How would you feel if the standard household was single income again?

[Omydearehert]

Not necessarily the man working. How would you feel if a single income was enough to live off of and became the standard again?

@Pemmican

As PP have said, my working class foremothers have always worked. My dad's wage as a factory hand would never have been enough to feed, clothe and house two adults and two children and I'm frankly bemused at how many people seem to assume differently.

See this is puzzling to me, as my grandad was a miner and his wage was enough to support my nan and their four children in the 60s.

I wonder if location comes into this? We're from a rural village, and maybe the cost of living was a lot lower for these areas? I know my nan and grandad always and still to this day grow so much of their own food, even in their little garden. My nan loves to tell me how much more of a community the village was years ago too, and how everyone would help everyone else with hand-me-downs for clothes, toys, furniture etc, so they didn't buy much.

Maybe this plays into it? I'm sure someone else will have more insight

Yes another single working parent here, widowed, nearly 5 years doing it all totally on my own, 3.5 years before that with a sick DH. If I had the option I’d still work - it’s one of the few things that keeps me (partially) sane

Lots of people saying "it's already a single parent" but assume by single income OP means one income supporting 2 grown adults plus children?

If this did happen I'd worry for all those halves who didn't work because of the precarious financial instability. We'd go back to the days of women being forced to stay in abusive or unhappy relationships.

Isn’t this the same as asking if your spouse earned enough you didn’t need to work?

As said, millions of people live off a single income.

Hmm. Agree with PPs about it being a middle class thing, no women in my family have ever been a SAHM. All worked, even my great grandmother was a seamstress.

Also as a divorced mother would that absolve my ex husband of child maintenance?

@MadeOfStarStuff

I would be fucking delighted as a single adult household

Never going to happen though

Seriously, why not? In the 1960s / 70s it was very normal from what I understand and we are much richer now? It is simply a question of whether the bottom 99% are willing to vote to make the top 1% a bit poorer.

We have chosen to give all of the benefits of growth to a tiny minority and we can choose a different path.

I think maybe if the tide shifted so the expectation was not on the woman staying at home!

We live on one income, mine. My DH does work for 8 hours on a Saturday - only for his sanity. We chose that because I got a new job when my DD was 6 months old and it was too early for me to feel comfortable putting her in nursery.

We don't have many luxuries, but then we don't have expensive taste! We also made the decision to live in a cheaper area with a relatively big commute for me (pre WFH days).

That said, we couldn't do it on the average salary of the area! I'm not majorly high paid, but I earn more than average.

A lot would have to change in the world of work. We’d both want to work. I have experimented with part time working 2/3/4 days and found three days to be the minimum I could do and still do my job well and be unstressed.
My dh is in a job in a field which currently would not accommodate any kind of part time working.

So no idea what we’d do.

I am from a working class background and the single income has never been a thing. The single income really is a middle class thing. My grandmothers and their mothers worked. My mum was lucky enough to stay at home for a few years, and my husband has been lucky with my wage to be a stay at home dad while finishing off his degree. I can't wait until he can find a job and we are no longer a single income household. The pressure on one person providing for a family can be a bit much at times.

We are a single income household, it makes juggling children easier but also it does all fall down to one person most of the time.

We wouldn't change our set up.

People’s expectations rise with their salaries so I would imagine many “could” live on a single income but don’t. Why don’t they?

I, my mother and my grandmother have all been SAHMs, all with husbands that earn enough to make working not necessary.

I agree that single income has only ever been a middle class thing. My grannies were both cleaners and my mum always worked full time at various low level jobs as did my MIL. The greatgrannies I knew didn't do paid work because it was rural Ireland so there wasn't much around but they all worked very hard on the land growing the family veg and taking care of cows, chickens, grandkids, informal foster kids etc. I am (so far) the first and only woman on mine and DHs side who had the privilege of being a mainly SAHM.

@MorganSeventh

Do you mean the norm for families with children? Because single income households outnumber couples with children quite significantly, although I agree you wouldn't necessarily know it from policy.

that is interesting - it is always about families on the media and in politics - whereas it should emphasise households (could be single, couples, young or old) . I am surprised at the total number of childless households -

It’s never been the standard for us.

I’m from a working class family; every generation of women I can trace back has worked.

One thing where I think it would be great would be for charities/associations etc.

I think there'd be a lot more people willing to get involved in running things, or do things like being a Brownie leader, if it wasn't a massive rush to get there for 5.30 from work. Or if you were organising an event, being able to do it "full time" for a few days, rather than squeezing phone calls into your lunch breaks and taking holidays from your job to do it.

It wouldn't change anything, People would just get the bigger house and have it based on the two incomes still.
We both worked and still based our house payment on one income, Dh was the higher earner, the mortgage company and the estate agent tried to push us to loan more against two incomes and get a bigger house.

I think DH would go part time, I wouldn't just yet because I'm at a tricky career stage and want to progress another layer.

I suppose DH might be a SAHP for a bit when DS starts school, he deals with being at home better than I do.

I am surprised at the total number of childless households

Remember that they're counting people who don't have children living with them, not whether they have ever had them. So households without children will always be more numerous as most households with them used to be a household without children and the vast majority will be a household without children again in the future, usually for many years.

I would still work. You never know what might happen - bereavement, disability etc and even with insurance, its better to have backup income.

There was a reason why widows were considered vulnerable in the past.

@MissTrip82

It’s never been the standard for us.

I’m from a working class family; every generation of women I can trace back has worked.

Yes same, I’m the first that would have been able to stay at home (and chose not to). The SAHM ideal we get sold now isn’t the historical norm.

It would be brilliant as with two reasonable incomes we would be very comfortable indeed.

Sounds good to me. No need for government funded childcare so no need for NI and tax increase to fund social care!

My DC are in their 30s so there was no funding for childcare when they were young. Unless you had a high income and were able to fund 100% of childcare out of income or had family to provide childcare you didn't work. It wasn't a bad thing.

Great tbh. .less pressure to "have it all."

@user1497787065

Sounds good to me. No need for government funded childcare so no need for NI and tax increase to fund social care!

My DC are in their 30s so there was no funding for childcare when they were young. Unless you had a high income and were able to fund 100% of childcare out of income or had family to provide childcare you didn't work. It wasn't a bad thing.

Er, what about single parents?