Summary
Chapter 13, Balancing Work and Family Life, starts off defining the word work as physical or mental activity that accomplishes or produces something, either goods or services. The US is undergoing a process of deindustrialization, which accelerated as a result of the growth and spread of of investment, trade, production, communication, and new technology around the world. Offshoring, or the sending of work or jobs to another company to cut costs, has become huge in the US too. Wealth is defined as the money and economic assets that a person or family owns. Income is the amount of money a person receives. The wealthiest 1% of Americans hold about 34% of the country’s total wealth. The chapter states that 40% of American adults make less than $24,000 annually. In the US, 2 in 5 people work weekends, evenings, or nights. Men, African Americans, and those in service occupations and hospitality industries often work these work hours. The average number of hours worked in 2009 was 33 hours/week. That’s the lowest it’s been since 1964. Unemployment rose more than 5% from 2007 to mid-2009. Absolute poverty is not having enough money to afford the most basic necessities of life, while relative poverty is not having enough money to maintain an average standard of living. 3.5 million Americans are considered to experience homelessness in any given year. There is an estimated 158,000 stay at home dads in America. A trailing spouse is one who leaves his or her job to follow the spouse in their occupation. Sexual Harassment became illegal in 1964 and includes the following: verbal behavior, nonverbal behavior, and physical contact. Inadequate day care is one of the biggest problems for Americans today.
What I Learned
I found it interesting that stay at home dads make up to 3% of the total stay at home population, and the statistic was taken in 2010.
Question
My question pertains to the facts I found interesting in the book, and it is for the guys in the class. Guys, how would you feel being a stay at home father while your wife is making all the income?
Steve Boser
I don't think I would mind it, it would be fun for a while and I want to say I'd be good at keeping the house/kid(s) in order. As for the fact that my wife was providing all the monetary support, it wouldn't bother me; one of us has to do it and if it makes more sense for her to, then go for it. But sooner or later I figure I'd get bored and want to find a job for a lot of reasons. A few: 1: I'd feel like my schooling/talents may be going to waste. 2: A job provides a feeling of productiveness that a house-dad can't.
ReplyDeleteI view this probably in the same fashion that any woman who is staying at home would view it, in that the purpose in living at home would be to take care of the child. Because of this reason, I really would feel some amount of obligation to do this, as you would be asking the same thing of your wife in the reverse of this situation. That being said, I will probably have gone through 12+ years of schooling by the time I am done and would find the transition into not using any of my schooling an issue, as well as the difficulty of eventually rejoining the work force (as I will most likely be a psychiatrist, leaving the field would really eliminate opportunities to rejoin the field at a later time). I feel regardless of which spouse ends up staying at home (provided a spouse chooses to do so) it is a difficult choice to make because of the two great reasons pointed out by Eric.
ReplyDeleteKarl Wahlen
If I were a stay at home dad and my wife was making all the income I would most likely feel that I am not living to my full potential and that I could be doing so much more. Although, I don't have kids yet so my thoughts may change. It just seems that I would get bored and tired of sitting at home and not working full-time.
ReplyDeleteBrian Bitner
Children are simply wondrous. And my view of them as such is consistent with the fact that I would without a doubt pay someone for child care before becoming a stay-at-home dad. A fathers place is not at home during the day, every day. This is regardless of schooling. It is because someone cannot focus and work hard within the confines of their home while taking care of a child; one cannot be social and contribute to a community within the confines of their home and while taking care of a child. Furthermore, my saying this has no implications on women's roles -- men and women's roles are not defined in relation to each other... are not defined in relation to each other…
ReplyDeleteTo those who say it has to do with education: in saying that more educated people somehow have more reason to be outside of the home, you imply that less educated people contribute less or do not work as hard. What about less-educated hard-working blue-collar workers? Should they not remain working because they earn less money -- or because you feel that they contribute less to the community? What does education have anything to do with who takes care of your child?
I think that it would be cool for a little bit, but I would vote not to be a full-time stay-at-home dad. I don't think that's the role of men, and I think there are much more things to do; it just seems unnatural to me. I definitely want to be a dad someday, but not as my only occupation. I'm down for taking my kids to the park and baseball and all that, but not 100% of the time. There's a reason why fathers do lots of activities (i.e. mowing the lawn, bowling, doing misc. chores around the house)...everyone needs their own personal "me" time, and in this case this is apparent with fathers and families.
ReplyDelete