(For others following this topic, I wrote a couple comments over at my blog under Homeschooling Mommys: Freedoms and Development. Ugh, I wish there was a better way that I know of to keep this conversation connected to each other!)

The work I do for my family is much more meaningful and rewarding to me than my for pay work overall.

I fully agree that I can expand my knowledge and use my intellect without being in the workforce. I do not disagree at all on the fact that “staying home” can be wonderful and rewarding and “money isn’t everything.”

But you must admit that money is *something*. I believe that if I were to give up my “career” completely, my future would be jeapordized. I would have no Social Security “points”. I would have to be sure that my husband split his retirement contributions equally between us (which would be close to impossible, I think, given the current laws). I would have no “foot in the door” to get back to work in case something happened to my husband and I needed to return to work full-time in order to recieve medical insurance. The list goes on.

Some people are willing to take those risks. But I believe that we should not be put in a position that forces us to choose to either work full-time or take those risks. Your opinion may be different on this last point, and that’s fine, but I do believe mine has some merit as well.

I would like there to be more choices. There are many women out there who want to work part-time, perhaps not for the money, but perhaps for the experience and cannot find this type of work. That’s a problem.

Another problem with the current “social situation” is that (assuming a two parent household) if one parent is working and the other is not, the non-working parent’s future is potentially jeapordized.

I have no answers and I am simply trying to work through the various issues…

1. I think women tend to reduce their work to come home because it is in our nature to be nurturers. I raised my young children in a non-gender biased atmosphere, and yet, the boys are attracted to defend/protect type of activities and the girls were attracted to talking/gathering, etc.

2. I never thought about the irony that women pay other women to care for their children so they can work . . .

3. I don’t buy into the idea that families can’t get by on one income. My hubby and I married young (20) and started having children right away, and by the time he finished his undergraduate degree (that we paid completely ourselves), we had three children. We then made our way through life, little by little, until we are where we are today, fairly comfortable off financially. We made do throughout and nobody ever watched our children for us. Mostly, we were one income. I think our society and generation is simply choosing to be commercial-centered and object-collectors . . . and keeping up with the Joneses.

Just my biased opinions

Clearly the job of childcare is a big industry, our culture seems based around it with all the compulsory schooling laws and daycare centers. We’re not really set up for stay-at-home-families and part-time employment. In my experience it costs too much to only work part-time, and a family must budget frugally to live on one income.

Also, lots of companies have completely unreasonable policies that make it impossible to work & raise a family. An example in our area is a business that requires workers to rotate from midnight shift to day shift every two weeks. How could you make childcare arrangements under those circumstances? Needless to say, they do not employ many women.

Oops! Sorry, I didn’t mean to write a small novel on here. Again, thanks for providing some food for thought.