Is it better for a couple when one stays home?

I have to say yes, what do you think?

1 Like

Not financially. I’d love to stay home and keep house for my husband but I like financial independence and exercising my brain at work. It’s imperative for my recovery to be able to work.

I understand that it’s different in other cultures but it’s not common in Australia for one partner to stay at home, unless they’re immigrants.

I’m a trad con so I have to say yes especially when kids come along. I just think we have made life more frenzied and stressful…

1 Like

If you can afford to, sure.

Should we congratulate you for a pregnancy?

Doesn’t she get maternity leave?

It really depends on the couple. Sometimes people define themselves by their work, sometimes people need to have a few hours a way from the home to be okay it may not have to do with the other person at all…they just need that away time. Sometimes for one person to be cooped up at home and the other person out working and making a name for themselves the at home person may start feeling less than equal to the person at work. Like their contribution to the family unit isn’t as strong as the other’s. Though with some people they want to stay at home and take care of the house while their “other” goes out and works to pay the bills.

1 Like

Thanks! We finally got pregnant with much help from modern science!

3 Likes

Congratulations!!!

:grinning:

1 Like

I would say that the years of a child between 0-10 years would require one parent to be at home at all times. When the child enters high school, both parents can work.

Me personally I already work from home. But a year off is more than enough. At 1 year old the kid starts daycare to learn to socialize and get out of the house daily. The mother or father can do anything they like.

Some places daycare is very expensive but if you can afford it, it is one of the best decisions. Please do not keep the poor child stuck at home everyday without any friends.

@mermaid1 There is theory of raising a kid and the actual practicality of raising a kid.

1 Like

My mom stayed at home until all us kids were in grade school, and then she got a degree in education and became a teacher. Our family was comfortable financially because both my parents were working. These days you can get a lot of work done at home on a computer, and you don’t have to spend nine hours a day at the office. Hopefully that is a trend that will increase.

the way I saw it, I would pay most of the things and she could pay the little things. most women nowadays want to work (I think) and its fine but even if the women earned more than me…i would still pay most of the bills. That’s just the way iam. Now I dunno if I can pull that off…that another reason why I’m weird about relationships now. Many ways I wont put my end the way I should…

All the women in the province of Québec would say no. They all want to have a career here and they don’t want her husband not having one.

Here, children are put in a nursery very quickly after they are born so the mom could resume her career. Young children here mainly grow up in a nursery.

I think it would be better if the parent take care of the children all the time but everyone now want to have a career, so… It’s the children who are paying the price.

I know that very well because my mom was having a family nursery at home. So mainly, I grew up with little children around me in the house. I remember very well many of them sad and crying because they were missing their parents.

@anubis In East Asian societies, usually the grandparents will assist in taking care of the grandchildren while the parents work. This arrangement would allow women to pursue their careers if they desired one.

When you say nursery, do you mean preschool children at age 4? Or a nursery for infants between ages 1-3?

It’s understandable that a child would not leave their parents to go to elementary school, preschool or a nursery. I think it’s called “attachment theory” in child psychology.

When I talked about nursery, I was talking about taking care of children from 1 month year old to 5 years old.

I don’t know if the word “nursery” is right because I speak French. In French we call it “garderie”. I don’t know if I translated it right.

My wife stayed home with our daughter after she was born until she reached about grade three. Then she went back to work as a teacher. At the time she was burned out and I was making more than she did. We could also afford for one of us to stay home. If she had been making more I would have stayed home. We both felt it was important not to outsource our parenting in the very early years.

I know couples where the guy works and the woman stays home, but they are increasingly rare.

My brother’s wife stays home with her and his four kids. Even though they are all in school, they live on a small farm with rabbits and goats and chickens and a small garden and all of that needs tending and my brother’s wife does all of that, plus the housework for a big farmhouse. They have no crops. My brother is a traveling flight paramedic and he loves his job. And his wife loves hers. And their kids are wonderful. The kids go to the local public school. It’s the ideal arrangement.