My younger sister is a stay-at-home mom to two young children. She is a fantastic mom, but the job of parent takes its toll, as does every job. She is always tired and sick, to some degree. She also now has bags under her eyes, which she never had before. Of course, I take pains to tell her she looks great, which she does, considering!

Happy Friday, right back at you!

What never ceases to amaze me in our culture is how much we talk about everything being “for the children” and “children are our most valuable resource” “children are our future,” etc., and then we belittle something as important as parents raising their children. A lot of women act as if it were beneath them. Day care workers (child care providers, whatever the PC term is these days) are some of the lowest paid workers out there. Last time I checked, they made slightly above minimum wage.

My wife spent some years in the work force before kids, and now that our kids are grown, she is back working. So she knows that when I go to work, I’m doing more than practicing putting in my office or flirting with my secretary. (I have neither an office nor a secretary btw.)

I also did my share of taking care of the kids, and I know that she didn’t spend her days sitting around watching soaps and eating chocolates. Spend one day alone with two boys under the age of three, and see how exhausted you are. The first time I did that, I had a much greater appreciation for what my wife – and others like her, did all day.

There are very few jobs out there that are so important that they are worth sacrificing your children for. Unless you’re the President, or curing cancer, you’re job isn’t one of them. If your career is that important to you, don’t have kids.

One of my favorite quotes is “If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of hours. But the family & friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.”

Happy Friday,

Joe

Perhaps I should qualify what I said somewhat. In our economic climate, companies will trim payrolls to improve the bottom line, even though they might not be in the red or losing money. If I were to lose my job, or my wife hers, we have each other to fall back on. If she stayed home, we’d be depending on my paycheck, and my company, alone. That makes me nervous.

I don’t pretend to know what the Army does with “excess” personnel in tough times.

For almost 20 years, we lived on an enlisted man’s pay while she stayed home and raised our two sons. We had one car and very few luxuries (‘date night’ was putting the kids to bed and renting a video).

What would constantly amaze me (not to mention make me a little bit angry) were the couples who both worked, had their kids in day care, and would tell us how “lucky” we were that my wife could stay home with the kids.

Luck had nothing to do with it – we made our choices, they made their’s.

Joe