Stay-at-home moms in Asian culture?
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Anonymous
| A friend has stayed home in the year since she had her first and is planning to be home long-term at least until all her kids are in elementary school. Apparently this is frowned upon by her Chinese immigrant parents and she is a black sheep within the family. Her husband makes a huge salary, and she also had a high-powered job she hated. Is staying home with children viewed negatively in Asian culture? |
Anonymous
| In Asian American culture, yes. |
Anonymous
Are you Asian? |
Anonymous
| Maybe in very materialistic subcultures (where you're expected to be a doctor and such) but you can't really lump all Asian cultures together. I am Asian and my mom was a SAHM. I did for a while as well and it was fine with both sides of the family. |
Anonymous
| Uhm not really. There’s even a Chinese word for ladies who lunch. They call them tai tais. So no you can’t generalize. |
Anonymous
|
Not true. I stay at home and everyone supports it.
I think depends on your income level. |
Anonymous
| And tai tai is not viewed as a negative thing, you can say to someone you are leading a tai tai life and it has a positive connotation, like you are leading a baller life. |
Anonymous
|
I’m asian and the wife stayed home until the youngest was 3.
Both sets of our parents are immigrants and no one frowned upon staying home to take care of little ones. The alternative is putting them in daycare starting at 3 to 6 months old, which we all did not prefer. |
Anonymous
| I don't know about the Chinese, but it's frowned upon to not be a stay at home wife for the Japanese. |
Anonymous
| My family reveres a highly educated SAHM. |
Anonymous
| Its not frowned upon. I think your friend’s parents probably has issues with her giving up her high powered career and being completely financially dependent on her husband. Maybe they don’t trust her husband to be reliable. |
Anonymous
| My Asian immigrant parents would definitely frown upon it if I were a SAHM, no matter how much my spouse makes. They would think I was lazy and wasting my life away. They’re both highly educated, so the thought of me being at home doing menial tasks that don’t require an education would deeply disappoint them, or worse — doing nothing at all. Part of this is that I don’t think they see child rearing in the young ages as something that takes a high level of education to do. |
Anonymous
| In some families it’s expected that the moms will work and the grandparents will take care of the kids. Maybe that’s how those grandparents expected things to go and are mad they don’t get to be with the grandkids? |
Anonymous
| No. I think you got this backward. |
Anonymous
Even Thai? Or Pakistan? |