Well let me tell you.... the job I have now - I don’t work on Friday’s - that is the one day of the week that my kiddo’s can call home and know they have my full attention and three of them are in the military (one is home on leave right now from Afghanistan). Plus I can get all my house cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, etc. done which frees up my weekends with hubby. :o) I don’t know that I’ll ever change jobs. LOL I’m spoiled now.
Seriously though, due to taxes and the economy, lot’s of families are two income families - we’ve just tried to make the best of it. Negotiating for more time off for less pay has always been part of my “sign on” in every job I’ve ever had since I became a mom.
But that’s just what’s important to me. I’m blessed and I know there are plenty of others out there that don’t have that opportunity.
It's precisely the taxes and regulations over the last 40 years which have forced two income families. The 50's and the Ward and June Cleaver lifestyle are often denigrated by the same people who pushed all those taxes and regulations which have inflated the cost of mortgages, college educations, electricity, heating fuel, etc, etc. Still, all things being equal, I still think men have had fewer choices when it comes to career versus homemaker than women and that's why I said I was jealous. I know some men do it but it's the exception and I've yet to review a resume where a man says he took off a couple of years to raise his babies.