Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately the standard is now that you work FT and handle all logistics, planning etc.

I don’t recommend having kids unless you go in with eyes wide open about this.

Even if your husband is supportive of you staying home, it’s a terrible move because it places you in a precarious position.

^^This. You need to realize, OP, that you are competing with women who will provide to a man all the benefits of SAHM (bear the mental load, handle all the newborn stuff while healing from a major medical event, clean, caretake, be first line of defense when kid is sick) and also be pulling in a few hundred Ks of salary. How do you market yourself to be more attractive than that?

Are women really competing to marry men like this? Why would anyone put up with this if they were capable of pulling in a few hundred KS of salary? At that point it makes absolute sense to me to save and plan for single parenthood ( as a PP suggested) while remaining open to finding the right partner.

It’s not that they are knowingly competing for it. The engrained societal expectation is that most women work and handle everything or most things related to kids and the home. If you’re fortunate you’ll have a DH who takes on some tasks but he will do 30-40% of it max and you’ll need to assign him responsibilities. All the mental load will fall on you. Most young women in the marriage market aren’t aware of this. Ignorance is bliss until you’re a FT mom with young kids or you’re earning $0 because you had kids.

A few years ago I posted on here that I didn’t see how I could keep working my high earning/demanding job and have the second child my husband demanded. I shared my husband earns around $500k which could have influenced the responses attacking me. The consensus was that I’m unreasonable and my husband should/will leave me if I insist on quitting my job to have the second child. Some comments went as far to say my DH should find someone else to replace me and gladly work while having two young kids.

The sad reality is that most women don’t have the income to properly support a family on their own. Some do, but most do not. A man is still a ticket to more income and income to support the kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately the standard is now that you work FT and handle all logistics, planning etc.

I don’t recommend having kids unless you go in with eyes wide open about this.

Even if your husband is supportive of you staying home, it’s a terrible move because it places you in a precarious position.

^^This. You need to realize, OP, that you are competing with women who will provide to a man all the benefits of SAHM (bear the mental load, handle all the newborn stuff while healing from a major medical event, clean, caretake, be first line of defense when kid is sick) and also be pulling in a few hundred Ks of salary. How do you market yourself to be more attractive than that?

Are women really competing to marry men like this? Why would anyone put up with this if they were capable of pulling in a few hundred KS of salary? At that point it makes absolute sense to me to save and plan for single parenthood ( as a PP suggested) while remaining open to finding the right partner.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You’re forgetting to say that 7/10 men who have children and must do 50% of the caregiving and household work, would also not earn nearly as much as they do if they have a spouse doing all of that work for them.

Most of this work can and should be outsourced.

Good luck with that. Staying home with sick kids at the last minute, endless rides to extracurriculars and appointments, personal assistant for scheduling and sign ups of said extracurriculars and appointments, home-cooked meals, grocery runs...it would be quite costly to outsource all of this if you could even find someone who would do it all. Basically, you are looking for a housekeeper and nanny like on the Brady Bunch. When you are in low six figures you are not making enough to afford outsourcing this, but you can afford a SAHM if you tighten your belt and bought a house at the "right" time.

“grocery runs”

“ if you could even find someone who would do it all”

Your comments cannot be taken seriously.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately the standard is now that you work FT and handle all logistics, planning etc.

I don’t recommend having kids unless you go in with eyes wide open about this.

Even if your husband is supportive of you staying home, it’s a terrible move because it places you in a precarious position.

^^This. You need to realize, OP, that you are competing with women who will provide to a man all the benefits of SAHM (bear the mental load, handle all the newborn stuff while healing from a major medical event, clean, caretake, be first line of defense when kid is sick) and also be pulling in a few hundred Ks of salary. How do you market yourself to be more attractive than that?

Are women really competing to marry men like this? Why would anyone put up with this if they were capable of pulling in a few hundred KS of salary? At that point it makes absolute sense to me to save and plan for single parenthood ( as a PP suggested) while remaining open to finding the right partner.

Anonymous wrote:The only thing I would recommend is a partner that is on board with your choice, the best scenario is a partner who is on board with any choice you make and willing to help make it work. You should also recognize when your desires need to be put on hold.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately the standard is now that you work FT and handle all logistics, planning etc.

I don’t recommend having kids unless you go in with eyes wide open about this.

Even if your husband is supportive of you staying home, it’s a terrible move because it places you in a precarious position.

^^This. You need to realize, OP, that you are competing with women who will provide to a man all the benefits of SAHM (bear the mental load, handle all the newborn stuff while healing from a major medical event, clean, caretake, be first line of defense when kid is sick) and also be pulling in a few hundred Ks of salary. How do you market yourself to be more attractive than that?

Are women really competing to marry men like this? Why would anyone put up with this if they were capable of pulling in a few hundred KS of salary? At that point it makes absolute sense to me to save and plan for single parenthood ( as a PP suggested) while remaining open to finding the right partner.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree with a PP who said that the "debate" is really not something related to the real life experiences of 99% of families. And if you add in the need for the potential SAHM to have family money or having hit the Lotto jackpot, it's even closer to zero.

The problem comes when somebody doesn't do the math and isn't willing to face the reality that you can't actually live a UMC life on one UMC salary in a major city and put 3 kids through college, especially if you didn't come from money and have to make your own down payment on a house and pay off student loans.

The other problem comes when things fall apart and the woman then claims she gave up her career to be a SAHM. 7/10 the women who agree to be a SAHM were NEVER going to earn enough money to support themselves at the level that their high earning spouse did. There just aren't that many women who enter marriage with the same earning power as their husband. I have a law degree from a T14 law school. I don't think even one of the male students in my class married a woman with the potential to earn what he could. The wives were all artists, school teachers, non-profit administrators, or just had random office assistant jobs. I only know of one marriage between two law students.

A large number of the lawyers at our firm are married to other lawyers. About half of them end up having one stay at home, and its not always the one who was earning the most. More money isn't the same kind of motivator when you have more than enough.

Anonymous wrote:I’ve never worked a day in my life. My husband knew that and we got married while he was in med school. We’ve been married for twenty years and have three kids. All I’d suggest is to always have a backup plan. There were times where he’d withhold money as some sort of punishment, and threaten to make us homeless, but overall things have been great.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately the standard is now that you work FT and handle all logistics, planning etc.

I don’t recommend having kids unless you go in with eyes wide open about this.

Even if your husband is supportive of you staying home, it’s a terrible move because it places you in a precarious position.

^^This. You need to realize, OP, that you are competing with women who will provide to a man all the benefits of SAHM (bear the mental load, handle all the newborn stuff while healing from a major medical event, clean, caretake, be first line of defense when kid is sick) and also be pulling in a few hundred Ks of salary. How do you market yourself to be more attractive than that?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You’re forgetting to say that 7/10 men who have children and must do 50% of the caregiving and household work, would also not earn nearly as much as they do if they have a spouse doing all of that work for them.

Most of this work can and should be outsourced.

Good luck with that. Staying home with sick kids at the last minute, endless rides to extracurriculars and appointments, personal assistant for scheduling and sign ups of said extracurriculars and appointments, home-cooked meals, grocery runs...it would be quite costly to outsource all of this if you could even find someone who would do it all. Basically, you are looking for a housekeeper and nanny like on the Brady Bunch. When you are in low six figures you are not making enough to afford outsourcing this, but you can afford a SAHM if you tighten your belt and bought a house at the "right" time.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look for MAGA who want tradwives.

DH is very liberal and I am a stay at home/trad wife.

He's not very liberal then.

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately the standard is now that you work FT and handle all logistics, planning etc.

I don’t recommend having kids unless you go in with eyes wide open about this.

Even if your husband is supportive of you staying home, it’s a terrible move because it places you in a precarious position.