Re: Obama doesn't want Moms staying home to raise their kids. Wants the state to do i
I am going to say this, I know its probably going to really piss some people off but here goes anyway. I am married, my wife and I have been married for nearly 15 years now and we have 3 kids. We both work full time (many weeks I work far more than just 40 hours). We have both always worked full time. Income wise I guess we are upper middle class, however we don't live extravagantly. We live in a 1,200 square foot house and neither of us drive expensive vehicles. The reason why my wife never stayed home with the kids (other than FMLA time), is that we can't afford it because we would have lost her income by her doing so. We have some friends of course that are stay at home moms, thats great if they can do that and families should always be able to make such decisions themselves. Where I get really annoyed is when I hear the following:
1. "Being a parent is the hardest job you can do."
-Parenting is not a job, its a responsibility. It is a responsibility you have regardless of whether you have a full time job or not.
2. "I stayed home because I did not want other people raising my kids."
-Parents that work full time are not letting other people raise their kids by sending them to day school. Making such an argument is as stupid as saying that sending them to elementary school is letting someone else raise their kids.
3. "Being a stay at home parent is the hardest job you could ever have."
-The only people that say this are those people that have never held a hard job. Yes, raising kids is hard. You know how you make it harder? Work full time then come home and do all the crap you do on top of it. Its not like we have some maid coming in and cleaning our house and picking up after our kids. We don't have a cook making our meals. We don't have a tutor helping our kids with their homework. We don't have a nanny taking them to all their practices, games, and all the activities they have after school.
Its a rare day that I so much as sit down before 9 PM. I hardly watch any TV shows anymore because I never have to the time to do so. Every night I get home and either my wife or me does the dishes, laundry, cleans, helps the kids with their home work, cooks, does the dishes, cleans the kitchen, takes the kids to their various practices and so on. Then at those games and practices I get to listen to stay at home mom's with 2 kids (we have 3) talk about how tired they are (and then talk about various tv shows they are watching and so on). The whole time I am thinking you should follow me or my wife around because we have done everything you have done today plus work full time.
Let's take my Monday for example:
Tomorrow morning I will get up a little before 6 AM so I can make my breakfast, coffee, and feed the dogs. I will then wake our kids up and make their breakfast. My wife then gets up and makes their lunch and takes them to school (our youngest has to be there before our other 2 kids). I will then go in early to work because I need to get some stuff done before everyone gets in, work all day, then when I get home take one of our daughters for a run, take our son to the gym and work out with him, come home and cook dinner, eat, do the dishes and clean the kitchen up, and then maybe read a little while before I go to sleep only to get up the next day where we have far more going on tomorrow.
So you know what, I don't want to hear about the "sacrifices" a stay at home parent is making. We all make sacrifices as parents, its part of being a parent.