I have to tell you, I hear this excuse for working (enjoying adult conversation)... as though raising a child shuts you off from the world if you stay at home... Nothing could be more from the truth.
My wife quite work when our first was born, yes, it took her a little time to adjust to it, but it also opened up all sorts of meaningful "adult conversation" and things beyond watching the same show over and over.. which IMHO your child shouldn't be doing anyway.
Lets just go through a few things she's been up to since quitting work, that have kept her from "adult conversation".... She spent several years in various board member positions for a local community group.. she has been a girl scout leader for 5 years and trainer (no we don't even have a daughter)... She is active in our local church and school... She knows just about every child and parent and teacher and adminstrator by name... Active in all sorts of other community activities.... etc etc etc...
If you think all a "stay at home mom" does is clean the house and cook dinner, you are sorely mistaken. All those things that every community needs done just to stay operational, require people to do them, most of the folks that do them are volunteers, and those volunteers fall largely into 2 groups... Retirees and stay at home moms... Yea, the jobs aren't glorious, but without them being recess monitors your kid wouldn't even get to go outside on a nice day, or helping out in the lunch room your kid might not even get a meal served...
Any "stay at home mom" who is "bored" isn't trying... You'd be hard pressed to find anyone, working or not that is as busy as my wife on a typical day.
You like work, that's great, but I just don't remotely buy the line of "need work to keep from going nuts"... there is so much out there to keep anyone who is available busy you won't have time to go nuts.
#39, well said.
Thank you. I'm a stay at home mom, and sometimes the house looks like a couple of hobos squat in it. Raising my daughter is a full time job in itself, and for me, the conversations I have with her are a lot more intriguing than any of the mindless exchanges I had when I worked in "suit land". She's going to be three on Tuesday, so she's just starting to really make sense when she's talking. The other day she said she "had ghosts in her diaper". I'm still trying to figure that one out, but it was cool when she said it!
I've hooked up with a mom's group that's quite active: trips to the zoo, park days, the science museum. I also train thrice weekly as a triathlete. Curiously, I have more interaction with people now as a mom than I had as a single woman. When the midget is napping, or I've managed to subdue her with a puzzle or pen and paper, I'm focusing on my writing career. Curiouser still, my fiction has taken on a lot more depth and complexity now that I've got this ultra cool job.
Even when I was employed in my field (as a copy editor and writer for financial institutions) I felt my brain was atrophying. There are so many times you can hear, "Working hard or hardly working..." before wanting to brain someone with a paper shredder. The film Office Space is scary in the way it reflected my "career" track.
I never want to go back to cubicle land, but if you can believe it--sometimes I feel guilty for not having a 9 to 5 job, such is the feminist brainwashing. If it works for some women, fine, but I'm having too much fun.