Do you think we will see a massive uptick in women choosing to stay home after this?

[Anonymous]

I don’t think PP says they’re barely making it, they’re claiming some are barely making it in their circle. With mortgages and general obligations and the costs and commitments she listed YES I would agree. We’re in this same situation and living well but yes it is
NOT EXTRAVAGANT It is comfortable and we are lucky.
To answer the original question, I think that if anything this new situation will bring more flexible jobs to the forefront where parents can work from
Home and yes I do think in most cases the childcare falls to the woman. 99 percent of the daily tick tock is on the mom. I also know this financial
I security means more women will have to work. It’s a hard choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I can’t believe anyone would claim $300k is barely making it. That is our HHI, and we have a very heavy student debt load to boot, and do not yet own a home — but I am under no illusions that we are doing very well and solidly upper middle class on our way to upper upper (so long as neither of us loses our jobs, knock on wood).

Hahahahaha wait til you buy a nice house and factor in any childcare or general costs of living for a family of four! In this area??? PP is RIGHT. And those of you that don’t know, dont know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I can’t believe anyone would claim $300k is barely making it. That is our HHI, and we have a very heavy student debt load to boot, and do not yet own a home — but I am under no illusions that we are doing very well and solidly upper middle class on our way to upper upper (so long as neither of us loses our jobs, knock on wood).

Hahahahaha wait til you buy a nice house and factor in any childcare or general costs of living for a family of four! In this area??? PP is RIGHT. And those of you that don’t know, dont know.

How do we not know? I live here. I pay a mortgage and for childcare (for one kid). I've got student loans. I manage to meet all those obligations on $150K and still save plenty. Sure a family of four is going to be more (it's why we stopped at one kid), but it's not so much that you need $300k unless your requirements for a house or childcare are outside of your means.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love love love staying home with my kids and cannot understand women crawling out of their skin taking care of their kids all day and working. I working from home, while my husband is the main breadwinner by a lot, and he helps with the kids and home as well. This quarantine has made us both SO thankful that I CAN stay home with the kids, that I have a purposeful job from home, that I enjoy all the time with the kids and in the home, and that we have adapted well to this new temporary life. It is really ideal for kids to be met by a parent after school, spend the bulk of their free time with their family, this is the natural order of life and you can feel it’s true in your heart.

Your lack of a brain is astounding. Enjoy your natural order of life.

I feel so sorry for your children to have such a selfish, narcissist mother.

HA! Nice try. If it makes you feel better to think that I'm a selfish, narcissistic mother, then ok, but I'm not. Taking care of your kids all day and working can be really hard. My husband and I are so lucky that are jobs are flexible and our kids are older, but I know a lot of people are having a really hard time, and for you to just not comprehend at all how things are hard for some people is truly astounding. There's nothing more to say to you. Enjoy your judgmental life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not for me. I am crawling out of my skin and can't WAIT to get back to the office.

me too!! Being at home is mind numbing to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I can’t believe anyone would claim $300k is barely making it. That is our HHI, and we have a very heavy student debt load to boot, and do not yet own a home — but I am under no illusions that we are doing very well and solidly upper middle class on our way to upper upper (so long as neither of us loses our jobs, knock on wood).

Hahahahaha wait til you buy a nice house and factor in any childcare or general costs of living for a family of four! In this area??? PP is RIGHT. And those of you that don’t know, dont know.

How do we not know? I live here. I pay a mortgage and for childcare (for one kid). I've got student loans. I manage to meet all those obligations on $150K and still save plenty. Sure a family of four is going to be more (it's why we stopped at one kid), but it's not so much that you need $300k unless your requirements for a house or childcare are outside of your means.

agree. UNtil this person buys a home in this area and sees just what they get on that income they will then realize they are not UMC in this area. Either they will live far out and have crazy commutes or live in a crappy school district, or a small condo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, I can’t believe anyone would claim $300k is barely making it. That is our HHI, and we have a very heavy student debt load to boot, and do not yet own a home — but I am under no illusions that we are doing very well and solidly upper middle class on our way to upper upper (so long as neither of us loses our jobs, knock on wood).

Hahahahaha wait til you buy a nice house and factor in any childcare or general costs of living for a family of four! In this area??? PP is RIGHT. And those of you that don’t know, dont know.

How do we not know? I live here. I pay a mortgage and for childcare (for one kid). I've got student loans. I manage to meet all those obligations on $150K and still save plenty. Sure a family of four is going to be more (it's why we stopped at one kid), but it's not so much that you need $300k unless your requirements for a house or childcare are outside of your means.

agree. UNtil this person buys a home in this area and sees just what they get on that income they will then realize they are not UMC in this area. Either they will live far out and have crazy commutes or live in a crappy school district, or a small condo.

165K, four kids, stay at home wife. Nice house, many bedrooms, zoned for "good" public school district in NoVA. Not far from metro. We did buy it seven years ago. Most of the people in the area are UMC to crapping-nickels-rich. If you need to compare yourself, do it to people nationally, not to Mr. Moneybags with the McMansion down the street, and try and adjust both your expectations and budget.

[Anonymous]

Feels like class warfare in here some days, sometimes between the middle class and upper middle class. Haha (don’t kill me).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I love love love staying home with my kids and cannot understand women crawling out of their skin taking care of their kids all day and working. I working from home, while my husband is the main breadwinner by a lot, and he helps with the kids and home as well. This quarantine has made us both SO thankful that I CAN stay home with the kids, that I have a purposeful job from home, that I enjoy all the time with the kids and in the home, and that we have adapted well to this new temporary life. It is really ideal for kids to be met by a parent after school, spend the bulk of their free time with their family, this is the natural order of life and you can feel it’s true in your heart.

Your lack of a brain is astounding. Enjoy your natural order of life.

I feel so sorry for your children to have such a selfish, narcissist mother.

HA! Nice try. If it makes you feel better to think that I'm a selfish, narcissistic mother, then ok, but I'm not. Taking care of your kids all day and working can be really hard. My husband and I are so lucky that are jobs are flexible and our kids are older, but I know a lot of people are having a really hard time, and for you to just not comprehend at all how things are hard for some people is truly astounding. There's nothing more to say to you. Enjoy your judgmental life.

Well said.

[Anonymous]

We have an HHI around $350K. We have 3 kids under 6 and 2 FT jobs, so we pay a ton in child care. We have about 20% of our student loans remaining and ours were relatively modest to begin with for 2 professionals. We own on Capitol Hill and are slightly — but not ridiculously — house poor, because we recently moved for the school district. We are solidly UMC, yes. But we absolutely pay attention to the grocery bill, consider the cost of activities and vacations, etc. we find retirement and 529s, but don’t yet save beyond that. We are extremely comfortable but could never, e.g., afford private school for all of our kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I suspect we’ll see fewer SAHMs as the value of having two paychecks will become more apparent. All those women married to high earning lawyers who thought they were set are going to realize how quickly that big paycheck can disappear.

Meh. The people who can truly afford to have a SAH parent are also smart enough to have figured all of this out. Most of us have mitigated the risks before we made the switch from a dual income home to a single income home. I am a SAHM and we are very favorably situated in this pandemic and doing very well. We have lived on 1/2 what my DH has made for years. We are completely sorted out in terms of liquid cash, mortgage, retirement, medical and college.

In DMV at least, when an educated woman chooses to become a SAHM its because the family has cash reserves and insurance. This is not Podunk, Trumplandia. No one is a teen mom here. I hope the high earning lawyer who lost his job has a lot of cash socked away. It not then I can only laugh at the entitlement that made them think that frugality is beneath them.

You sound totally clueless. There are plenty of families where the SAHM couldn’t make enough to justify childcare and had little interest in working and a high-earning spouse so it was an easy decision. It does not mean they had millions socked away so they could withstand any economic crisis. Do you know how many SAHMs had to go back to work after the 2008 recession?

You are right, of course, but I wouldn't bother. That PP is astonishingly self-absorbed, but any rational reader can see that. She doesn't possess the ability to extrapolate outside of her own immediate frame of reference.

I mean, do you really even want to try to reason with somebody who boasts about how she wants to laugh at the real and awful financial troubles of families? It's like trying to reason with a pit viper.

Well, this pit viper has a nest egg that was built by living frugally so I am ok. What about you?

I think it is a sign of entitlement that people think they don't have to to live frugally and that they deserve every luxury. I have a friend who bought a million dollar home and has very little savings. I can understand that people who are making less than 100K are struggling to make end meet, but a 4-member family with HHI of 300K+ is struggling? Why? Well because they were travelling internationally and taking luxurious vacations and they think they deserve all material luxuries that the universe has to offer. I am sorry but I cannot muster up enough sympathy for them. I will save my sympathy for people who are low earners and actually are struggling to make ends meet.

It will be interesting to see how all of this will play out.

I stand corrected. It is like trying to reason with a dim and slow pit viper.

I stand corrected too. It will be amusing to see a lot of these high earners and high spenders consumers crash and burn. It is height of privilege and entitlement if you could not save on an HHI of 300K+. Yes, some of you should go back to work. Being a financially secure SAHM or FIRE does not happen without some material sacrifices. You can still live very well but I am saving my sympathies for people who actually do not make enough. Having a 6 figure HHI is a lot of money.

I don't believe you have the ability to have either empathy or sympathy for anyone, regardless of income.

I make a rational decision to not feel sorry for entitled and stupid POSs who are "struggling" on an HHI of 300K in this pandemic. I also expect people like you to not quarantine or wear masks in public.

[Anonymous]

Massive uptick in Sahm?

No.

[Anonymous]

Little uptick?
Maybe

[Anonymous]

only if we all lose our jobs.

[Anonymous]

I hope women will not make a rash judgement about their careers and finances based this crisis, which will eventually end.