Reply to Working Moms and Do It All Expectation

Forum Index » Jobs and Careers

Reply to "Working Moms and Do It All Expectation"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]by saying that there was a division of labor and it was better when moms didn’t work and managed to single-handedly take care of kids needs, is still putting all the responsibility for child care on the women’s shoulder.

As a society, we decide what is important. Given that there is no minimum parental leave, affordable childcare, good before / aftercare options, [b]we have decided as a society that having children is not valued. [/b]The moms lamenting are a result of that. But it’s not the feminists to blame, it’s all of us as a society because these are our values: families and children are not priority for us as a society. It’s that simple.[/quote]

Or maybe it’s the opposite. Consider that the conservative argument is that women should be able to stay home with children and therefore a strong economy with high wages is important.

Compared to a country with lower wages and women returning to work after a year of government paid leave.

I’d argue European countries are less family friendly since through their taxes and lower wages require almost all women to work after having children. [/quote]

Except they get like two years of paid maternity.

Your argument doesn’t hold because the median HHI income in the US is $75k and in Euro countries it’s $64.4k.  Professional jobs in Europe pay absolutely well enough to have only one spouse working if that’s what you want…add in that you don’t have to save for healthcare, childcare, pre-school, college, etc.

So the median US household can’t afford to have a parent not work.[/quote]

+1
I totally agree with you. I lived in France and Netherlands.  Both countries are better set up for SAHMs (not dads, but they're getting there faster than we are).  You don't have to worry about Healthcare or education in the way that we do, plus there is just much more public infrastructure with opportunities for all.  The cost of living is lower.  But because of all of this the childcare infrastructure is not as good.  I work FT and did when I had my kids there, as did my husband.  The lack of high quality childcare and the outrageous cost of nannies is what drove me back.  I felt society wanted me to quit there and I felt it was oppressive, so I came home.

BTW - overall the quality of childcare is better but our range of childcare is wider here.  I didn't want to accept average when in my home country I could hire a professional nanny for 1:1 ratio for less than 100k/yr.  There everything costed about the same (about 25k 12 years ago) and it was equivalent to maybe Goddard or Primrose) and you could only get 2-3 days a week if you're lucky. It was horrible for working moms, and the culture for SAHDs was terrible

Sis, you lived in rural areas?  I knew ZERO SAHM in Paris and several second- and third-tier French cities. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics