Thank you, Allison, for your very spot-on newsletters. The title of this one caught my eye especially. After getting my BSN (nursing) and working for four years while my husband was unemployed (and still trying to find his calling), I decided to become a stay-at-home mom with our newborn. My husband finally supported us financially and since then, I can't tell you how many times in-laws or casual acquaintances will ask some form of "what do you do all day?". I don't get too defensive because they obviously don't know (or have forgotten) how much work parenting and taking care of a household is. Our American culture is so ingrained in the idea that success is measured by the type of car/house you possess. I refuse to work outside the home just to have more things, especially at the expense of my family's happiness, because all of us would become more stressed out, for sure.
OK. I read about the motherhood penalty and I get it. But increasingly, things are changing and gender roles are sometimes reversing and there are more and more same sex/gender families....so we could properly investigate the "primary parent penalty." In other words, it would be interesting to have comparative data on alternate domestic arrangements to see if men are also financially penalised when they are the primary parent. Just a thought...
Thank you, Allison, for your very spot-on newsletters. The title of this one caught my eye especially. After getting my BSN (nursing) and working for four years while my husband was unemployed (and still trying to find his calling), I decided to become a stay-at-home mom with our newborn. My husband finally supported us financially and since then, I can't tell you how many times in-laws or casual acquaintances will ask some form of "what do you do all day?". I don't get too defensive because they obviously don't know (or have forgotten) how much work parenting and taking care of a household is. Our American culture is so ingrained in the idea that success is measured by the type of car/house you possess. I refuse to work outside the home just to have more things, especially at the expense of my family's happiness, because all of us would become more stressed out, for sure.
OK. I read about the motherhood penalty and I get it. But increasingly, things are changing and gender roles are sometimes reversing and there are more and more same sex/gender families....so we could properly investigate the "primary parent penalty." In other words, it would be interesting to have comparative data on alternate domestic arrangements to see if men are also financially penalised when they are the primary parent. Just a thought...