Stay at home moms

How many frum moms out there actually do stay at home?

My wife stayed at home while the kids were small. When they were somewhat older (later elementary school and onward) she went back to school. Now that they’re older still (two in high school, one in college) and she’s graduated from grad school, she’s looking for work during the day.

The Wolf

YosH: The Yeshivish, and especially the Chasidish, oilem have a greater stay-at-home Mom proportion of families than either the MO and the secular.

If its good enough for Ann Romney.

My sibs and I all work but my mother was always and still is a SAHM

“My sibs and I all work but my mother was always and still is a SAHM “

FTR (and this sticks in my craw, folks, and not many things get my goat so strongly) a sahm DOES work!!!!! The difference is that she rarely gets paid for her work, and certainly not paid what she is truly worth, for what she does. A Jewish SAHM is mother, housekeeper, cook, judge, jury, psychologist, mediator, financial analyst and economist, doctor, nurse, problem solver, chauffeur, and above all, teacher and transmitter of what the next generation of Jews needs to know from their earliest formative years. That ain’t chopped liver (and they might make that from scratch, too).

She is the foundation of her home. She works harder than some other people of her generation who have paid positions outside the home. This is not a “what’s more important,” issue. But please try to remember that a woman who stays home with her children and does not hold a job in some office or school, is nonetheless a woman who has a JOB and it is a MOST important one. Not all women today have that ability to remain home. And that is too bad, especially if that is what they would really like to do.

I am now a “stay at home” mom of six. I worked outside the house until I had my 5th child.

I have experience with both sides of the spectrum. I was a part time preschool teacher last year while my husband was in kollel. It was pretty challenging to be a Mommy and a teacher too. This year, I’m a stay at home mom, while my husband works full time, and no I am not bored, even though I send my 2 yr old to a half day playgroup. There are always errands to run, and things to take care of in the house.

However, because I am not a teacher this year, I don’t have the daily pressure to prepare lessons for the next day. If I go back to work, I might want to work part time in an office, so the work is done when the day is done. I don’t think I will work full time until my child is much older, when he is more independent.

To on the ball, just curious what kind of home based internet business do you run.

oomis – most of the working moms do not have nannies or full time babysitters. Cleaning help – yes (not all). I have always worked and mykids were on my schedule – I dropped them at the babysitter on the way to work and picked them up on the way home

I went back to work when my first was a toddler, but I think it was a mistake. The babysitter was a very poor disciplinarian and used to beg him in a whiny voice to listen to her. We had our hands full after that. I later chose to be a SAHM.

My sister also had a nightmarish experience with her babysitter after returning to work. She returned home one day to overhear the babysitter insisting that my niece call HER mommy. That arrangement ended very quickly.

I dropped them at the babysitter on the way to work and picked them up on the way home “

Excuse me, but the babysitter is the NANNY. Whether she is in your home or you come to hers, it is the same difference, and that’s fine. You made my point for me.

Morah Rach – “au pair” is the correct term (it’s French) for someone from another country who gets room and board in our country in exchange for watching the kids and doing some housework.