Reply to I’m happy being a SAHM, except when others talk about it like I’m some kind of sucker

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Reply to "I’m happy being a SAHM, except when others talk about it like I’m some kind of sucker"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP, I’m sorry people are being so vicious. It really sounds like if anyone is “in their feelings” on this issue, it’s the many PPs who are responding with anger and resentment, instead of trying to understand what you’re saying.

I know what you mean, though. I think the issue with Obama’s comments is the same issue a lot of policy makers and people in the media have: they thinking of a SAHP as a sacrifice because they are so accustomed to dual earner couples where both partners have high profile, rewarding careers. Like in Michelle Obama’s case, her quitting her job to take care of their family (and be First Lady) really was a sacrifice— she was leaving a successful career she’d built on her own because her husband got a more demanding gig. It’s such a stark example of a woman getting kind of screwed, even though Michelle obviously made the best of it.

But the problem with that approach is that it bears so little resemblance to most family’s lives. Most women, even professional women, are not as successful as Michelle. Most of our spouses are working far less important or demanding jobs than President. The cost-benefit analysis for the average family looks really, really different. And comparing my choice to SAHM for a couple years when my baby was born to Michelle’s choice results in a lot of false equivalencies. They aren’t the same. Their family is an extreme outlier.

Which is why I like listening to Elizabeth Warren on this issue. She will also talk about her own choices, but they much more closely resemble the experiences of more families, dealing with issues like: employers who are not supportive of working moms, families that don’t support new parents, the economics of childcare, etc. And she also understands not everyone has her exact experience and discusses policy from a broad based perspective of what communities need, as oppposed to the individual choices of one set of women. She is really the leading thinker on this issue today, and it’s frustrating that she has not had much of a platform to discuss it since dropping out if the presidential race. The Democrats should really be putting her more front and center on the issue. I think she has smarter, more useful things to say than Barack at this point.[/quote]

Warren was once very savvy on this but in my view has retreated from her earlier very pragmatic positions. [/quote]

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