Ya know, I would have thought that here in 2008, the 21st Century, that women, and men for that matter, would have far more common sense and intelligence than that of past generations. A SAHM is no better/no worse than that of a WOHM mom (or dad, for that matter). And lest we forget here, there are plenty of WAHMs as well. I'm probably older than a vast majority of you that have posted on this board, but I very vividely remember a time when the help wanted sections of the paper were divided into MALE and FEMALE. And believe me, it really wasn't that long ago.
I'm a 4th generation WOTH mom. My mom worked, both my grandmothers worked, as did their mothers. One grandmother had 5 kids and 1 had 11 that reached maturity. How did they do it? It was called TEAMWORK with their husbands. None of the macho BS of "you HAVE to stay at home" crap... Nope, my grandfathers pulled more than their share of work, both in and out of the house. Why? As I was plainly told, THAT'S CALLED A MARRIAGE! That's what you do!
Now, here it is, 2008 and you've still got some macho BS from people who still just don't get it. Thank God! it's slowly dying out, just like the dinosaurs. It make take a couple more generations, but thankfully, it will.
To any man who looks upon his wife with distain over her trying to better herself, I would say you seriously need to take a good long look at yourself and ask yourself WHY you have a control problem? To women who put all their focus on others, be it the kids and hubbys, instead of reserving some for yourself, I would ask you, WHY? It's been proven over and over again that if you neglect yourself, you become resentful and it will ultimately affect your health, your mental well being, and your emotionality. You lose your own identity.
In our (my) father's generation, men who only knew work and nothing else, have historically had a harder time adapting to retirement. Why? Simply because they had nothing else in their lives to define them as a person. As much as my father was involved in things I did, I can very vividly remember my mother telling me that when he retired at 65 (in 1986), he came home and had nothing to do... He had no hobbies, he didn't belong to organizations other than the Masons or Shiners. He simply couldn't cope with retirement. And because of the rural area we're from, there was nothing else for him to do. Mother, on the other hand, retired after 43 years of teaching and had plenty to do. She belonged to the county Women's Clug, to Delta Kappa Gamma (a teacher's soriety), and did many other things.
The reason I bring this up is that our generation has benefited so MUCH from the fact that women did SO MANY jobs, both at home and away from it. Men nowadays have finally benefited from that in that they see that it is essential for them to be involved with the family, rather than simply bring a paycheck home and sit down with the paper, like so many did before.
Our daugthers have SO MUCH more open to them than there was when I was growing up and we should NEVER EVER take that for granted. We should ALWAYS teach our sons that girls are NOT less than them, nor should they be treated as such.
SAHM, WOTH, WAHM....regardless of the path we take, it is a CHOICE for some, and a necessity for others.
But in the end....there is NO DIFFERENCE between any of them.
