So all the smart women are choosing to be SAHMs then?? Makes perfect sense to me
I wonder why she feels other peoples choices on how to parent impact her so much, and why she thinks she's so wise as to have discovered the one and only right way to do things?
OMG who cares, really, I don't care if another mother works inside or outside of the home, it's up to them!!
I have a Master's degree and am a SAHM and plan to be for a long while yet *shock horror*. This is what makes me happy, way more fulfilling to me.
Riiiight, so smart women who married smart successful men and can probably afford to stay home with their children, shouldn't???????
What a crock. How is a smart mother "bad" for society?
Should we get all the crackheads and alcoholics to raise the kids?? Would that make the next generation better??
How on earth can it be a "tradgedy" for the children, having smart mummies stay home with them??? Do they even care?? I can just imagine a bunch of three yr olds running around, stressed, anxious, pulling their hair out because mummy is smart.. I mean really.....
I think that is a legitimate concern - but it's the only one. But a lot of medical professionals work shifts or part-time, so maybe they all repay the investment in the long run.
I will return to work at some stage. I chose this life. We are making financial sacrifices too (boohoo no cable, poor me).
I dislike the media trying to create some sort of divide between our choices. I hope we can all see through it and be confident with our own decisions.
I should add that my concern would apply to anyone attaining a qualification for which there is much demand but limited training places and then not utilising that qualification, not just potential mothers. Otherwise, I think the entire article is an elitist and divisive crock of poo.
Jen, that's what I was thinking too - that she seems to be assuming that these mothers will never return to the workforce, when in reality, most of them probably do once their kids are old enough to be self sufficient. Plus another thing she neglects to mention is that Uni education women are more likely to be able to walk back into the same career area with a great salary after several years away, but a non-Uni education woman may find it harder to pick up where she left off ITMS.
I think this woman is either totally career driven with no desire to ever become a SAHM or she is reacting in a rather negative way to not having the luxury to do it herself, so she is lashing out with a touch of jealousy.
I think it's a bloody awful article. Sweeping statements with nothing to back up what she actually means. Maybe she has some interesting arguments but the article doesn't explain them so I'm left wondering. If I was going to be sarcastic, I'd say her tertiary education has been wasted if that's the best she can come up with.
I have two degrees and am a SAHM. Don't know for how long. Why did I choose this? Partly because I want to spend a lot of time with DDs and partly because of the absolute lack of challenging part-time work for a professional like me. I returned to work 12 months after DD1 was born for five days a fortnight. The company, which has 36,000 employees, claimed they could not find me any work at my previous level so demoted me two levels to a job that I could have done straight out of uni. But still paid me my old wage so $20-30K more than they should have been. Waste of money for the company and a waste of my skills. I did more work in my five days than the full-timers did because the only challenge for me was to work against the clock and challenge myself.
I will have the same dilemma when my current 12 months maternity leave is up except now the decision will be easier to make because we rejigged our lifestyle and moved to the country so that we have more financial flexibility. I did not want to have to go back to a crappy (in my eyes) job in order to pay a mortgage.
In my circle there are many, many women in the same boat. In an ideal world they would work part-time but can't find decent part-time work that uses their skills. So rather than under-utilising their brain, they opt out and stay home instead until the kids are school-aged.
Fionas - I absolutely agree - companies are very narrow minded in terms of part-time work - so many jobs can easily be factored into part time hours (or approaching full time if allowing work in evenings from home) but companies are very narrow in their mindset I find and still think that a body present in office 9-5 equals the most work completed which is far from true. Sometimes if you have worked full time for a company you can work out a flexible arrangement but even then is difficult, and with a new employer seems virtually impossible.
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