Men, how do you feel about SAHM?

I'm about to make OP vomit.

I'm just a lazy SAHM. I'm in the PTA, army FRG leader, run a group that organizes and find sponsors for troop care packages, volunteer at healthy eats in my district which helps get farm produce to the poor, and I volunteer and my child's school 3 times a week. I am always cooking brownies for bake sales, hosting a fundraiser, planning a field day at the school, or pestering the working parents about volunteering.

Because of me and people like me, my child and 400 other children (including those of working parents) have new PE equipment, our PTA funds the music program 100%, including the music teacher's salary, our troops have letters, baked goods, toiletries and other essentials they wouldn't otherwise have, and other military wives have a place to go when they need help. When my husband gets back from deployment, I will be contributing to bake sales and fundraisers for the troops and spouses.

Yet I'm supposed to be ashamed of being so "suburban" and cliché. I'm lazy, wasting my education, and have no dreams or aspirations, eh? I'm the coolest PTA mom you will ever know, and my dream is for my child and his classmates to have PE and music despite state budget cuts. My dream is to get every child to read 200k words each year through our reading program.

You can be a lazy SAHM just as easily as you can be a lazy employee. One doesn't make you better than the other. What matters is the effort. Next time you want to ask a SAHM "what they do all day", remember that SAHMs are the reason your children's school run efficiently, your troops get care packages, and any other cause taken up by busy SAHMs.

I'm about to make OP vomit.

I'm just a lazy SAHM. I'm in the PTA, army FRG leader, run a group that organizes and find sponsors for troop care packages, volunteer at healthy eats in my district which helps get farm produce to the poor, and I volunteer and my child's school 3 times a week. I am always cooking brownies for bake sales, hosting a fundraiser, planning a field day at the school, or pestering the working parents about volunteering.

Because of me and people like me, my child and 400 other children (including those of working parents) have new PE equipment, our PTA funds the music program 100%, including the music teacher's salary, our troops have letters, baked goods, toiletries and other essentials they wouldn't otherwise have, and other military wives have a place to go when they need help. When my husband gets back from deployment, I will be contributing to bake sales and fundraisers for the troops and spouses.

Yet I'm supposed to be ashamed of being so "suburban" and cliché. I'm lazy, wasting my education, and have no dreams or aspirations, eh? I'm the coolest PTA mom you will ever know, and my dream is for my child and his classmates to have PE and music despite state budget cuts. My dream is to get every child to read 200k words each year through our reading program.

You can be a lazy SAHM just as easily as you can be a lazy employee. One doesn't make you better than the other. What matters is the effort. Next time you want to ask a SAHM "what they do all day", remember that SAHMs are the reason your children's school run efficiently, your troops get care packages, and any other cause taken up by busy SAHMs.

I'm about to make OP vomit.

I'm just a lazy SAHM. I'm in the PTA, army FRG leader, run a group that organizes and find sponsors for troop care packages, volunteer at healthy eats in my district which helps get farm produce to the poor, and I volunteer and my child's school 3 times a week. I am always cooking brownies for bake sales, hosting a fundraiser, planning a field day at the school, or pestering the working parents about volunteering.

Because of me and people like me, my child and 400 other children (including those of working parents) have new PE equipment, our PTA funds the music program 100%, including the music teacher's salary, our troops have letters, baked goods, toiletries and other essentials they wouldn't otherwise have, and other military wives have a place to go when they need help. When my husband gets back from deployment, I will be contributing to bake sales and fundraisers for the troops and spouses.

Yet I'm supposed to be ashamed of being so "suburban" and cliché. I'm lazy, wasting my education, and have no dreams or aspirations, eh? I'm the coolest PTA mom you will ever know, and my dream is for my child and his classmates to have PE and music despite state budget cuts. My dream is to get every child to read 200k words each year through our reading program.

You can be a lazy SAHM just as easily as you can be a lazy employee. One doesn't make you better than the other. What matters is the effort. Next time you want to ask a SAHM "what they do all day", remember that SAHMs are the reason your children's school run efficiently, your troops get care packages, and any other cause taken up by busy SAHMs.

^ this was my sister for YEARS. She didn't have a job outside the home but did all of this kind of stuff and then some. She was always doing for others, helping out where she could and had her kids in tow as she did it all. Now she works part time at a school (while her kids are in school, still home whenever they are) and STILL does the extra curricular stuff.

I couldn't do it. No way. It takes a special kind of person to be able to do it.

Are all SAHMs like this? No. But as the poster I quoted points out, there are lazy employed people everywhere. Just because you get out of bed everyday and leave your home to "work" doesn't mean you're actually doing more or contributing more.

I think it's interesting that people think they can hire or pay someone to take the place/role of a parent.

If I said I was going to hire/pay someone to be a sibling to my kids, I'd be laughed out of the room.

We have a cleaning lady that comes once every two weeks for a few hours. *snip* I don't understand why people seem to think it's so difficult.

Really? :huh: :noway:

i just can't stomach a child saying "I want to be a stay at home parent when I grow up". If it happens for the right reasons of nurturing and behavioural development concerns, then awesome. But having it as a goal. Can't stop facepalming.

Well, I agree with you there because what if you never get married…. or get a divorce?? Or your husband dies? Then you have no job or education to fall back on, and you struggle just to feed your children.

Maybe it is just me, but I feel that life is about aspirations and having skills and growing. I saw this and laughed my *kitten* off because working parents still have their children at the end of the day. They don't just disappear. They will still be annoying when you come home from work.

I think it's interesting that people think they can hire or pay someone to take the place/role of a parent.

If I said I was going to hire/pay someone to be a sibling to my kids, I'd be laughed out of the room.

Exactly!!

It's the parents that do not hire others to clean their homes or take their children to all the sports games that have no time! By the time I get my kids from their games etc and cook dinner it is 7 pm and they go to bed at 8. It sucks spending an hour a day with my children who are 15, 10 and 8. They are only little once.

So this is not some kind of vegetarian "ham" substitute?

So, derailing the other OPs thread asking for advice just wasn't enough for you, huh?
Shesh...

I love my wife, whatever she chooses to do. The end.*








*well, not totally. I want someone home with the kids, but I'm okay if that person is me. Actually, I'd be thrilled if it were me. :bigsmile: I believe very strongly in having that immediate and constantly available influence during the early years if it is financially feasible.

It's a great feeling. I get to take my DD to school and pick her up and do homework with her and play and hang out. I think a father/daughter connection is important because from my understanding females tend to gravitate towards men who usually have some of the same traits/behaviors as their fathers.

A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

My daughter is the same way, very attached to me, and I am COMPLETELY jealous of you. I'm taking her out to dinner and dancing this weekend (she's nine). She looks forward to this event more than Christmas, and I'm not kidding at all.


edit: Just to add it in, my wife and I felt very strongly that she finish her nursing degree before my career started. So we worked an extra two years wife her going part time and me working night shifts so that one of us could always be home with our first child. I delayed going to work in my field until she was done. No way I wanted her to not have a degree and a possibility to make a stable and desirable income if something were to happen down the road to me (making it not possible to work) or to our marriage (making it harder for our kids, in addition to the hardships that women face in divorce...it's part of being a decent human being who has full buy in to the relationship).