To be a traditional sahm ??

[ProudMum4Eva]

I personal have never been flamed for my choice in life, however I see many people who continuously get some sort of insult for their life choices. So here I thought I would share all for the first time.
I am 34 years old I got married at 18 straight from college. I am happily married with five wonderful children who I adore and do everything for. I have NEVER worked (outside the family home) my DH has always worked. He works traditional hours leaves about 8:10 mon-fri and is home for around 5:30. I do everything in the home cleaning, cooking, bathing the younger children, ironing and so on. I dote on my children and my husband. I love it they do not need to help me in the house I look after them and that is what I am good at.

I wouldn't recommend teaching to anyone, although average men seems to get as far as exceptional women ime, so perhaps it's a good career for mr average.

Whilst I don't want to blow my own trumpet I am not Mrs Average and whilst some of the people I work with are average , many are not, particularly those that rise to the top.

I'm not sure why child friendly careers are bad?
Personally I think the reason more women aren't in high powered jobs is because they're not child friendly. My husband works in an office with no women. Not one.
They want women. They actively seek to recruit them.
It's not a child friendly profession though: longer, unpredictable hours, unpredictable days, travel. If both parents pursue this line of work, a full time live in nanny becomes a requirement. And most women want flexibility and work/life balance when they have children. Perhaps if men got pregnant, gave birth, breastfed and then spent 12 months on maternity leave, they'd feel the same.

If you read what I've written you'd come down more on exceptional than average, unless your mr arisbottle of course :)

I actually see marriage to someone whos a high earner so you can sit on your arse and eat chocolate all day a form of prostitution and slavery even if your living it and don't realise. If your a SAHM with no prospects you are stuck with a man who may do what he likes to you and comes home to a clean house dinner on the table and sex on tap. You can't be your own person and say no thats not acceptable as he is the one in control and he has the power over you to make you homeless and poor. Now men are to be given a legal right over their dc (can't remember what it's called but it was on the news) he can kick you out and you won't even have the CS to live off of.

And yes I would be more proud of my dc if they were earning NMW then doing nothing. Being a SAHM with school age dc is doing nothing. I know I have been out of work for a while there is not enough housework and stuff to be baked to fill in 9 till 3 every day all week.

Sorry. I misread. I do work with exceptional men though, although that contradicts what I have said above about young people thinking of going into teaching

Hannah, that's my point. Why are entire sectors failing to attract women, surely you wouldn't argue men want to work un family friendly hours? Child friendly careers are only bad if they attract mostly women and are poorly paid. Virtually all jobs could be more flexible and family friendly but women opting out of tougher careers isn't helping.

Sahm=Slavery and Prostitution!!!!
LOL!
What an utterly bizarre, idiotic suggestion.

inneedofbrandy
I am certainly in need of a nip of something after your post

I have one of the "high flying" jobs another poster finds hard to believe in

They really do have their downsides. I was sending e-mails from my phone before the epidural wore off and back working pt within 4 weeks of giving birth

A "high flying" job doesn't make you a better or worse person than anyone else

It certainly doesn't make you a better or worse mother

If I lost my job I'd take £7ph in a cash and carry if I needed to. I wouldn't see anything wrong with that I'd miss the money but I wouldn't think my status as a person had altered at all.

Why sneer at perfectly valid jobs

I dunno kim. I have child friendly hours but I'm surrounded by people desperate to make them unfriendly. We seem to be living in the age of the workaholic when it was supposed to be the age of leisure.

Shouldn't robots be doing everything by now? And where is my flying car?!

Chandellina, the problem isn't that women arn't choosing those careers. The problem is that those careers are only possible if you've got a live in nanny or a partner who has a flexible/part time role or is a stay at home parent. Business needs to change. The way we do business needs to alter. It won't at the moment though cos we're still in recession and employers can take their pick when hundreds of over qualified applicants all go after the same job.

Handbag, I agree with that, we work more yet aren't actually becoming more productive. It's a waste.

I'm not sneering at those jobs Catgirl. I was sneering at the fact that these threads always seem to be full of high fliers when in reality most parents are slogging their guts out in often quite unfulfilling national average salary jobs. I've done an ordinary, and vital, national average salary job, so am the last person to sneer at it.

Hannah, a large minority of university educated women never will have children, yet girls are encouraged to pursue less demanding careers in case a man needs them to raise children.

There are changes afoot though aren't there, with parental leave becoming interchangeable so dad can take leave rather than mum taking it all, which is an excellent leap forward IMO.
Though bad news, I expect, for people like the OP- she might find her husband wants a share of the easy life

Oh ok, sorry if I misunderstood

Xenia's not turned up yet so we're not all here :)

I don't think the thread is full of people claiming to be high fliers, I've honestly only seen a couple of people, very far from the majority

Maybe I've missed a page of CEOs or something :)

Thanks for your generous post catgirl - I do agree with you, but find myself affected by the opinions of others when I have a more humble job (working with children, so I know it's valuable) or as now, periods of not working. Am hoping more work will materialise in the New Year - and that when it does it will be a good kind that works well with our family.

Hands up here - I'm not a CEO. I wouldn't even describe my work as traditionally 'high flying'. I don't earn mega bucks, though it's decent money and pension. But it's interesting and stretches me intellectually and is useful. That counts for a lot

I agree Kim, I have considered going part time, but because I am in a senior position it won't even be considered,and to be honest it is rarely considered for a standard teacher .

If a career dominated by women does not value part time work what hope is there for other "high flying" careers?

Chandellina, are girls really encouraged not to pursue high powered careers? I went to an excellent girls grammar and was encouraged all the way. And my daughters are both fearless and ambitious.
They're both gifted and talented in Maths and Science. For real and not to score points on a thread!!

I don't think working with children is a "humble" job in any respect juggling

I can't bear people who judge people by how much they earn or what they do.

I hope you get some more work in the New Year. It's bloody tough at the moment. DH has been out of work for nearly 3 years. He got made redundant, then got depression, then DS came along so it made sense for him not to look.

He's looking now, but there's not much out there and he's got a big gap on his CV.

I hate the sneery looks some people give him when they ask what he does and he tells them he's looking for work. As if that has any bearing on his worth as a person.