Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not the ones that are working hard for it. Sure for the ones that inherited it. Money makes life easier - unless the trade off is your time.

+1000000

My sister works 60 hours a week. They have an incredible house, cars, designer clothes, and take vacations.

I am a SAHM. Our house is modest, we have one car, and my clothes are from Old Navy.

My time with my boys is more valuable.

What about the SAHMs who also have the big homes, lots of help and travel? You aren’t envious of them?

I’m the first poster above and I’m still not if it’s their husband who is working a million hours and never can spend daily normal hours with the family relaxing and engaging.

Life is too short to trade excessive amounts of money for family time.

No, but I feel like I am so lucky in my life. I have healthy kids, a good marriage, good jobs for both of us, and close family and friends. I feel like I was so lucky in life, that it almost scares me to write it out. I don't feel jealous.

Now moms who are naturally thin, that's another matter.

Inherited money, yes. Though I'd take a functional extended family over more money any day.

I am, because I work like a dog and don't get to spend as much time with my kids as I wish I could.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not the ones that are working hard for it. Sure for the ones that inherited it. Money makes life easier - unless the trade off is your time.

+1000000

My sister works 60 hours a week. They have an incredible house, cars, designer clothes, and take vacations.

I am a SAHM. Our house is modest, we have one car, and my clothes are from Old Navy.

My time with my boys is more valuable.

What about the SAHMs who also have the big homes, lots of help and travel? You aren’t envious of them?

Nah I'm pretty happy with what we have. HHI ~ 700k + reasonable work hours (50ish).

I wish we were more connected though. I worry about their chances of getting into "good" colleges.

Anonymous wrote:Not the ones that are working hard for it. Sure for the ones that inherited it. Money makes life easier - unless the trade off is your time.

+1000000

My sister works 60 hours a week. They have an incredible house, cars, designer clothes, and take vacations.

I am a SAHM. Our house is modest, we have one car, and my clothes are from Old Navy.

My time with my boys is more valuable.

Well, I have young kids, but I feel just the opposite. Most of my friends with more money have two parents working tough hours and much less time with their kids. They feel it enables them to give their kids 'opportunities' like great daycare/nannies, big houses, camps, and vacations, but I think a kid would much rather go on a walk with their parent everyday than any of that. I know I just wanted more time with my parents growing up, but they were working just to make ends meet. I'm actually surprised more wealthy families I know haven't cut back on work hours and lifestyle expenses to spend more time with their kids.

Yes. I wish we could afford a house w/ one more bedroom closer to a metro (3 bed/1 mile walk on the Hill right now; about to have 3rd kid). I wish we could afford CHDS all the way through for 3 so we didn’t have to constantly worry about whether our IB is good enough/what we’re going to do for middle school.

"Jealous" might be too strong, but there's so much more busywork that I would outsource if I could afford to!

Yes. And we have a lot of support from family. I see things and classes my son would love and learn from and we cannot afford them. DH and I both have advanced degrees and did undergrad in the Ivies and we still don’t have a house.

I’m not.

We have money for what we need and want. We also have a life balance that we want.

That’s not to say I never wish I could give my child more... but when I think about it, my child is getting everything she needs, and a lot of what she wants. To me, we’ve hit the sweet spot.

No but if I were poor I would be jealous of people who have food and shelter.

I know people with way more money and they are not happier.

Maybe if I knew them from afar I could imagine they are happier.

Anonymous wrote:Every single second of every single day.

+1. It’s hard in this area because we know and see these mothers and kids all the time.

Of course. I'd love to outsource all the cooking and cleaning and be able to do the fun stuff with my kids. I'd also love not to have to work full time for lousy money.

At the end of the day though, we are comfortable and we have a functional family dynamic, so I'm satisfied.