For the SAHMS on the Ivy League/Admissions thread

[Anonymous]

Could somebody please explain to me what having an Ivy degree vs. another degree has to do with the SAHM question? FWIW, I am a college professor.

[Anonymous]

Dullest posts on DCUM. Ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Could somebody please explain to me what having an Ivy degree vs. another degree has to do with the SAHM question? FWIW, I am a college professor.

I guess it validates those who need labels. After all, it is a validating seeking post...seems a life long preoccupation for some.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could somebody please explain to me what having an Ivy degree vs. another degree has to do with the SAHM question? FWIW, I am a college professor.

I guess it validates those who need labels. After all, it is a validating seeking post...seems a life long preoccupation for some.

2 labels - Ivy degree and SAHM, some who will be supported by their DHs for the rest of their lives!

[Anonymous]

Another SAHM with Ivy and law degree here. Being at home has allowed me to discover my passion -- teaching -- and I'm now (after 17 years or so out of the full-time workforce -- working in a public middle school with special needs kids. I love it, but I wouldn't have the patience for it without years at home with my own children.

[Anonymous]

Ivy degree and SAHM for 15 years. I don't ever for a second feel "guilty" about "wasting" my degree. My children have needed me, and I've been there for them. I wish I could have co-parented with DH, who wishes the same thing. He wants to work less, and I want to work more. I did work part time for a few years, but pay was so low I couldn't sustain it -- it actually cost me money to work!

I do a lot of volunteer work, so I think I'm contributing to society, and using my education for the general good, as well as in running a household and raising my children. It's not a perfect world, and I wish I did not have to choose between career and children, but I did, and I chose to spend time with my children, while DH spends time with his career.

We're not wealthy, either. We're probably poor by DC standards, but I'm exceptionally good at keeping spending low, so that's made it possible for me to stay at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ivy degree and SAHM for 15 years. I don't ever for a second feel "guilty" about "wasting" my degree. My children have needed me, and I've been there for them. I wish I could have co-parented with DH, who wishes the same thing. He wants to work less, and I want to work more. I did work part time for a few years, but pay was so low I couldn't sustain it -- it actually cost me money to work!

I do a lot of volunteer work, so I think I'm contributing to society, and using my education for the general good, as well as in running a household and raising my children. It's not a perfect world, and I wish I did not have to choose between career and children, but I did, and I chose to spend time with my children, while DH spends time with his career.

We're not wealthy, either. We're probably poor by DC standards, but I'm exceptionally good at keeping spending low, so that's made it possible for me to stay at home.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Could somebody please explain to me what having an Ivy degree vs. another degree has to do with the SAHM question? FWIW, I am a college professor.

I was wondering the same thing. Because those of us with degrees from anywhere else aren't giving up anything when we give up our careers, no matter how successful. Nobody expected much from us anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could somebody please explain to me what having an Ivy degree vs. another degree has to do with the SAHM question? FWIW, I am a college professor.

I was wondering the same thing. Because those of us with degrees from anywhere else aren't giving up anything when we give up our careers, no matter how successful. Nobody expected much from us anyway.

I think it's because this is a spin-off of another thread in which the OP asked a question specifically of ivy league graduates regarding admissions. Several posters on that thread stated that people sometimes tell them they wasted their education by staying home wen they learn where they went to school. I don't think it was intended to be at all undermining of anyone else's school or profession.

[Anonymous]

Every SAHM I know at our school has a college degree. Why would any of them feel guilty about staying home no matter where they went to school or how much it cost. Just because I choose a school at 18 - this doesn't define the decisions I want to make at 40 to stay at home with my children.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every SAHM I know at our school has a college degree. Why would any of them feel guilty about staying home no matter where they went to school or how much it cost. Just because I choose a school at 18 - this doesn't define the decisions I want to make at 40 to stay at home with my children.

Exactly. Where I went to school, which degrees I earned, and which jobs I held afterward were choices about my life at those various points. Leaving paid work to care for my child full-time is a choice I made about my life now. Neither invalidates the other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Could somebody please explain to me what having an Ivy degree vs. another degree has to do with the SAHM question? FWIW, I am a college professor.

another way to sneak elitism into the picture!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Could somebody please explain to me what having an Ivy degree vs. another degree has to do with the SAHM question? FWIW, I am a college professor.

another way to sneak elitism into the picture!

Hello! This is a spin-off of a thread (as the title states) that asked a question specifically of ivy league graduates regarding admissions. Do you try to find elitism at every turn? Good grief you must see it everywhere.

[Anonymous]

"Hello! This is a spin-off of a thread (as the title states) that asked a question specifically of ivy league graduates regarding admissions. Do you try to find elitism at every turn? Good grief you must see it everywhere. "

Pass a chance at bragging rights on DCUM? No waaay.

[Anonymous]

OP, I work part-time and sometimes feel guilty I am not reaching my potential too!! I have Ivy undergrad and law degrees, and parents who worked VERY hard to help me achieve those. I work three days a week as a lawyer. Sometimes I feel I have the perfect balance and am so fortunate, and sometimes I feel like I am pathetic for not being promoted or having a more impressive job. (Although my parents, i think, feel I have a nice balance. I don't think they feel I am wasting anything.)
It's natural, I think, to feel this way once in a while. As long as you are not feeling this way all the time. You could consider talking to someone about it if you do feel this way all the time. It helps to have someone to talk to who is a professional and you don't have to be embarrassed.