[Right_Mom]

As a stay-at-home mother of three, I have to express my delight to see Time Magazine finally acknowledging this growing trend of moms CHOOSING to stay home with their children despite the negative portrayal of us by the feminist groups. Woohoo

[shezza]

Many of the new stay-at-home moms have realized that day care might not be an adequate substitute for the attention of a mother.

Gee, ya think?????

[Tax-chick]

Now, perhaps, we are ready to honor the full range of choices made by women struggling with how to balance career and family.

And for our next trick, maybe we could write a sentence using even MORE feminazi buzzwords!

Seriously, not a bad article, good sentiments, but he's certainly assimilated the Enemy's vocabulary ...

[Rubber_Duckie_27]

I enjoyed this Time article - although I seriously doubt that I'll ever be a stay-at-home mom, I hate to see it derided by some feminist groups. More younger women now are choosing to stay home for just a few years before returning to their careers, and the article had several examples of that as well.

Now we need some recognition for stay-at-home dads as well, maybe then society will see that being a full-time parents is a valid "career" option!

[Poohbah]

My take: ONE parent has to be there for the kid. I don't particularly care which one it is--I recognize that in most cases, it will be the mother--but a PARENT has to be there.

[HungarianGypsy]

Part of the reason I became a stay at home mom was because I couldn't afford to give all the money I was making to a day care center. With four kids it would be expensive.

[TheSpottedOwl]

Gee, I feel so validated! Look everyone, we exist!!!

Don't mind me, I spent years being made to feel like a second class citizen because I stayed home with the kids.

Of course this is Bush's fault...

[shezza]

By the way, good on ya. We make a lot of sacrifices so I can stay at home and be with our boys. We don't eat out much, we live in a modest home, we drive older cars. We don't go to the mall every weekend, we don't see many movies in the theater, we don't take vacations every year. We don't buy expensive toys, expensive cars, or expensive baubles. And we couldn't be happier! (Besides, my feet STILL hurt from all those years of high-heeled office garb.)

[Alberta's Child]

According to one survey, 51 percent of Gen X moms were home full time, compared with 33 percent of boomer moms.

I don't understand clearly what is being compared here. If the comparison is being made between Generation X mothers and Boomer mothers today then it should be pointed out that very few Boomer mothers have young kids anymore. If the comparison is being made between Generation X mothers today and Boomer mothers when they were the same age, then the difference between these two figures is astonishing.

[Phantom Lord]

Didn't Time Magazine make a major scientific breakthrough a few years ago and run a cover story on it...

Boys and Girls Born Different!

[cspackler]

Question, has anyone looked int the effect that the growing numbers of stay at home parents is affecting the unemployment numbers? I do know from my own circle of friends that more and more are going this route. How much of an affect would this show in the monthly numbers that are being spun out of control?

[sandbar]

I wish I could afford to stay at home with my kids, but I'm glad I had the chance to for a few years. Nothing wrong with devoting your life to your family, nothing to be ashamed of.

[LiteKeeper]

SPOTREP - SOCIOLOGY - FAMILY - MOTHERS - STAY-AT-HOME

[r9etb]

My wife stays at home too, as do many of our friends. I have never had occasion to belittle stay-at-home moms, as I find that pretty much all of them are very well-educated (most have college degrees), quite intelligent and sensible, and possessed of an uncommon ability to get a hell of a lot done.

Not to mention it's much better for the kids.

[Guillermo]

The Left will say that these women would much rather work (because a career is more of a natural inclination than raising kids, even in this opporessive Patriarchal society), but cannot due to the Bush Economy.

[TOUGH STOUGH]

Wonderful News!

[mtbopfuyn]

Ok, I was a believer until the article turned from honoring SAHMs to singling out those families making enough to pay high taxes. Hogwash! It's priorities and not striving to keep up the with the Jones' and distinguishing between wants and needs. We're at the low end of the scale and it's a struggle, but we made the decision that one parent would be a "parent" and raise the kids. BTW, they are kids until they're 18 and need a parent not during diaper changes but perhaps even more so during hormonal changes.

[nickcarraway]

bump

[ConservativeStLouisGuy]

Time, At Last: Stay-at-home moms -- DISCOVERED!

The cause of women's liberation just took a huge step forward. The mainstream media, in the form of Time magazine, has finally recognized as legitimate the choices of those women who decide to stay home with their young children.

In a cover story headlined "The Case for Staying Home," the magazine reports, without sneering or condescension, the trend toward more new mothers leaving the work force. This is an important cultural benchmark, because until now, the media, feminist leaders and other opinion-makers have tended to portray stay-at-home moms as a regrettable throwback to what should be a long-gone era of child-rearing. Now, perhaps, we are ready to honor the full range of choices made by women struggling with how to balance career and family.

The workplace participation of married mothers with a child less than 1 year old has dropped for the first time ever, reversing a 30-year trend. It fell from 59 percent in 1997 to 53 percent in 2000. Women have realized that "having it all" - i.e., leaving their young kids with someone else all day long - is not as wondrously fulfilling as they were led to expect. "Common sense is winning out over the ideologies of the 1960s and 1970s," says family expert Allan Carlson.

According to Time, it has mostly been well-educated white women over 30 who have accounted for the drop in working moms. Twenty-two percent of women with graduate or professional degrees are at home with their kids. One in three women with M.B.A.s is not working full time, in contrast with just one in 20 men. These women have the resources to eschew a paycheck. A generational shift has also taken place, as young women are less interested in taking orders from the feminist "sisterhood." According to one survey, 51 percent of Gen X moms were home full time, compared with 33 percent of boomer moms.

Many of the new stay-at-home moms have realized that day care might not be an adequate substitute for the attention of a mother. Time quotes one woman who left her consultant job to stay home explaining her experience exploring day care: "I had one woman look at me honestly and say she can promise my son would get undivided attention eight times each day - four bottles and four diaper changes. I appreciated her honesty, but I knew I couldn't leave him."

The option to stay at home shouldn't be a privilege of the well-credentialed few. Public policy needs to make it easier for families to choose whether to have mom, or dad, stay home, rather than forcing both parents into the work force. High taxes do just that. About half of married couples with children in the mid-1950s paid no federal income tax, thanks to a generous $3,000 personal exemption. If this exemption had kept up with inflation, it would be $10,000 today.

Although the steadily increasing child tax credit (now $1,000 per child) has eased the burden on families, more tax relief will make it still easier for them. Meanwhile, the tax code's dependent-care tax credit, which is only available for parents who go to licensed day-care providers, could be broadened to include parents who provide their own child care. The tax code could make it easier for moms and dads to maintain home offices as they search for creative ways to spend more time with their children while still working.

But no one should underestimate the importance of the signals sent by our culture. Stay-at-home moms have been bombarded for years with messages disparaging their choice. Now they should hear something else: that staying at home is a great and admirable act of self-sacrifice; that a career is not the only venue for important and meaningful work; that it is not unambitious to want to give your young children the full measure of your energy and attention.

Then, women facing difficult trade-offs will feel truly liberated to make the choices their hearts and consciences desire.

______________________________

A GREAT article....thank you for posting it!! Hope you don't mind my posting it in full (for posterity)....

"Thou Shalt Not Unnecessarily Excerpt" -- 11th FReeper Commandment

FReegards,

- ConservativeStLouisGuy