SAHP and personal experience

[nacho_cheese]

Are you a stay-at-home parent? Is your spouse? Or do both of you work during the day?

How were you raised -- with a stay-at-home parent? Did both of your parents work during the day?

Did the way you were raised have any bearing on how you raised your own children (speaking strictly from a SAHP perspective)?

In what kind of household was your spouse

Comments

[krysta_ttc]

Spouse and I were both raised in homes where both parents worked (my mom worked part time for much of my life, but "part time" as a school social worker still winds up meaning full time hours most of the time). I don't think it has had much bearing on how we hope to do things... We will probably wind up with my husband as a stay-at-home Dad for the first couple of years, simply because I'm done with my degree and he will most likely still be working on his when we have our first child (ohpleaseohpleaseohplease I hope it doesn't take us 3 more years to have our first).

[merlyn4401]

Are you a stay-at-home parent? Is your spouse? Or do both of you work during the day? I'm a SAHM.

How were you raised -- with a stay-at-home parent? Did both of your parents work during the day? My mom stayed at home, but she was disabled/addicted and depressed, so it wasn't really like having a functioning parent at home. I was on my own a lot. Luckily, my dad is a college prof so his schedule was pretty flexible and he was home a lot with me in the summers.

Did the way you were raised have any bearing on how you raised your own children (speaking strictly from a SAHP perspective)? Only in that I was determined to do it better than my mom did. :) Seriously, I know how much I needed my mom (or a parent, really), and while she was home, she was emotionally and mentally absent. So I wanted to provide that presence for my own kids.

In what kind of household was your spouse raised? Did this have any affect on how zie believes children should be raised (again, strictly SAHP-related)? My MIL stayed at home while the kids were

[negativeneve]

I'm a SAHM. My mom was a single parent who worked all the time. My husband's mom was/is a SAHM. I would say how we were raised contributed to this decision on both sides.

[owlsarentaholes]

I'm a WAHM -- I go into the company's office one day a week, and until my son was a year old, he always came with me. I love my job, and it's the perfect job to have while raising my kids because it doesn't take me away from them

[nacho_cheese]

Just curious, what career field are you in? I'd love to be a WAHP at some point, but I highly doubt many paralegals, if any, are afforded that opportunity. ;)

[owlsarentaholes]

Probably not. Without going into too much detail (because I do a zillion different things in the course of a day), it all falls under the blanket of internet marketing. I got lucky -- I was the "first" employee, so I got in while my boss still had a tiny office and didn't want anyone there full time. Now, there are 15 or so of us, and the women who recently had babies are on the same type of schedule I am (home four days, in the office one) but everyone else is there full time.

[zeerust]

At the moment, I'm on leave, but then I'm going back to work - too soon to count me as a SAHP, really. Then, my partner is becoming a WAHP.

Both my parents worked during the day - at least, they did as long as I can remember (although they were also separated as long as I can remember, which by necessity gives a different dynamic - it was really more like two single-income families than one double). I'm not really sure how this has affected my feelings about SAHPs.

On the other hand, my partner had a SAHM, which I think has affected his views on SAHPs. I mean, he's working at home (and his job requires that he go out during the day often enough that we need to have arrangements made for baby-sitting regularly), whereas his mother didn't, but he feels it's very important to have a parent around at home as consistently as possible.