Posted on 08/11/2013 2:30:46 PM PDT by pabianice
Sheilah O’Donnel tells herself that her new home, a townhouse in a development in Chevy Chase, Md., just a stone’s throw from a Safeway, isn’t really all that bad. Sure, it’s near a gas station. And the front window, with its cheerily upholstered cushions, overlooks a dreary parking lot. And yes, it’s kind of small — “an apartment,” O’Donnel, who is 44, sometimes says bitterly, when she’s reminded of her former life with her ex-husband in their custom-built, six-bedroom home. But then again, it’s perfectly maintained and impeccably furnished, and most important, it’s rented with her own money, from the first real job she has had in almost a decade. From the Archive Lisa Belkin's 2003 Article on the Opt-Out Revolution »
It’s a midlevel sales job, a big step down from the senior position she held before she had children and quit work. When she was first hired, in May 2011, her salary was just a fifth of what she earned at her peak. But, she said, she wasn’t complaining. All around her, she saw women her age scrambling to find work, some divorcing and losing their homes. She liked to help them, editing their résumés, polishing cover letters, pumping up tearful friends who forgot what they were worth after years without a paycheck.
After one emotional session with a friend, her 12-year-old daughter asked what all the fuss was about. O’Donnel told her: “This is the perfect reason why you need to work. You don’t have to make a million dollars. You don’t have to have a wealthy lifestyle. You just always have to be able to at least earn enough so you can support yourself.”
Nine years ago, O’Donnel was promoting a very different message...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“...who forgot what they were worth after years without a paycheck.”
Sweetheart? We’re ALL Free Agents from the git-go. So SORRY no one told you that! Your ‘marketable skill’ was being a Wife and you were paid HANDSOMELY with that 6-bedroom Home-In-The-Burbs! When your skills were no longer needed, you were kicked to the curb. Been there. Done that. Survived and THRIVED.
I’m REALLY enjoying their pain. As a Poor White Woman Scraping By In Her 50’s, is that Racist? The unwritten rules change every day - it’s hard to keep up, LOL!
Spoken like a true boomer! Well said sir!
“She gave up a quarter of her earnings in exchange for working three days a week, but felt marginalized, her best accounts given to others, meetings often scheduled on her days out of the office. ‘I felt like a second-class citizen,’ she said.”
Boo-Effin-Hoo! You show up to DO THE JOB you’re paid $500K to DO, or you’re WORTHLESS to your employer.
Jeeze, these women are SO smart! *Rolleyes*
There’s no talk of God or faith in this article although I didn’t finish it. Corrupted culture often produces self-inflicted marital and family complex scenarios. Families stayed intact and thrived economically well in the 1950’s and into the 60’s too.
Our society has rapidly regressed downward overall.
“When your skills were no longer needed, you were kicked to the curb.”
You might want to re-read the article. She divorced him, not the other way around. She wasn’t kicked to the curb. She decided to go off on her own. She had it made - a husband making a ton of money and kids and a house. And threw it all away.
Oops! Sorry. Either way, I wasn’t feeling the LEAST bit sorry for her. :)
“There were ugly fights with her husband about laundry and over who would step in when the nanny was out sick.”
OMG! OMG! She was JUSTIFIED in leaving, then, LOL!
I think he should start going to Church and/or come home to Kansas. but hey, what do I know
[She liked to help them, editing their résumés, polishing cover letters, pumping up tearful friends who forgot what they were worth after years without a paycheck. ]
“You broke it, you bought it.”
Too bad dysfunctional single “parenting” feminazi enablers like her will never have to PAY for they broke.
I know, right! Can you imagine that cad wanting *her* to actually wash clothes!
Clearly just another part of the oppressive patriarchy. Ugh!
And here I have to do trash, clean out the kitty boxes, do the grocery shopping, keep the car maintained. ;)
My 52 y/o sister has been a stay at home mom raising her kids. Her husband has a steady decent paying job although he’s ran up credit cards and their home is in foreclosure.
Nothing a little Dave Ramsey applied steps couldn’t cure but my sister wants a divorce plus she’s rekindled a high school romance and is locked into that direction. A christian marriage counselor is what they need and he’s for it but not her. I worry some because she has very little marketable skills other than some office work but it costs a fortune to live in the NY area. Oh well its her choice and she will have to live with it but I tried to steer her toward reconciling her marriage but she’s not having any of it. Its become quite toxic now her divorce proceedings. My sweet sister is turning into a mean beeeech sad to say.
How’re your Boomer parents doing riding the edumacation gravy train these days, junior?
FAIL
At 52, rekindling a ‘high school romance?’
Within they year, she’ll be hitting you up for cash, just like the lady in this article.
Which one, do you want my father or mother?
You know JC she’s hooked on a fantasy in her mind and I’ve told her such. She’s free to make her own mistakes and live with the results. Pains me to say that but that’s what its become.
I don’t understand it. We work hard to provide. I know how I would feel if someone took the time to do something special for me (as if that would ever happen!). I’m not married and it baffles me to see ladies throwing a precious gift in the trash.
Then I get to hear about all the complaints about how ‘all the good ones are taken’.
It’s true. Too bad they won’t listen to all the men so reluctant to have sex out of wedlock
It’s just interesting to observe the Boomer’s demoralized XBoxed, medicated, tattooed, faced-metaled, dysfunctional progeny at “work”.
A generation of failing individuals blaming their parents just like their parents did before them - for not being able to cheat and game their way through the system as easily as they think it should be.
Don’t need a Weatherman to see which way the wind is blowing in *that* Matrix.
If you believe that the present ‘non-boomers’ are pampered - look at the economy from 1945 to, say, 2000.
Boomers had, what? One recession in the 1980s? That was it? In 45 years? That’s a pretty good run.
If you look at the so called millenials, we haven’t had net economic growth in 13 years. So, for those of us who came of age in 2000, we’ve had 13 years of our professional life with a declining economy.
Boomers who came of age in 1963, had the precise opposite. 20 years before they hit a small recession and another 20 years after that of steady growth. If you were born in 1945, you were 55 when the economy started to taper in 2000.
That’s not a bad run at all. Retire at 55 and you’re done. We’re already 13 years behind and the current policies look to be another 10 years just to get back to where we were in 2000.
The economy was pretty rotten from ‘73 through the early 80s. Family income peaked in ‘73 and has been stagnant or falling since, if you believe what you read om the papers.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.