Quote:
Originally Posted by jammies
Just as a clarification, single-income families (in 2 parent families) were no more common now than they were in the 80s. The 50s, sure. Not the 80s. The 60s were about more than free love and cheap weed, wives started getting jobs as a matter of course, especially in the lower middle and upper working classes. By the 80s only the wealthy could realistically afford to have only one earner, just like now.
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I'm not convinced. I grew up middle middle-class in Calgary, and half my friends had stay-at-home moms right through high school. My elementary school circa 1978 to 1981 had no provisions for students staying in at lunch - kids were locked out and sent home every day. As we grew older, more moms did go to work. But only once kids were old enough to get themselves off to school and make their own lunches at home - around grade 4 or 5.
It was tough for a mom with young kids to even get a job - at least a normal day job. When my mom interviewed for a job at a downtown stationary department around 1980, the guy doing the hiring asked what was she going to do if her kids got sick. She had to assure him that she would never take a day off if her kids were sick or had to go to the dentist. And she didn't. We looked after ourselves if we were sick, and took the bus to the dentist and doctor's appointments by ourselves.
And the jobs the moms had were crappy. Secretaries, files clerks, and retail mostly. It was extraordinarily rare for there to be two educated professionals in a family. Today, when teachers marry software developers, and accountants marry engineers, you have a whole new class of affluent families.