Reply to NYT: professional moms who opted out of work after kids are now opting back in

Forum Index » Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers

Reply to "NYT: professional moms who opted out of work after kids are now opting back in"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You are all right. My husband's schedule as a law partner over the last 7 years has been ridiculous and the recession has hit us hard. I've considered going back to work about every 6 months over the last few years for security. Problem is the school schedule has a ridiculous number of random days off throughout the year. Are we supposed to warehouse our children during this time because childcare costs $17 per hour? I honestly have no idea how women manage a full-time job and full-time parenting. The culture of work of Washington, DC and major urban areas is sickening. Sometimes, I just want to move to Idaho.[/quote]

If your DH is a partner, I very much doubt it will hurt your finances much to pay $17/hr for backup childcare a few days every school year.[/quote]

Clearly, you have no idea about the state of law firms do you? The anxiety, stress and uncertainty has been a awful and there is no end in sight.  And, by the way,  where are these magical child care providers who will swoop in every other week to provide care? My point is that a part-time salary will not cover the cost of childcare. A full-time job will ultimately put further stress on our kids and marriage with a very few benefits. So until there are larger policy decisions made about how we can make jobs scalable to provide quality of life issues, then everyone loses. Employers lose highly skilled labor, families lose income and the economy continues to teeter on the brink of recession.[/quote]

On the contrary, my DH is a senior associate at a mid-size firm. Unlike you, I continued to work because of the uncertainty (which seems like a better option than finding excuses not to work, which is what it sounds like you are doing). I'll bet DH and my incomes combined do not equal your husband's, and yet, here we are, paying for full-time childcare! So I literally have no idea how your family cannot afford $17/hr for backup care. Or you could take vacation days when your children are off school. Or find a part-time job with flexibility for the days you work so you're at home. Or a WAH full-time career (which is what I have, btw).

And many jobs now offer intermittent childcare as a benefit (for emergencies or for families that have kids in school and only need a few days off here and there).

Seriously, are you using 10 school vacation days a year as an excuse to never rejoin the workforce? Because it sounds like, from your anxiety over your husband's job, you'd feel better returning to paid work. LOTS of families make those school vacations work. Seriously, just...mind blown.[/quote]

In DCPS there are 32 days during the school year where children do not have school. This, of course, doesn't count sick days, drs. appointments, classroom volunteering, summer break and in-school activities that require parents to take time off from work to attend. We have no family in the area, no au pair, etc. I worked in the arts for many years. If I were to go  back part-time, the salary would be between $20-25 per hour, before taxes, so my take home would be about the same as the nanny -- great. BTW, I have a master's degree and have taken many classes throughout the years to keep my skills relevant. But for the sake of this argument let's say I go back full-time and start over again. I'd make around 60K per year. After taxes, childcare, additional help around the house to do the JOB that I now do,  I would net maybe $15-20K, along with the added stress and time it would take away from my children. Wow. I think there is a real problem by not providing a work-life balance and not penalizing  families for raising children. Duh. And maybe instead of tearing each other down we could start working together to make careers more scalable because at this point our culture's obsession about work is unhealthy. I don't think this article advances the the story for women and families b/c Warner focuses only on high-income earners. If you take a look a person with an average salary, maybe you can see how this seems like a no win situation. Not so mind-blowing, just the reality. [/quote]

you are over-thinking this. there are options for those days short of a full time nanny.  there are places that have camps for days when DCPS is closed, you can contact a nanny service for a temp nanny for those days, you can find another mom at the school to split the days with, you can find a SAHM who would be willing to watch your kids those days for $$, you can work from home those days, your husband can work from home some of those days, you can try to find a job with back up day care, you could get an au pair, you could look for a babysitter for those days (you'll know about them in advance), you could ask a neighbor who has a nanny whether her nanny could watch your child for extra cash on those days, some of those days are presumably days you would take off anyway for vacation (xmas and spring break).

In your case, I think the main issue is that you wouldn't net enough cash to justify the hassle of working. But if you would eventually make more, it might be worth the initial sacrifice to get there. Or if you really enjoyed the job, netting $20K would be worth it to you.[/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