Staying at Home vs. Outside Employment

September 8, 2008 • Books for Parents, Raising, Selves and Identities, Working • queercents • 1 Comment

Nina over at Queercents has posted her thoughts on Leslie Bennetts’ The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much?, a book that warns women of the financial risks of staying home as full-time caregivers. The book spawned much controversy when it first came out, with the media hyping it as part of the “Mommy Wars” that supposedly pitted stay-at-home and employed moms against each other in some kind of playground death match.

There’s a good discussion going on about all this in the Queercents’ comments thread. I’ve offered some thoughts of my own there, based on an earlier Mombian post about Bennetts’ work. Pop on over if you want to join in or just read everyone else’s opinions.

1 thought on “Staying at Home vs. Outside Employment”

~Julie Phineas~
September 8, 2008 at 11:54 pm

This, the competitive attitude from ‘working mothers’, has been a situation I have found myself in as a stay at home mom who also happens to work from home. Many friends and family members have tried to ‘set me up with a job’ over the years, at I feel like screaming sometimes! Now I tell them I already work 3 shifts, I couldn’t possibly take on any more! HaHa I would love it if my wife could stay at home full time, that is something we are working towards by focusing on our ‘estate planning’. When I was in a straight marriage, ‘estate planning’ came automatically, but in the end after the divorce I didn’t have anything, not even state disability, he accrued it all. Now I am working towards a career in my spare time, on the side of my ‘career’ as a mom. In any case, the double standard lives on! Too bad.