when we first get to a new duty station and get settled in. Based on those experiences, I can safely say that I do NOT enjoy being home with no job or classes to go to. The housewife role is not for me. I much prefer the structure, socialization, and activity of going to a job/going to school. Not being actively engaged in earning income or working toward some defined end goal (like completing my master's degree) makes me anxious, to be honest. I get overwhelmed by inertia. I also find it very personally disconcerting to not be contributing to the household income, but it's a tradeoff right now to complete my graduate degree.
I can't think of anyone with kids who stays home. The income is needed and there are very few (thankfully) woman that don't want to use their education and pursue their career.
Where the heck are you where this is becoming popular?
Visit any military community. The vast majority of military spouses with children are SAH.
I personally think the whole "stay at home mom" thing is overrated. Some SAHMs claim that they spend their days running after their kids, and that what they do is "hard work". Please. If that were the case, then soap operas wouldn't have lasted for so many decades - if SAHMs didn't spend 2 or 3 hours sitting on their butts watching the soaps.
I wouldn't say what I do is hard work, but it is work and there's no shortage of "work" to be done. My down time is when I go to the bathroom and after 11pm...assuming I'm not being woken up at 1am by a baby.
That being said, I was a SAHGirlfriend for a number of years. I eventually got a part-time job (it actually cost us more for me to work than not work), but left 2 weeks before I gave birth to my first child. (I should add I was there for several years.)
Last edited by TheImportersWife; 01-12-2015 at 01:15 PM..
I personally do not understand how a person who does not have young children who are not yet in school can stay at home without being bored to death. I am not talking about a retired person - they've paid their dues and deserve their leisure time - I am speaking about a young, able bodied individual.
We have one such person right upstairs. She has never worked a day in her life. She once bragged to me that her be all and end all in life was that she went out with her husband every Saturday night of their marriage (at that time they had been married for 20 years). I was astounded that she had shot so high in her life..... NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT! lol....
The thing is, her sweet, quiet and lovely husband works six days a week and carries food in each night. She does not cook. They had a brand new kitchen put in several years back and I went upstairs to tell her I heard some dripping in the wall. Her answer to me was that I should not worry, she will never touch the kitchen so it wasn't going to be a problem!
Most of the people I know, in fact, all of the people I know, with the exception of this neighbor, go to work.
I will say though that if people decide that they can afford to not work, good for them!
If they can afford it, more power to them. But if they can't, someone needs to get a job.
The husband can always get a second job, as it often happens. But then again, he would then have to face complaints of how he is always away and not involved in the family life.
Really, it can "fly" in any situation where the household is sufficiently sustained on one income. So it's really going to depend on what that one income is.
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Please. If that were the case, then soap operas wouldn't have lasted for so many decades - if SAHMs didn't spend 2 or 3 hours sitting on their butts watching the soaps.
