Better to be barefoot and pregnant?

[KR]

Looking for a few strong opinions...

If you're a woman and you would NEVER consider not being a stay-at-home mom, please tell me why you think it's so important.

If you're a man who would NEVER stay at home with the kids and let your woman be the primary breadwinner, share your thoughts!

This is for a national women's magazine. Feel free to email me off-board or post your strong opinions right here!

[Karen_Spring]

I suppose I have the best of both worlds since I'm a stay at home mom (SAHM) AND a freelance writer who has my own part time home business.

I would never NOT stay home with my kids. Why? I couldn't bear to put my children in daycare. I dealt with infertility and it was so hard to have my twins that my husband and I decided one of us would be at home with the boys. Plus, I feel that the first few years of a child's life paves the way for a lifetime -- I'm teaching the boys stuff at home that they'd never learn from a daycare provider or a sitter. I'm teaching them to share, to have compassion, to be respectful. I can bake cookies with them, take them to a movie in the afternoon or just sit and read to them and have them to myself.

I suppose a child is okay in a daycare setting, but I couldn't bear the thought of dropping my sons off early in the morning and missing their entire day. Not seeing them smile and hear them speak. It would just be too difficult. My husband and I have made a lot of sacrifices for me to stay home -- we don't eat dinner out, we don't go to the movies, we don't buy expensive things and we drive cheap cars. We feel that those things are unimportant in our lives and we'd rather have one-on-one with our children.

Contact me at karenspring@comcast.net if you need me to elaborate on anything.

Karen
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Karen M. Spring
Professional Writer

[star85girl]

I would never not stay at home. My husband I don't have kids yet, but we're both Christians, and feel strongly that the woman should be at home with the kids. That doesn't mean I won't work at all; I plan to teach private music lessons out of my home when my husband is here and at other limited times.

Why do we feel that way? Well, if you're going to have kids, you should raise them. If you're career-driven and don't have time for a family, if you want to stick them in daycare and let the teachers there and later, in school raise your kids, don't have them. Your kids require a parent -- YOU -- to stay home with them. Not only that, but God says that the home and family should be primary for BOTH parents. That's why my husband and I would both work at different times, but make sure that our family was our first priority. He is not opposed to me working. The reason why he is the primary breadwinner is 1) He has a job that could make more money than me, 2) He has been taught his whole life it is his responsibility to provide for the family, and 3) I have no desire to work full time outside the home.

If you're interested in more, email me at star85girl@aol.com.
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Kate