Posted on 06/16/2003 11:12:09 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Our older daughter is having her first child this year and is going to suspend her career to stay home and raise her child. Our younger daughter plans to do the same. They've planned with their husbands to achieve this goal and I'm fully supportive. They both have good degrees and good jobs, but see parenting as their first obligation and know how rewarding it will be.
No. They want something BETTER for their family.
More moms are staying home, census survey finds***Danielle Marshall, 32, of Altamonte Springs left her 61/2 -year career as a program manager for Volusia County Environmental Management to be a stay-at-home mom to her two daughters, ages 4 and 2. Marshall, now the president of the MOMS Club of Longwood/Altamonte East, said she and her husband decided she should stay at home after their second daughter was born. She didn't want to put both children in day care. "The difficult part is balancing money more than anything else," she said Monday. "Staying at home is a difficult job."
Melissa Tomasso, 31, left her "dream job" as the manager of the public-relations department at Kennedy Space Center to care for her 3-year-old son and 91/2-month-old daughter. Stepping away from a high-profile job was tough at first, said Tomasso, who recently moved to Windermere. But the benefits far outweigh the negatives, she said. "I think it's great," she said. "I get so many rewards. I don't look back. I'm glad I made this decision."***
All day care does to kids is turn them into pack or herd animals...
Townsend takes helm of education nonprofit of national organization 'Operation Respect'*** Operation Respect provides educational programs that can be used in schools, camps and other programs involving children to try to teach respect and compassion. Townsend said a big part of her job will be traveling throughout the country helping start state offices for Operation Respect. "This program started as an anti-bullying program because there is so much bullying," she said. Townsend said while respect and compassion should begin at home, many children don't learn those lessons from their parents.
I wish I had figured out the myths earlier; I did as soon as I got married, and before the first kiddos showed up -- however, I had to stay in the work force for a bit until the finances worked out (all those student loans for the gadzillion graduate degrees in the family), but AS SOON AS that was realized, I was home with the kids in the next split second.
When leaving the job, I didn't say much about it (I would dance my jig of joy privately, with my office door closed), as there were several working moms in the office, and I didn't want to offend by my joy and exuberance (plus, there are a huge number of single moms, where the need to work is not going away); turns out, several of the married moms plan to come home, too, as soon as possible (it seems the birth of a second child is the final straw; perhaps child care costs do the trick).
Anyhow, I have no trouble at all "defending" myself, in fact, it's more of the need to use sensitivity not to offend with my overflowing happiness/satisfaction. All the gals my age who are not married are not happy about it, but thought that career was the thing to pursue, and that they had to be "just like men", all that bologna....now they're in their thirties, and not thrilled about their station at all. Perhaps because I don't watch much TV ("Sex in the Urban Centers" and all that), my view is limited to those I can personally observe, but that's just what I see.
I dare anyone to accuse me of sitting around on my tail all day as a stay-at-home, homeschooling mom; and when I have extra time/energy, it goes to volunteering to make my community a little better (by taking a meal to a new mom, or picking up a prescription for an elderly person next door). When moms are working, who does these priceless things in the neighborhood?
You won't ever see me trading in my two boys for a Lexus. I know there are moms out there (as well as Dads) that have to work in order to feed their kids, keep clothing on their backs and a roof over their heads.
However, there's too many that have kids and then hand them over to the "Nanny" to bring up...or they leave it to the school system.
If you don't want to raise your own children, then don't have them.
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