The Cost of Working

I am really taking advantage of the opportunity that has been bestowed upon me to be a stay-at-home mom (SAHM). My husband and I realized that my $45,000 salary as a third-year teacher would now pay me $2.50 per hour once you consider the cost of working. We included childcare, convenience food, dry cleaning, gas, toll fees, clothes, urgent care, and the like; all the bottom the the barrel cost for each of these things. After the time I invested in going to school and starting my career, I would be making – at the most – $2.50 an hour. Talk about a hit in the gut! Not to mention that the parent-child time with Nolan will be reduced to 3 hours while he is awake which is when he needs to be bathed, fed, changed.

What really did it for my husband was comparing the differences we would see in our family time day-to-day. Right now, he walks in the door at 6:30. The dogs have been walked; something has been cleaned; dinner has been figured out, started, and a least half way done; Nolan has eaten dinner, been bathed, and changed, and errands have been done. My husband gets half-an-hour of quality playtime with Nolan while I finish up in the kitchen before I put Nolan down for the night. If I were working, we’d come home at 5:00-6:30 and we’d have to answer the dreaded question: “What’s for dinner?” And all those things I mentioned before would have to be done before Nolan’s bedtime at 7:00. That begs the question, who’s doing the laundry and when?

I have found a network of highly educated SAHM’s who have also come to this conclusion. They have found articles in business journals that have supported the stay-at-home parent concept. If both parents are working neither can focus on the monetary success of the family. If one parent is truly taking on the responsibility of the home, the working parent is more likely to be happier and more productive at work. They get picked for the big projects, given the promotion, and rewarded the over-time that they can take without worrying about their responsibilities at home.

I know that the stay-at-home parent is logically the one who makes less money–husband or wife. It was not an easy decision especially since our “standard-of-spending” has taken a hit. But it greatly increases our “standard-of-caring” for each other. As archaic as this set up sounds, it works for us. I know not everyone has this option especially with the economic climate. World News Tonight just reported that the work of a stay-at-home parent does over $100,000 of work each year. I just tell my family how lucky we are everyday and hope to keep it that way.