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Average new house in 1950 was less than 1000 square feet, despite housing larger families. Today it's almost 3x that size and family sizes are smaller.
Larger space costs more to heat, cool, illuminate and insure. . Not uncommon for annual utility bills to be higher than annual household incomes in the 50's.
Nearly half the households had no TV. No one, including kids, had their own phone. No Cable. No internet. No iPads/ tablets. Dining out was a special treat.
Much of your reply here speaks to the need for us as a society to re-evaluate how we measure wealth or success.
While you are right about not having things like phones, internet, etc, those things bring incredible value to families and society as a whole. Consider the additional safety and security a parent has with their kids now that they have a way to be reached at any time during an emergency, and the vast amount of information and services improving our lives (there are also negatives like social media sometimes) from these tools. So yeah maybe the added expense of a $500+ phone and $100/month service takes its toll, but one could argue that the value you get for them far surpasses the monetary spend.
I pay much less for a very nice apartment with everything included then people my age pay to send one child for daycare.
Most people in the cohort called millennials are in their mid and late 20s and a vast majority of that generation will become mothers in the next decade if not already, many will have their 2nd or 3rd child also.
It's obvious though that many times all that education is going to just taxes and daycare. Would be interesting to see what the net income pays after daycare for two after taxes. I wouldn't be surprised if they are paying to work.
It's obvious that two-parents working 40+ hours is just causing lots of stress just so someone else can raise the children.
Not to mention, the amount of viruses must be incredible also. Pack dozens into a very small space and viruses will spread quickly. I notice that to make things easy on parents a child can go to daycare if they done with vomiting for 25 hours, when norovirus is present for much longer.
Not only that these huge daycare centers are just incubators of viruses and illnesses.
Even in Nebraska, the government university day-care charges $295 a week and that is with a low minimum wage.
In areas with higher minimum wages like Washington DC the average is over $400 a week.
I couldn't find information for a UNO daycare center, but another university provides government day-care and it's $295 a week in a state with one of the lowest cost of living and lowest minimum wages although usually center-based daycare workers supposedly make in most cases a premium over the state minimum wage because it is a difficult job.
I’m going to go to work just to pay for someone else to raise my kids.
I had a friend tell me much the same thing except it was his wife who was working to say someone else to help raise their child. It did not take long for them to realize their folly, so she became a stay-at-home mom. This was 1992 or so. I remember thinking it was pretty mature for a couple of young kids trying to be adults.
Not entirely sure what the point is with this thread
I remember my mom saying this back in the late 60s early 70s. It is nothing new. She figured out that most of her income would be spent on childcare and decided to stay home with us. We were middle-class and went to private schools.
The women I know that pay someone to look after their kids have professions that are quite satisfying. The day care costs are expensive initially but as the kids grow up those drop off and the women doesn't lose her spot in the line so to speak.
I've been a stay at home Mom for 20 years. I'm not going to pass judgement on others who make different lifestyle choices.
We each have to decide what works for our family.
Anybody who sits in judgement has way too much time on their hands.
I have strong objections to government provided childcare. If anybody other than parents should pay, let the employer provide onsite daycare.
My family made the decisions that we didn't want our kids raised by strangers.
And it cost money to have a job. In addition to taxes, add transportation, meals and clothing to the mix. Then childcare? What's the point unless you are making 100K a year. Why go to the trouble?
If you don't like your own kids enough to care for them, what makes anybody think some daycare worker will be a life enhancing role model?
I think a lot of it is because women are meant to feel "guilted" to have a career,(like otherwise they're incomplete for some reason). I didn't want a job, but had to work out of necessity. I always had good paying office jobs, but I never once gave a rat's arse about advancement or a "career". It wasn't important to me. As far as childcare, we had the help of extended family when necessary, but DH and I worked split shifts (he night shift and I day shift and most weekends wherein I had some weekdays off). We also had trusted reliable babysitters, though we tried to keep this to a minimum. Neither of my kids went to daycare or looked after by strangers. Needless to say, a lot of sleep was sacrificed.
But boy was I guilted by the neighbors! Our block was full of stay at home moms. Some of their husbands worked two jobs so they could stay home with the kids. One of these women nastily called me a "career gal" (her words) and said working mothers just wanted to "set the world on fire". This was the nineties. I was a secretary with a mortgage and two car payments.
Oldest DD now has two sons (aged two and five)...she owns her own business and was always fortunate to be able to take them to work with her every day, where DH and I (grandparents) are frequently available to help out. Neither have been (or will be) sent to day care. Luckily she has good natured, patient employees who are very fond of them!
I did a little bit of both. I worked off and on up until we moved to the USA and I had my third child. I've been stay at home parent now for 22 years. Never met working mothers or stay at home mothers who judged me. We always supported whatever choices.
Every now and again there are articles about working vs. stay at home.....and every time the theme tends to be that we should support whatever choices are made.'
As we head into retirement....my staying home means we have paid a steep price. We have done okay but given the high cost of retirement in the USA, we will be challenged. I suspect we will be working part time jobs to just tie us over.
I don't have a problem with daycare. If parents want to pay for it, that's certainly fine with me. But if the government is gonna pay for daycare for anybody that needs it, then I have a problem. I do not have kids, so why should I pay to take care of kids just because their parents want to work?
Also, daycare is quite expensive - if the government's gonna pick up the check, they better very well regulate how much they can charge. $250 a week sounds about right. Nationwide. I do not believe that rates should be higher in one city than another. If the daycare center can't afford to operate for that reasonable cost, well, that's just too bad - they can close up shop if they don't think that's fair. Parents can't find daycare anymore? Well, don't come crying to me - I didn't ask for this to begin with.
Why does anyone need a kid at all? Or a pet? Or the zillion other things we desire?
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