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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I stay at home with elementary school kids. Fwiw, while they are at school I go to the gym, meet friends or my mom/sisters for coffee or lunch, ride my horse, and volunteer at a local museum as a docent. I welcome the kids home after school, we eat a snack together and talk about their days, I help with hw, then I drive them to their activities. I honestly feel pretty busy and fulfilled with this, although I am thinking about going back to school for a master's in history at some point. That's if I don't get pregnant with our fourth, which we are trying (but failing) to do. On a day to day basis, I know I am much happier than most of my friends who work because they have to, because they need the money. I think that is true of probably 90% of the work force. My H is one of those oddballs who loves what he does and eventually wants to do it on his own on a freelance basis, so I know they exist. If I could get paid to do my volunteer job and talk to people who are genuinely interested in history for a few hours 2-3 days a week, I would be one too. Alas they can easily get by with volunteers :)

Anyway, this whole back and forth is puzzling to me. I am pretty satisfied and grateful for my setup. Other ladies in here seem happy with their jobs. I wouldn't dream of telling them to quit or call them bad mothers for refusing to do so. But you're honestly going to tell me I should go back to work and be stressed and tired for...what reason, exactly? Feminism? What is wrong with being a caregiver? Why do we devalue this work? We're so narrowly focused on money in this country. It's disheartening, really.[/quote]

I'm sure there are plenty of people who work for a paycheck, especially those in non professional careers. But not true that most professionals would quit to live the life you lead. Plenty of this people are driven by other things - many just want more money like you say, a lot of people like the prestige, but some feel they are contributing to a greater good. It's great that you want four kids but you know that not every woman wants that. Hell I know a few that don't want any and plenty that stopped at 1.

Agree that you shouldn't have to work if you don't need to and don't want to, but makes you look really insecure to insist that everyone wants your life. I love being a mom but my career is a different kind of satisfaction that my kids don't give me. And that's fine. [/quote]

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