miss the point

[aaronlc1]

yall miss the main point of my writting, that there will be people that will not understand us no matter what. It is a struggle that many people can relate to, whether it be equal rights at work, or for race color or creed, we are struggling for eqaual rights at tthe home also. For every woman that looks at us like we are sick or demintied, to men that say we are lazy. To the men that long to do what we do but will never say it or do, even though I know my duaghters favorite cartoon character and know her favorite park. That is the main point that we need to make people understand our plite, not to just dismiss people and say "to heck with them" then people will never understand

[Don-Dad]

Maybe I missed your point but most people miss the point of being a stay at home parent, period. Yes we are in the minority but so are stay at home parents as a whole or you would not see daycares on every other street corner.

Yes, it is "normal" for women to stay at home. Personally I like not giving a heck, for those that support me, hurray, I appreciate it. For those that don't, who cares! I find most people I speak with thinks it is great I stay home. For those that don't, chances are your not going to change their minds no matter how you explain things.

Times are a changing, our parents lived in a different time. Most of my high school friends, and college friends are not even married yet (I'm 33 years old) a few divorces and not too many have children. I have a close group of friends from high school, 6 of us, One just got married last weekend, one other has a child and divorced cause he was young when it happened. So do you think they understand what I do dad to day, of course not. But they are cool with me being home.

Some of my college friends are married and have children and they too think its great I'm at home. So when people I do not know or old timers make comments about my job, I say to heck with them, why waste my time trying to make them understand when there is a playground to visit or a park or the library, time is precious and wasting it on narrow minds is a big waste my time.


My 2 cents :)

[Weston]

I have read somewhere from several different sources that everything else being equal women get paid around 70% what men do in the same job. My wife definitely has more earning power than me, and I'm willing to bet that most of us SAHD's are in the same boat.

I believe that once womens' pay creeps up to about the same level as mens' then you will probably see more SAHDs around and therefore more acceptance of them.

Until then i'll consider myself among the rare lucky few :wink:

[aaronlc1]

that is very true, but I do not want people to just go aroiund thinking what ever they want about me. So I will school them on what is really going with stay at home dads, I will tell them I am not lazy and I also was a veteran for ten years, which I was injured, so now I am contrubing in another way to society. Raising children is a great thing, and if after that they still will not listen, then to heck with them. As a practicing buddist, I have learned you must be patient in educating the ignornant. But I still see your point and it is a very valid point. Even in my small Texas town people will still understand what I am doing, for the household really needs a father presences

[jeffus]

Why-oh-why-oh-why it is so important that any of us change the minds of others? We made our choice, not for the respect and admiration of others, but to ensure our offspring had the best possible environment to florish (spell-checker would be useful here).

Society did it's number on us growing up - The man is the breadwinner, the woman takes care of the kids. Bull poopie! (It's a family site, afterall). Everytime I see someone driving down the road with a cell phone pasted to their head, I laugh. I laugh because all of 'them' - the narrow-minders, the old-timers, the "that's not right-ers" that are plugged into society's version of what we should be doing with our lives.

Society rarely, if ever, cares about the needs of the individual. Why should 6 billion people be concerned about how you feel. Conversely, that's a lot of people to please or gain the respect of. I don't know about you, but I don't have that much free time.

I do agree that everyone, no matter what their pursuit in life, should be given an equal amount of respect. However, this tends to be sorely lacking in today's day and age.

Respectfully, Jeffus