LegoFest

The Spring Issue of Today's Family Is Out!

You can find the latest issue of Today's Family magazine — inside the March issue of Today's Woman ! That's two magazin...

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

SAHM, WAHM, WOHM… So Many Letters!


Whether a mom works for pay outside the home (WOHM), works without pay inside the home (SAHM), or finds an occupational solution that allows her to work for pay from her home (WAHM), there are advantages and disadvantages to each.


Full-time work outside the home keeps a woman up-to-date on her professional skills. It allows her to continue to grow her network of colleagues. Unfortunately, unless a mom has a spouse or family member who will provide free childcare, the costs of daycare can make working outside the home a financial zero-sum gain. (For a family I know with four young children, the cost of monthly preschool and daycare is a staggering $2,200.) Working full-time outside the home can be terribly chaotic, making a mom feel that she rarely gets to spend enough time with her children.

Being a stay-at-home mom allows a woman to see every one of her child’s milestones with her own eyes and have a much less hectic lifestyle since there isn’t the early morning rush to get children up, dressed, and off to daycare five days a week. The downside of staying at home is falling behind professionally--forgetting much of what you knew and not being apprised of changes in the profession that would keep your skills current. In addition to foregoing a salary, staying at home can be emotionally draining, being at the beck and call of one’s children all the time.

Working for pay from inside the home sounds like the best of both worlds since a mom can keep her professional network, stay up to date on her skills, and make a salary. Still, there are potential negative issues such as paying for childcare even when a mom is at home because she has to have quiet time without interruptions or her job doesn’t allow her to do the work at night after the children have gone to bed. She might also find it difficult to transition back and forth between being “working” mom and “just” mom. Unfortunately, there are also many jobs like nursing and classroom teaching that can only be done in a medical facility or school building.

Whatever option a woman pursues, it usually isn’t ever an easy choice.
 
What option have you chosen, and how do you make it work?
 
Contributed by Carrie Vittitoe, parent-writer for Today’s Family magazine.
Photo Source: Flavorwire

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...