Stay at home parent?

[tabbycat31]

Princess I did not mean to attack you, I just think we have vastly different personalities. I think that if I had to go on that "wife swap" tv show (where you trade places wtih your polar opposite), you'd probably be the type that I'd trade wtih.

My expreinces with SAHMs IRL have been mostly negative due to what I had to put up with at work and with my neighbor. I also worked retail for years where our customer base was SAHMs with filthy rich husbands (think of a popular TV show, and that's what everyone at the store called them). Most of these women were some of the rudest women I have ever met. They felt that their time was more valuable than anyone else's, and their behavior in the store was almost barbaric. (it was not just them though....... if you ever people watch at WalMart, you see very similar behavior in everyone....... although my theory is Walmart brings out the worst in people). Opening a new register when several of them were in line was like waving a steak in front of a pack of dogs. However many people misbehave at stores. And I was also talked down to by them, called uneducated (I was working my way through college), etc.

I would have been suicidal if I was alive in the 50s, where most women did stay home. I know that I could not last 5 minutes as a SAHM, but that's my personality type. I have always shunned traditional gender roles to the point where I will NOT be changing my name should I get married. I'd also have cabin fever in about a minute. My housekeeping skills can best be described as "lack thereof"

I was also raised by two working parents. They found their ways to balance family and work. Being that working worked in my own family growing up, I don't see why it could be any different. My mother is incredibly successful and makes a very good salary. I think taht if she had given up all those years of work, she wouldnt be where she is financially. There was one year that she did nto work, and I grew more distant from her due to that. I was 13 by that point and wanted my independence.