Stay-at-home moms

Just before Mother’s Day every year there’s a story about how much money a stay-at-home mom would be paid if she were paid for all the jobs she does. This year, Salary.com puts the figure at $134,121, averaging in the time spent on jobs including housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, CEO and psychologist.

I get that this is a way to illustrate the value of what moms who care full time for their children do, but the fact is, women don’t get paid for this tiring, never-ending work and assigning a fake dollar figure to it is really kind of patronizing and not very useful.

Now, if you want to talk about how the Social Security system does a number on women who take time off of work to care for family or do so and end up getting divorced, that would be time well spent. Read More »

Great. Just what we needed. One, another reality TV show. Two, a reality TV show that says it’s “celebrating stay-at-home-moms” when instead it is pouring fuel on the tired feud between moms in the work force and moms who work full time for no pay taking care of their kids. It’s a ridiculous woman-v.-woman debate that serves no one and divides and angers everyone. Read More »