To think SAHM with young DC deserve more respect

I am not sure where you are seeing the "ignorance" but I suspect it's a different place than I do (and in fact most of the other posters thus far!) I'm also not really sure though what it is that you are trying to say. It's not very clear.

I know I wiped all of my lot's backsides, toilet trained them, weaned them, breastfed them, got them school places, took them to school, did homework with them, had the sex/periods talk with them, went to all their school performances, taught them manners, disciplined them, taught them empathy, supervised their instrument practice - spent 9 years going to the bloody swimming pool so they all became proficient swimmers, yada yada yada.

There is not one single poster who has said that raising children is easy!!

I've never felt the need to justify myself and what I do. It's nobody's business but mine. There's also stigma around being a WOHM

Agree - no need to justify it if it works for you and your family. I never justify why I work and whether I am full time or part time.

I've never felt the need to justify myself and what I do. It's nobody's business but mine. There's also stigma around being a WOHM.

I've never had a debate IRL though. It just seems to be a fascination online.

Most of us don't really care what other mums are doing anyway. We're too busy being knackered from what we're doing.

I wonder who was wiping their bottoms, sorting a nap and feeding schedule, making sure they didn’t choke on solid foods when introduced blah blah

Err, me? And also did the potty training.

I didn’t just pop out a baby, drop them to the nearest childcare facility and then head off to work.

Ha. I parent, work away from home 50% of the time and am studying as well. I did professional quals whilst on mat leave.

I did exams first and then had my children. I really don’t know how I would have studied, worked and parented simultaneously- I have respect for them on a professional level, because I know how hard it was doing just two of those things.

This is a very odd thread! SAH parents deserve the respect of their partner. But I really don’t see why society should give them more respect than anyone else: we are all just living our lives and everyone makes choices. This is one of them.

Yes! God knows how they do it I think I'd perforated my own ear drums out of desperation!

What are you on about? Most of us here are mums and know what looking after children is like.

Maybe people should 'respect' nursery workers more.

No

I think there are lots of angles that posters are coming from, and it goes without saying, all those posting would not be here, having not passed the really hard newborn, toddler and kid stage. With all the ones saying it is a lifestyle choice, I wonder who was wiping their bottoms, sorting a nap and feeding schedule, making sure they didn’t choke on solid foods when introduced blah blah (as that is just noise to them and doesn’t resonate for those who are against children).

Raising children is a hard gig and it is not always appreciated by every audience.

I think don’t knock it until you tried it. Ignore the vile comments OP, find a way to laugh at the ignorance.

Why do they deserve respect. And why does it even matter. Honestly this gets a bit wearisome.

Or they could be trained as doctors, nurses, teachers etc and instead choose to follow the example of certain posters, sit on those skills and let someone else fund them through life while they do finger painting and bake fairy cakes.
Or just bother with the education part at all and find a nice rich man willing to fund them early on.

I’ve done both - stay at home and working mum.

staying at home is much easier

I don’t know how resident doctors do it. Also, it was always the resident doctors with young babies and kids that kept failing their postgraduate exams. It was impossible for them.

I'm always curious when I see posters on here talking about how "society" doesn't value their role as SAHM's. How many Mum's who WOH do you think feel valued by "society"? What does that even look like?

I work with children in a safeguarding role and I know my job to be socially useful, I know it makes a difference to individual children and to the community I serve but I wouldnt say my role is "valued by society". It's valued by my bosses, my colleagues and the families I work with (most of them anyway!) because those are the people my job affects directly. I don't feel, or expect to feel, valued or appreciated by wider society because my day to day work is unseen and not widely understood, or even thought about by the majority of people. Surely that's the case for most jobs unless you're a public figure or celebrity? Even then you might be valued by some but you'll come in for a fair bit of criticism from others. What exactly should society be doing to make SAHM feel valued and why does society have a responsibility to make SAHM feel valued when that's not the case for other roles?

Same but as a junior doctor married to a junior doctor- both doing night shifts, long days, weekends. Juggling our rotas to manage nursery runs etc. Absolute nightmare if one of the DCs was sick.

And to, to a PP - no, I didn’t have a lunch break at work and rarely got time to use the loo there either.
However, I don’t expect appreciation from anyone else other than my DH but that is mutual.

If you’re a stay-at-home mum, you have young kids with you all day—you are the childcare. You’re constantly supervising, cleaning, cooking, and dealing with messes everywhere. When you’re a working mum, someone else is taking care of your child during the day, and your home stays tidier—no extra housework from kids making messes, no cleaning up after arts and crafts.

Stay-at-home mums still have to do the after-school childcare that a working mum would do. They still have to wash up and clean after dinner. However, they don’t have to get themselves ready for work, meet deadlines, or deal with work-related stress.

I get it—stay-at-home mums make this choice for various reasons. For some, the cost of childcare is higher than what they would earn in a month, making it not worth it.

Then I'll thank your kids when the time comes. You just had them because you wanted them not to become doctors, nurses etc. I hate how parents try and take the credit for this!

I understand what you’re saying and agree, but the sentiment seemed to get lost here.
There is definitely some stigma around being a sahm and I sometimes feel like I have to justify myself and what I actually do.

I recommend you read all of the OP's posts and then you may understand better the nature of the responses.

Nobody deserves any more respect than anyone else in their choice to become a mother. It's a ludicrous premise.

Depends on no and age of children, but overall, I'd say that SAHM have a far easier day than WOHM

Around here, the SAHMs all seem to get dogs when their children start school, as a way to justify not returning to work

Also, not to heap it on, but to the idea that motherhood is a 24 hour job; yeah, no, it isn't.

You are on call (and some of that is on back-up call probably!) 24/7.

Very very different.

Or do you think firemen on duty, diplomats on duty, neurologists on duty, pharmacists on duty, carers of elderly parents... also "work" for say 72 hours straight without dropping dead?

Does it not rather depend on your job/ Your boss/Your financial situation/ Your partner/lack of/Your other commitments/Your children (number, age, age gaps, health. It's not very meaningful or helpful to make such broad statements.