How many SAHPs do you know in the DMV?

[Anonymous]

I was a SAHD for about 4 years when we had 3 under 7 and had been transferred across country for my wife's job. It was an incredibly lonely time. SAHDs are generally maligned and shunned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was a SAHD for about 4 years when we had 3 under 7 and had been transferred across country for my wife's job. It was an incredibly lonely time. SAHDs are generally maligned and shunned.

I am a SAHM and I can understand how it would be much harder to be a SAHD.

[Anonymous]

Tons in my neighborhood in Chantilly. I sometimes feel like the odd mom out since I work part time.

[Anonymous]

Tons,in Potomac, CC and Bethesda

[Anonymous]

If you’re talking about the age 55-60 crowd then I can see why you didn’t meet any SAHM. Most women I know that stayed home eventually went back when kids were older.

[Anonymous]

I live in DC and am about to become a SAHM. My kids are in high school and middle school. I’m finding that they are much more work now than when they were children, so I’m taking a step back. I’ll be turning 50 this yr.

[Anonymous]

It is rare in my area to the point that I can count as many sahms as sahds, very few either way. I wouldn't say there is much in common either like maybe areas where it is common there are more similar backgrounds and reasons.

[Anonymous]

Tons in upper MoCo, including a few SAHDs.

[Anonymous]

I am a SAHM in Bethesda. There are many stay at home mothers where I live.

When my kids were little, about a third of the mothers at my kids' preschool stayed home. My friend group started out with mothers who had quit their jobs to look after their children. Most of us have advanced degrees. Gradually, most returned to part-time or full time employment. I'm the last one of my group to stay home, and now that my firstborn with special needs has clawed his way into a decent college (woohoo!), I'm currently pivoting to return to the workforce.

Since staying home depends on the household income (earned by the other spouse or inherited or otherwise acquired), you will meet more of them in wealthy neighborhoods.

[Anonymous]

It’s very cultural. There are social groups (to which you clearly belong) where all the women work, and ones where few of them do. IME many fewer with a substantial split.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have lived and worked here in the DC region for over 25 years and have raised kids here. I've lived in DC proper and in the DC and VA suburbs. I've only met two SAHPs under the age of 75 in all that time. One was my neighbor with 3 little kids. No college degree and her husband was a house flipper who also didn't have a college degree. They were both children of immigrants and believed in traditional gender roles. They lived in a really nice house he flipped in our gentrified neighborhood and then moved out when they sold it at a profit. None of my male colleagues over the years have had SAHM wives. And I don't think any of my male colleagues were married to women without at least a BA/BS. A few wives or husbands have been out of work for several months to a year, but they were actively looking for their next gig that whole time. The other SAHM I know is married to a retired Navy officer. But she actually did work for most of the time since her kids started K-12. They were stationed around the world and in various US cities, but she found office or retail work in most places. Military officers retire by about age 60, so she says she "retired" with him, even though she didn't have a long term employer when she left the workforce. I'm not sure if most people would count her as a true SAHM now that I think about it.

Do others know SAHPs who live in the DMV? I sometimes feel like they're an urban legend around here. I was just at a holiday party in McLean and every woman there had a career, as did our hostess. (The average age at the party was probably 55-60.) They all had very high earning husbands who made more than enough for these women to stay home, yet they choose to work.

I'm not interested in a debate about the value of being a SAHP. I'm just interested in the fact that I don't actually know many of them, male or female, in my day to day life living in this metro region.

Obvious troll. Quite sad actually that you don't know anyone SAH (i.e. retired) under age 75.

Stop feeding this jerk.

[Anonymous]

I'm in my 50's and I know a ton of SAHM's. But at 50 many work out of necessity (divorced/widowed/generally need money), have hobby jobs like helping people decorate, work part time, are artists, etc.

[Anonymous]

Lots of parents SAH until 3, particularly in DC where pre-K kicks in at that age, because child care is so expensive before that.

[Anonymous]

My next door neighbor is a SAHM with a JD and a full-time nanny (and a weekly house cleaner).

[Anonymous]

OP,

Obviously your circle is quite small and/or working class. There are many stay at home parents all over the place.