Stay-at-Home Moms
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Reuters: "If the typical stay-at-home mother in the United States were paid for her work as a housekeeper, cook and psychologist among other roles, she would earn $138,095 a year, according to research released on Wednesday. . . .The 10 jobs listed as comprising a mother's work were housekeeper, cook, day care center teacher, laundry machine operator, van driver, facilities manager, janitor, computer operator, chief executive officer and psychologist, it said. The typical mother puts in a 92-hour work week, it said, working 40 hours at base pay and 52 hours overtime."
posted by JT at Wednesday, May 02, 2007
9 Comments:
And then they would still be underpaid!
So stay-at-home homeschooling moms would get more because they'd have to add teacher and guidance counselor to the list.
I'm sending this link to my wife. She'll be thrilled to know how much she's worth!
I read many blogs and respond to very few but as the husband of a stay at home wife and mother of 24 yrs I feel compelled to respond here. My wife had a dream of being a nurse but forfeited to stay at home at my request (more of a demand due to a poor childhood with a mother who literally worked herself to sickness on a midnight shift). My wife has sacrificed prestige for keeping other women’s children while they went to college and cleaned other women’s toilets so they could have homes and cars; so that I could go to college at night. She has made an eternal impact on my life, our marriage and our children’s lives. She teaches youth girls, supports me in my ministry, encourages our children to serve Christ and continues to serve others. Many would think that she might be miserable or secretly wanting more but for the last 2 years she has faithfully walked with me through church trials, cancer surgery and held my hand in 6 months of chemo; she glorified her Lord and Savior all the way. Both of my children have been faithful to the Lord and I contribute it to God working through a stay at home mom. I believe with all of my heart my wife fulfills the Proverbs 31 woman in every aspect. Only eternity knows her reward. I praise my Lord and Savior for my wife Lena; what a blessing! What a shame that the entry on homosexuality received more comments than a godly concept of stay at home moms!?
Could you really measure a mom's worth monetarily? I'll have to say it is interesting to put an amount on one of my privileged roles. But as the advertisement for a major credit card goes, "priceless" would be more like it. And to think of the eternal reward motivates me, a mom of five, homeschooling, and wife to the greatest man in the world. This promise gives me so much joy and I pray it gives every mom hope in Him as they train their children for Christ and Heaven! Stephanie E.
I agree with Stephanie's point above ("priceless" is perhaps as close to the proper "valuation" of a godly mother as we can get), though I might take it even a bit further: the assignment of monetary value to the work of a mom is rather absurd. I imagine it's generally done with the best of intentions, but the mere act affirms our culture's misguided belief that true worth is best described in dollars.
This may sound a harsher than I really intend. I just think there's a subtle, easily-missed danger in this seemingly harmless "compliment." After all, even at 138K a year, Mom's still making significantly less than your minimum-paid Major League Baseball player, and which is of more worth to your family?
My wife doesn't drive or operate a computer. I guess I can dock her salary a bit.
And was the pay rate based on the unlicensed practice of psychology, or rates for certified psychologists?
What about Interior Decorator and Personal Assistant and sometimes Party Manager, Probation Officer and Personal Shopper? :)
It is actually a good thing to put a "salary" type value to the work of stay-at-home moms sometimes. My husband and I just bought life insurance for me. We did the math for our situation and it came out that we needed to get a larger policy for me because of all the expenses my husband would have to pay to continue to care for the house and kids if I died right now. Also, many SAHM's, including me, haven't taken as easily to the cooking/cleaning/changing diapers...role as others. Personally, I am more comfortable being with other adults in an office setting, but I know my home is where God has me right now. And I know it's what is best for our family. This should be sufficient, in and of itself, and it is most of the time. But...then there are days (like today, when my son vomited all over me at the doctor's office while my 2-year-old daughter was throwing a tantrum in the floor) when seeing actual numbers of monetary worth do help a little!
To all you moms out there who are weary, like me: May God's richest blessings be upon you today!
I was recently told by my husband that I could pay for everything for the rest of my life and he would not owe me a dime. So to all who have posted thank you... I feel much better and more appreciated as a human being after reading your comments. Mind you... I am the primary care provider for the kids, the driver, the nurse, the counselor, I home school, cook, clean, wash, and have managed to pursue a PhD in Clinical Psychology, still in progress, which has taken me double the time it would take someone else because I am home with the kids. I have worked part time on and off... the list is endless. Yet, he feels like I owe him something because he has worked a 40 hour week while I stayed home with the kids working an average of 85+ hours. Some people do not realize that while the person that goes to work comes home to rest and do absolutely nothing productive if they choose to, the stay at home parent continues to work all day. Every day I have to remind myself of who I am in Christ just to make it through the day and not lose sight of what is right. Thank you for expressing such nice comments.
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